Combined Arms Bonus

[Matrim_Cauthon]

So, what exactly is the combined arms bonus one gets when the armies has less than half of its composition made of cavalry? Is it worth it?

 

[Answin]

You will take less damage if the modifier ist enabled.
It is damage = base_damage / (1+military tactics)
The value for military tactics increases with your land tech levels. You can see them in the first chart at

http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Land_Tech#Land_Tech

I think it is worth it, because you end up with 50% less casulties or better.

 

[unmerged(156396)]

So basically its a good idea to keep less than 50% of your army cavalry?

 

[jdrou]

So basically its a good idea to keep less than 50% of your army cavalry?

It becomes more important as time goes on and the tactics modifier increases; at the very start all-cavalry armies can still be viable. Also in the public beta patch the cavalry ratio is different for some tech groups; Eastern Europe countries ('Oriental' group) only need 40% infantry to get the bonus and Muslim tech group countries only need 20%.

 

[unmerged(156396)]

It's becomes more important as time goes on and the tactics modifier increases; at the very start all-cavalry armies can still be viable. Also in the public beta patch the cavalry ratio is different for some tech groups; Eastern Europe countries ('Oriental' group) only need 40% infantry to get the bonus and Muslim tech group countries only need 20%.

So basically (as it was historically during this time period) cavarly becomes less and less useful as time goes on in the game?

So what is a good balance of cavalry, infantry, and artillery in a basic EU3 (HTtT) field army? Specifically one in the mid 1500s or afterwards?

 

[jdrou]

It really varies widely but generally less cav as time goes on. Most seem to feel that if you include arty at all you should have the same number of arty as infantry and have a couple of cavalry for the flanks (assuming the enemy front line doesn't outnumber yours). This is because the arty can fight from the second line but you want infantry in front of it to protect it. My own games usually don't get far enough that artillery becomes a significant factor.

 

[Answin]

So what is a good balance of cavalry, infantry, and artillery in a basic EU3 (HTtT) field army? Specifically one in the mid 1500s or afterwards?

In the mid 1500s I use 4 cavalry, 8-12 infantry and 8-12 artillery if my neigbors are powerful enough and the local support limits are sufficient. In the other regions I leave out the artillery units. As time passes I increase the number of infantry and artillery units if needed.

There is a lot of information regarding combat mechanics in this AAR by Naggy:
The-Hundred-Years-War-an-England-Combat-Tutorial-AAR

 

[Blastaz]

You can get away with forgetting about artillery entirely until about 1600, or land tech 22ish.

All cavalry armies are still viable up till 1500 or so but much less so than they were in IN. I use 6inf/4cav or 8inf/2cav for the 150 years or so.

Against the AI wars consist of two stages, 1) crush their army 2) cover their empire in 2k stacks of infantry to siege everything. I find having extra infantry for stage 2 outweighs a lot of the benefit of extra cav for stage 1.