So I am currently playing my first full play through as France and I have a few questions involving war. A bit of backstory, in 1909 I declared war on GB over some African provinces (Southern Rhodesia to be exact) to make things interesting. I was hoping if I quickly invade that state I could end the war quickly by getting my war score up quickly. That did not happen, as GB decided to invade other colonies of mine that I did not defend as well as I should have, and even though I did not lose nearly as much territory as I gained, losing battles had a huge negative effect on my warscore and the war became a very long endeavor. It's now 1916 and the war is still going on. My warscore is finally in the positive (albiet not as high as I need) and I captured all of GB's African territory, as well as the British Isles. The bulk of their Army is stuck in India which still outnumbers mine, but I've crushed the majority of their fleet so they have no way to move that Army to wherever they might need them. Now for my questions:
1. As I occupy the British Isles which is a huge chunk of their industrial base, do I gain any benifit from this, even if I haven't annexed it? I noticed their industrial score took a huge drop but mine did not rise. I'm also afraid that once the war is over their industry score will just jump right back up again.
2. What exactly are the effects of war exhaustion? Mine is at 3%, but theirs is at 50%. How much of an effect will this have on them? I'm assuming it will cause rebellions to occur, but how high does it need to be before I start seeing any real effect?
3. Any general tips on how to gain warscore quickly? I quickly noticed that losing battles as the aggressor counts against you much more than winning battles counts for you. Does holding onto provinces for a long period of time gradually increase your socre, or is it that once you occupy a province, the warscore you get from that remains static?
4. Does the game keep track of overall numbers of casualties of war or any type of overall statistics for a war? I'm guessing that the death toll would be in the millions by this point and I think it would be neat to see some numbers once the war is finally over.
Closing remark is that this entire war hardly seems worthwhile, as what was originally a dispute over a small African state turned into a global conflict. The only continent that saw no war was North America (although I'm considering invading Canada to boost my war score). Millions will have died by the time my warscore is high enough to get the goal I wanted, and the war has cost me tens of millions of dollars. Don't have a question or anything... it's just seems that war between global powers doesn't seem worth the reward :/
1. You gain no benefit from occupied territory other than denying it to your rivals.
2. War Exhaustion will drive up MIL, which subsequently leads to rebellions. It will also cause some POPs to go Anti-Military or Pacifism. As far as an exact cutoff, I'm not sure.
3. Whether you're the aggressor or defender should make no difference. It's about the number of casualties you inflict on an opponent (or conversely are inflicted on you) as compared to the size of their entire army. If the "underdog" wins (less technically capable), that also has some incalculable effect on war score. Since they still have more troops than you, a victory for them counts more than a victory for you. Occupying a province is a fixed war score; it will reduce the cost of an acquire territory war goal, often quite dramatically.
4. The game doesn't. comagoosie made a program for this for EU 3, but I don't think there's a Vicky 2 equivalent.
To win this war, you really have two viable options. First is your suggestion, invade Canada. The other would be to confront the British in India. Remember, there's a cap on how much warscore you can get from battles (25%). If you have London, that would also shift the balance in your favor a bit. Depending on the war score of Rhodesia, this war sounds like it might be winnable, but only just.