Cant win battles

**StandardUser** · May 26, 2011, 05:04 AM

I and burgundy have an equal land tech. have superior general, 30k troops while they have 9k, no terrain disadavntages, yet ALWAYS i lose and even if i win 23k die on my side while they lose a merely 5k or less.

HOW?

and anyone knows how to tell my soldiers NOT to follishly loot enemy provs and by that die from attrition? its unbelivingly annoying when i try to fight on africa and i am reduced from 6k to 300 troops...

**AeronBlade** · May 26, 2011, 07:31 AM

What's the difficulty level? Equal land tech does nothing if you don't upgrade your troops.

Plus, don't focus on quantity unless you're a gigantic land power like Russia or China, and even then some slider moves towards Quality for the former will do well.

**StandardUser** · May 26, 2011, 07:34 AM

very hard. did it with normal and same resaults.

and shouldnt empires with alot of men like england move towards quality?

**AeronBlade** · May 26, 2011, 07:56 AM

Yeah. Max out quality; Discipline plays a big part in determining base casualties inflicted (though it doesn't necessarily affect morale). Getting to certain levels of Land tech (like level 18) is crucial, because it upgrades your military tactics (and thus gives fire and shock modifiers a huge boost).

**StandardUser** · May 26, 2011, 10:53 AM

I have vanilla.

So what youre saying is quality for manpower whores like england and france and quantity for countries like munster?

and i would love to know how the heck you get rid of the 15% attrition i get when i try to take out any african country. this is just ridiculous - even if i besiege all thier country, my men are getting reduced into 150 troops and barely able to maintain a siege.

**empr guy** · May 26, 2011, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by StandardUser

and anyone knows how to tell my soldiers NOT to follishly loot enemy provs and by that die from attrition? its unbelivingly annoying when i try to fight on africa and i am reduced from 6k to 300 troops...

every province has a unit support limit which is determained by how far away the province is, if its yours, etc, and you can find it by holding your mouse over the province. Units will generally need support equal to divisions, so if your trying to send 6k men into some desert that you cant really support anyone in then they die of hunger and thirst. make sure to watch that closely, since excessive attrition will drive up your warscore.

Also about the battles, what is your morale and what is the moral of your enemy? What ideas have you both embraced? Acording to the game morale is one of the most important factors in combat, which is why ideas like military drill (+1 morale) are a very good idea.

**Nole4694** · May 26, 2011, 09:27 PM

How's your maintenance? If its not set to full, and especially if the maintenance is far to the left you will lose every time to awful morale, or as you said face horrible casualties.

As for the attrition in Africa, its going to be very high due to the climate modifiers (like 5% for tropical climate) and the support limits are low. Your best bet is to take it slow one siege at a time, and assault as much as you can during the sieges as you should stop taking losses in an owned territory (probably not the best strategy, but will help with your attrition problem). The good thing is that your troops ought to be far beyond the quality of their due to technology so even if you lose a lot of men you can still easily win if outnumbered.

**StandardUser** · May 27, 2011, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by empr guy

every province has a unit support limit which is determained by how far away the province is, if its yours, etc, and you can find it by holding your mouse over the province. Units will generally need support equal to divisions, so if your trying to send 6k men into some desert that you cant really support anyone in then they die of hunger and thirst. make sure to watch that closely, since excessive attrition will drive up your warscore.

Also about the battles, what is your morale and what is the moral of your enemy? What ideas have you both embraced? Acording to the game morale is one of the most important factors in combat, which is why ideas like military drill (+1 morale) are a very good idea.

so what youre saying that i should get cav to whipe out troops, and mass infantry to asssault walls? and any other way is a no go?

and about the battles, ive checked out and found that burgundy has maxed out offensive and is a beast at land battles. i have a 3 morale, i think they got more. what else is is that even portugal rapes my troops.

**AeronBlade** · May 27, 2011, 09:02 AM

Cavalry is the troop killer for the first 150 game years, and after that infantry catches up (and artillery will inflict major casualties by the 1700s).

Get a 10 to 1 ratio of infantry to defenders for assaulting forts, save if walls are breached in which case 3 to 1 is enough.

**StandardUser** · May 28, 2011, 04:26 AM

So you just blitzkrieg african countries to death with infantry?

and another question - how is that the AI always gets AWESOME advisors while i get lucky if i ever get one which is 2 stars. how?

**Nole4694** · May 28, 2011, 12:13 PM

That somewhat depends on the size of your country, as I've noticed if your a country like France or Burgandy you get more than if you are say Holland or another small(er) country. Also make sure you check for new advisors every few months or so just to make sure. You should get an announcement when another one is available but you never know.

**empr guy** · May 28, 2011, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by StandardUser

so what youre saying that i should get cav to whipe out troops, and mass infantry to asssault walls? and any other way is a no go?

wait what? I never said anything like that lol. But actually yes, you dont want pure cav or inf armies, but cavalry is alot better in the beggining.

and about the battles, ive checked out and found that burgundy has maxed out offensive and is a beast at land battles. i have a 3 morale, i think they got more. what else is is that even portugal rapes my troops.

Originally Posted by StandardUser

So you just blitzkrieg african countries to death with infantry?

well actually the muslim/african starting infantry are a bit better then european infantry, or at least eastern infantry, so blitzing them at the start is not a good idea. The easiest way to beat africans is to wait until like 1550 or something when you have gotten way ahead of them in tech and have firearms so their troops are way worse. At that point you should be able to rape them.

and another question - how is that the AI always gets AWESOME advisors while i get lucky if i ever get one which is 2 stars. how?

The AI will take good advisors pretty much three days after they pop up, which means that if you arent activly looking for one or get a good guy born in your country many of your advisors will be second rate. And yes, being a bigger nation gets you more advisor events.

Also you can recruit your own advisors if you have enough culture and military/navy tradition, the more you have the better advisor you get. With near 100% for culture and military i have gotten four or five star advisors.