Armies.

[Trueman.]

Hi. I'm just wondering about the best policy for a good standing army. I usually just keep levies for public order, and when I'm in war I conscript better troops and pump them to the fronts. I'm currently trying to reorganize my army in accordance to modern military practices. In order to fully explore units outside my AOR, I'm using my Abbasid save, in which I control everything aside from central Ukraine, which is in the hands of my vassals, the Kypchaks. I divided my hypothetical forces to 8 armies, and each are divided into 2 or 3 corps, and each is divided into 5-15 divisions. I'm treating stacks of units as divisions currently, which means that single units would be brigades. I've structured the army and corps but only finished one corps' divisions, which happen to be inside my AOR.

This is my progress this far. I know building an army this big should be a huge drain, but I'm far in game and I have somewhat 30 mils, and I'm probably going to use cheats since this is for improving my management skills.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Army of Mesopotamia: {
1st Corps: Iraq
1 1st Heavy Cavalry Division
2 2nd Heavy Cavalry Division
3 1st Light Cavalry Division
4 1st Heavy Infantry Division
5 2nd Heavy Infantry Division
6 1st Light Infantry Division
7 1st Combined Forces Division
8 2nd Combined Forces Division
9 1st Naffatun and Siege Division
10 1st Arab-Ahvaz Garrison Division


2nd Corps: Upper Levant
3rd Corps: Lower Levant
}
Army of Arabia: {
4th Corps: Eastern Arabia
5th Corps: Western Arabia
6th Corps: Yemen, Suqutra and African Horn
}


Army of Africa: {
7th Corps: Upper Egypt
8th Corps: Lower Egypt
9th Corps: Red Sea
}
Northern Army: {
10th Corps: Eastern Asia Minor and Georgia
11th Corps: Western Asia Minor and Europe
12th Corps: Naval Forces
13th Corps: Circassia and Crimea
}


Persian Army: {
14th Corps: Western Persia and Azerbaijan
15th Corps: Middle Persia and Tabaristan
16th Corps: Fars
17th Corps: Northern Desert
}
Khurasan Army: {
18th Corps: Western Khurasan
19th Corps: Eastern Khurasan
}


Army of the East: {
20th Corps: Ghuridistan
21st Corps: Ghaznistan
22nd Corps: Sindh
}
Peace Keeping Indian Army: {
23rd Corps: Peninsular Forces
24th Corps: Lower India
25th Corps: Upper India
}

So yeah, I basically just need suggestions to what kind of divisions I should use for each corps, and specific units if possible, and generally any army tips.

[shikaka]

What usually works for me:

- play to your strength: Don't force a usual/boring spearmen+heavy cavalry combo on your army, if your strength is horse archery, or sword infantry

- create stacks of 12-13 units: I find I can use 2 smaller armies better then 1 big one. (so if you have 20 units, split them into 2 armies of 10)

- don't go for elites only (your army will be easier to retrain)

- don't go for one unit type only (an all-cavalry army CAN be effective, but usually cavalry+infantry works just as good, and is cheaper!)

- use mercs for specific purpuses. They are expensive, but if you can afford them, they can be used for tasks you cannot do with your own units. (like wall assault with kypchaks)

[Elsayed]

Spam Ahdath Infantry stacks