EU3 perplexed by battle loss

[Soul Firez]

Ok i am rather confused in whats going wrong here ( using EU3 complete with patch ) every time i play as england france attacks me in the 2 areas mid west of france and my counter to this is to launch a major attack on normandie to get them to agree to peace (although it is a mission to retake normandie )

The problem is no matter what i throw at them i get beaten my last try then i out numbered the cav by 2000 i outnumbered there infantry by 4000 i hade a 1 point generals advantage (using my king) they get a minus 1 land for crossing the river to attack my men sieging there.

But i still get spanked i keep pouring men across the channel to support my armies there and always keep a high outnumbering of the soliders they send but it always ends in me losing and losing big even though the closest they get to my numbers is 6000 men less!!!

It is early campaign around1401 and we both a 3 for land strength i just dont understand why on earth i am getting thrashed there when i have every adavntage????

[Dr. Croccer]

Because EUIII combat doesn't make any sense.

[Geleco]

Lower difficulty seems to work, at least for me. I'd think one would need the bonuses it gives to beat the insanely OP AI EU3 has anyway.

[Soul Firez]

Strangely though it seems specific to france when i play other nations (minor ones) i can win even numbered battles with small advantages like land or general against other minor nations .

If i play spain (castile) i can raid heavily across the muslim factions with less outnumbering then what i have tried against france(oh and if as spain i go to war with france the same rsult happens i loose batttles i have them greatly outnumbered when we both a 4 for land and i use a mix of latin knightts latin infantry and muslim archers.

Can anyone confirm that AI france gets a big boost (maybe other nations to but france is the one i have found where winning is niegh on impossible.

Also can anyone give advice on how to get them excomed i mean as england i was the papal controller i had bribed half the other cardinals i had used spies to lower frances standings with the world and still even though they constantly attacked me everytime i looked at the option to excom it was grey with the tool tip the pope loves them to much ???

[Kamos]

Only thing I can think of is the Lucky Nations feature. Even if you turned it to random France is the second most likely to get the luck trait.
With the luck trait they get +1 Fire and Shock though I'm not sure if it's visible or not. But seeing as every other factor of luck is invisible I doubt you can see it.
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Luck

As for fighting France try naval blockades once your naval tech advances enough. It'll rack up their war exhaustion and cause rebel problems that deal with the army for you.

Oh and beating a Muslim faction as Spain is no big deal, you have a tech group advantage(group not being level). Tech group is the main issue with playing as say an tribal African or Native American faction.

[Soul Firez]

Ah ok there extremely lucky then lol cheers for the naval idea it does seem to be working i dont want to turn luck off though as it does make the map change rather well over time without it it seems a very non moving map(in relation to the rise and fall of nations ) plus rep for the advice.

[Musthavename]

They're probably flagged as a Lucky Nation. Go to a CoT, and hover over their Merchants. If it says "Luck -10%" or something (for your chance to outcompete them) they have the Lucky Tag. You're not also playing on Hard / Very Hard are you? That gives bonuses to the AI in combat? Also, what's your relevant Land techs? If they're higher than you, they may have more Military Tactics or better troops.

[Soul Firez]

nope equal on the land tech and i have every advantage (numbers general being better terrain ) and i get trounced i am playing on normal and like i say havent struggled against any other nation .

Luck is set to historical which yes has them as a lucky nation but damn does it seem to add alot to them

[Kamos]

Yeah I don't care much for luck anymore. When I enable it I want to to go to factions who don't have it made from the start of the game but it doesn't seem to work that way. France doesn't need luck .