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[Biag]

Welcome to EUIII, the game where the morale is made up and the troop numbers don't matter.

[Rez]

Gonna have to rebuild my Spanish American empire to see if I can port it to viccy 2.

I deleted the save >_<

[Johnfalcon99977]

Gonna have to rebuild my Spanish American empire to see if I can port it to viccy 2.

I deleted the save >_<

Alternatively: Just port a normal 1800-ish save of the normal timeline.

I just lost a battle of my 98,000 Gallagher Troops VS 32,000 same-tech-level Hansa troops. Full morale.

I would say attrition, because that many troops may not bode well in other territories.

[nil]

Just noticed, looks like the British Isles, that fell from England to Scotland, is about to fall to Wales. lolwut.

in my last game (as japan, so i wasn't involved), Great Britain lost Wales and Cornwall to rebellion, then got completely conquered by an alliance of Scotland, Ireland, and the breakaways.  Eventually Ireland fought and won a war against Scotland went on to dominate the British Isles and become a minor colonial power with a bad-ass navy.

[Tarran]

I would say attrition, because that many troops may not bode well in other territories.

Don't armies ignore attrition while in battles?

[Micro102]

I'm guessing better leader + land battle NI's and advisors.

[RedKing]

Also terrain and attack/defense difference. Galloglaigh infantry are okay on attack, TERRIBAD on defense. They're 0/2/4 on attack, 0/0/1 on defense. Functionally, they're equivalent to your starting medieval peasants if they're defending. You'd actually be better off in that situation with longbowmen or men-at-arms (0/1/1 on defense).

As your infantry types get more specialized, you have to adapt your tactics with it. If you go the Tercio (defensive infantry) route, you win by getting to strategic points first and forcing the enemy to throw himself against your lines (preferably across a river or in hills/mountains for the added negative modifier to his rolls). If the enemy gets there first, you go somewhere else to force him out or wait for him to capture the province and them come back after he's left.

If you go the aggressive route (especially Aggressive Shock -- Free Shooters/Highlanders/Caroline Inf.), you attack the enemy as he's moving, or manuever to get him into the open plains and then attack. If he brings a big stack to bear on you, you have to be able to disengage and deny him the chance to attack you (for instance, by splitting into smaller armies which can move faster). An aggressive army forced to defend itself, especially if there's no terrain to help you, can get reamed by an equal-tech army.

Morale is certainly a component, but having all the morale in the world won't help you if your troops are in the wrong situation.

For the earlier example (Maurician vs. Gustavian), that's not a huge tech difference. If the Maurician infantry are on the attack, they're 4/3/6. Defending Gustavian infantry are 4/3/5.

A more extreme example would be early on, when you have troops like Halberd infantry, which are 0/0/2 on attack, and 0/0/0 on defense. You will be at a disadvantage on defense versus ANY kind of troop type.

[Twiggie]

Also terrain and attack/defense difference. Galloglaigh infantry are okay on attack, TERRIBAD on defense. They're 0/2/4 on attack, 0/0/1 on defense. Functionally, they're equivalent to your starting medieval peasants if they're defending. You'd actually be better off in that situation with longbowmen or men-at-arms (0/1/1 on defense).

As your infantry types get more specialized, you have to adapt your tactics with it. If you go the Tercio (defensive infantry) route, you win by getting to strategic points first and forcing the enemy to throw himself against your lines (preferably across a river or in hills/mountains for the added negative modifier to his rolls). If the enemy gets there first, you go somewhere else to force him out or wait for him to capture the province and them come back after he's left.

If you go the aggressive route (especially Aggressive Shock -- Free Shooters/Highlanders/Caroline Inf.), you attack the enemy as he's moving, or manuever to get him into the open plains and then attack. If he brings a big stack to bear on you, you have to be able to disengage and deny him the chance to attack you (for instance, by splitting into smaller armies which can move faster). An aggressive army forced to defend itself, especially if there's no terrain to help you, can get reamed by an equal-tech army.

Morale is certainly a component, but having all the morale in the world won't help you if your troops are in the wrong situation.

For the earlier example (Maurician vs. Gustavian), that's not a huge tech difference. If the Maurician infantry are on the attack, they're 4/3/6. Defending Gustavian infantry are 4/3/5.

A more extreme example would be early on, when you have troops like Halberd infantry, which are 0/0/2 on attack, and 0/0/0 on defense. You will be at a disadvantage on defense versus ANY kind of troop type.

im not entirely sure this is true. i read a guide on the paradox forum that said the pips are for calculating casualties in a particular phase - ie a unit with only offensive pips will kill more but die faster

[RedKing]

Also terrain and attack/defense difference. Galloglaigh infantry are okay on attack, TERRIBAD on defense. They're 0/2/4 on attack, 0/0/1 on defense. Functionally, they're equivalent to your starting medieval peasants if they're defending. You'd actually be better off in that situation with longbowmen or men-at-arms (0/1/1 on defense).

As your infantry types get more specialized, you have to adapt your tactics with it. If you go the Tercio (defensive infantry) route, you win by getting to strategic points first and forcing the enemy to throw himself against your lines (preferably across a river or in hills/mountains for the added negative modifier to his rolls). If the enemy gets there first, you go somewhere else to force him out or wait for him to capture the province and them come back after he's left.

If you go the aggressive route (especially Aggressive Shock -- Free Shooters/Highlanders/Caroline Inf.), you attack the enemy as he's moving, or manuever to get him into the open plains and then attack. If he brings a big stack to bear on you, you have to be able to disengage and deny him the chance to attack you (for instance, by splitting into smaller armies which can move faster). An aggressive army forced to defend itself, especially if there's no terrain to help you, can get reamed by an equal-tech army.

Morale is certainly a component, but having all the morale in the world won't help you if your troops are in the wrong situation.

For the earlier example (Maurician vs. Gustavian), that's not a huge tech difference. If the Maurician infantry are on the attack, they're 4/3/6. Defending Gustavian infantry are 4/3/5.

A more extreme example would be early on, when you have troops like Halberd infantry, which are 0/0/2 on attack, and 0/0/0 on defense. You will be at a disadvantage on defense versus ANY kind of troop type.

im not entirely sure this is true. i read a guide on the paradox forum that said the pips are for calculating casualties in a particular phase - ie a unit with only offensive pips will kill more but die faster

http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Military#Combat

[Twiggie]

So yeah, what I said. It is always better to be defending, thanks to terrain bonuses.

[Johnfalcon99977]

Yeah, what redking is basically saying is: Play to your advantages and avoid your weaknesses.

Also, I reccomend attacking only when you have at least a 1-to-1.5 ratio manpower wise. Attacking is hard, and its to be expected that you will lose more then the enemy. Its part of the reason Agressive/Quantity and Defensive/Quality go hand in hand.

[RedKing]

So yeah, what I said. It is always better to be defending, thanks to terrain bonuses.

No, that's not what I'm saying. If your troop types are strong on offense and weak on defense (like the aforementioned Gallowglaigh), you're better off dodging an attack (by moving to an adjacent province), then counter-attacking the enemy (preferably in open terrain where they won't get the bonuses).

If you get attacked and you have Gallowglaigh Infantry, your troop stats for the entire combat are 0/0/1, which is pretty awful. You're better off moving to a different province to avoid the attack, then returning to attack the enemy stack so your troops stats are 0/2/4.

Combat doesn't switch back and forth between each side getting an attack and a defend. One side is the attacker for the entire combat (the side which moved into the province) And the other side is the defender of the entire combat (the side which was already present). So if you have offensive troops and get caught on defense, you're in trouble. Likewise, if you have defensive troops and initiate an attack, you're going to fare poorly without overwhelming numbers or a big difference in morale. BUT...you'll excel at repelling attacks from larger forces.

Terrain bonuses weaken the attacker's strength, but they're not a cure-all. (Unless the enemy is overwhelmingly cavalry and is attacking you in mountains, in which case you're sitting pretty unless he brought Tamerlane along).

If your forces are slanted to the offensive side, your best strategy is to attack enemy armies and pursue the defeated remnants mercilessly until you can obliterate them. Then you can siege at your leisure and send relatively small forces to any province where the enemy starts to build new armies, so that you can obliterate them the moment they're done. Wars will be relatively short but bloody. This is why a high Offensive rating is good, because your leaders will get a higher Shock rating, and do more damage to the enemy when in the field (and the bonus will help offset your weakness on defense, if you get caught unable to dodge)

If your forces are slanted to the defensive side, your best strategy is to siege enemy provinces (preferably in rough terrain) and let the enemy come to you. They'll wear themselves out throwing wave after wave against your lines, racking up war exhaustion and hopefully ceding province after province to your forces as you win sieges. Wars will be longer but you'll tend to take less battle losses. Most of your losses will come from attrition while sieging. This is why a high Defensive slider is good, because your leaders get increased Siege ratings, which lower the amount of time to complete a siege.

If you've got balanced forces, you can do a mix of both, which is why I prefer balanced forces unless I've got an overwhelming advantage. For instance, in my Hindustani game, I'm well ahead of my Muslim and Asian neighbors, so I'm using Highlander Infantry so I can finish them off that much quicker. Plus, the idea of Indian highlanders (complete with kilt, sabere and pistol) amuses me.
"I am Vijay Chattopadhyay, of the Clan Chattopadhyay...." 

[Micro102]

The terrain bonuses don't seem to match up with the terrain map. I have gotten heavy bonuses on plains and no bonuses on some mountain provinces.

[Twiggie]

No no, every day BOTH sides attack each other. the casualties are determined by Attack pips + Roll + General - Defense + Terrain, for each side.

Read this, especially the second page, for some worked examples.

Defense pips are not used by the defensive army to calculate the casualties they inflict on the attacking army, but rather to reduce the effective roll of the attacking army, whilst the Attack pips are used to increase the effective roll of the defensive army, to inflict casualties on the attacking army.

[mainiac]

Defense pips are not used by the defensive army to calculate the casualties they inflict on the attacking army, but rather to reduce the effective roll of the attacking army, whilst the Attack pips are used to increase the effective roll of the defensive army, to inflict casualties on the attacking army.

This.