Defense was an important aspect of combat. Whether as a commander or as an individual. I remember playing an RTS in my youth where the AI scolded me for being too aggressive. The character that rebuked me for being a drunk made it all the more insulting.
"You aren't REALLY going to leave your base defenseless like that ARE you?"
I vividly remember the game prompt. Turns out the mission itself had the AI constantly attacking you while you were doing an objective. They put that prompt in to save players the hassle or save-scrumming.
But even in games where you didn't have a base, I often played hyper-aggressively. If it was a squad RPG, I would take a tank just because I had to. If it was an FPS, I rarely chose slow and armored builds. I only had one plan that always worked. ATTACK!