Questions from/Advice for a New Player?

1. The 'ideal' ratio of infantry/artillery/cavalry depends on the general in command and the strategy you wish that general to use on that flank. Open the detail view - use the small +, bottom right of the selected army - and you will see a line of small icons below the general assigned to command that flank. (These strategies are called, regular, delay, counterpunch etc on to up the guard.) Hovering over the strategy's icon will show the required ratio on that flank for that strategy to be used. It also shows the bonus each strategy gives. Assign a general that can improve the effect of the troops used for the strategy.

2. I've found it depends on which country you play. I can recruit a lot of troops as France, Russia or The Ottomans, but when playing Prussia and some of the minors I will need to maintain a solid manpower pool to quickly reinforce the units I already have after a campaign.

3. I wouldn't build depots everywhere. I tend to build depots in areas I've recently conquered to extend the reach of my troops for the next year's campaign (they take 6 months to build so I have to plan ahead).

4. I've not noticed this info before. I would suppose it either refers to how many troops you can support in the province before attrition starts affecting them, or how many troops you've recruited from that province.

5. See the answer to number one - organize flanks based on strategy chosen, general in command, and the general's abilities. I will often have a cavalry, infantry or two and an artillery unit along with the supply troops in reserve. Following a battle, I may rotate some of those troops to a flank where casualties have reduced the ratio of troops so that my preferred strategy for that flank is no longer viable. The percentage for a strategy is based on manpower, not brigade. (e.g. If I have a cavalry unit take too many casualties on the right flank so that counterpunch strategy is no longer usable, I will pull that cavalry back to reserve and send the reserve unit to that flank. Additionally, during battles I believe I've seen the Army commander commit reserve units to tip the tide of battle.)

6. When you find out, let me know.

Also consider depots in large manpower areas.

Raptor_X2000 said:

6. How can I destroy France!?

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Actually, it's not that difficult -- I've done it as Prussia around 1814-15. Wait for them to be engaged with another power, preferably Austria since that means you'll be fighting on a common border and can go help out the Austrians when need be. Fight defensively, there's not much point gallivanting across France to destroy a stack. Instead, keep most of your forces near the French border, and as close together as you can, occupying forts like Metz as you sit there. You want to concentrate most of the fighting around the Rhine area, and then send some 20k stacks to occupy the Lowlands plus a bit extra. That should give you the warscore to peace out with quite a few provinces in hand. Occupying the rest of France for a few more precious provinces really isn't worth it since it will definitely take more than a year -- better to peace out and declare war again next year.

Raptor_X2000 said:

Aprof, thank you for your detailed answer! I appreciate your help!
I have some more questions though.

7. Is it worthwhile to build Settlement Developments and Roads?
More specifically, what do roads actually do?

8. How does "March to the Sound of the Guns" work?
The manual says it is supposed to be automatic, but I've noticed that sometimes my armies with the tactic enabled will just sit there, even if there is a battle going on in an adjacent province. Why?

9. Do provinces without forts/cities affect warscore at all?
IE, do I have to march troops through every single little village? Likewise, need I defend all my villages?

10. Can ships only be built in core provinces?


Now specifically @Walter Hames:

Why?

Thanks!

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7. I've found that the time frame of the game being more like HoI than Vic or EU, means that development of infrastructure early is worthwhile, but in middle and late game you often won't see a good enough return for the time and money invested - especially when you might have needed it spent on troops more. But I have found that some fortification and province development early will be helpful later on. Most of the time these developments are small increases in tax money, manpower and supplies.

8. It should work as the tooltip says (I know it works for the AI countries). Know that sometimes you don't want your troops marching off to the guns.

9. No, you don't have to move through every province to have the option to annex the whole region when you go to the peace table, so long you have taken the important cities of a region.

10. You can only build ships and troops in your core provinces; generally you'll never be able to build your military in annexed provinces, though you can make improvements. (Play the Ottomans and you'll find there are some provinces you own at the start of the game where you aren't capable of raising troops.)

Topsey Cret's advice on beating France is great. (I gave the glib answer mostly for a reply when I didn't have time for a good one.) Fighting yearly campaigns to achieve small goals and wearing your opponents down before your armies exhaust themselves is what I often do. And I often hold off attacking some countries solely for rights to move through the country - once you've gone to war with someone, they aren't inclined to let you cross their country to fight someone else.

With each country having different cities for victory (a feature I really like), there are many ways to win. As I like to play Russia or The Ottomans most often, I find Great Britain as tough an opponent to deal with - but to win the game as the game intends, the player really does need to grab something from each.