What kind of defending troops complement the tactic of transforming all the Rogues first before attempting to fight back?
If your adversary is more protective of his "real" unit, that means that he's using an unattached reward unit, which can't be replaced. If you managed to take that out, it would be a huge blow to him. It certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't mind loosing Rogues; they take a lot of time to recruit and heal. If his troop production is low relative to his battle activity, casualties may cause considerably delay, and any delay will be more costly than the profits from plundering a single city. Even if that's not the case, and he has lots of Hideouts, and a high level Traz, he'll still find it annoying, having his Rogues fertilize the fields around your city.
Truth be told, though, if your attacker is using seven Rogues and a next age reward unit, and he knows what he's doing, it'll take a lot to defeat him. If you don't defeat him, and he's stubborn enough, he'll just eat any losses short of his reward unit, and keep coming. You can make it very costly for him, though, and, if you keep building your defenses, they will eventually hold.
My recommended approach: Use one artillery unit and one fast unit; if the fast unit is a Champion, all the better, since it will certainly not last long. These will go for Rogues and ranged units. They also tend to force moves from the opponent, as they engage very quickly, but from opposite ends of the field. Other than these, use heavy units. They'll either engage the enemy's faster troops, or take several moves to engage at all, by which time most or all rogues will have transformed. As a result, Rogue or no Rogue makes little or no difference to them. They also get the most boost from Watchfires (and similar), of which you should have as many as possible.
If you can, get far enough ahead in the quests to get next age reward units, and place the heaviest of them in your defence (next age light units will usually be heavier than present age heavies). You can use two Rogues, but no more. Taking out all four of your heavies before your Rogues close in will be impossible. Your Rogues will most likely transform to heavy units, and almost certainly not into fast units. They may even land their famous one hundred attack before transforming, if the attacker is overly optimistic about his ability to take out your heavies. Note: If you have a low defence boost, and the enemy relies on ranged units, you may need more than one fast unit; however, properly boosted, heavies will do well against ranged.
An all ranged or all artillery defence can be effective in inflicting casualties. There's virtually no way of attacking such a defence without loosing some troops. Because specialized attacking armies are needed to do well against them, these are especially good for "surprise defences". They're doubly good because an army ready for them, will be in trouble against other defences. Switch between these and your regular defence, to give repeat attackers nasty surprises, repeatedly.
To all my neighbors: Obviously, I'm goofing around here, just typing in random words. Pay no attention to it, and continue with your lazy, ahem, sorry, "excellent" current defences.
