Daddy, where do force limits and manpower come from?

[Secret Master]

Pardon my silly thread title, but I had some questions about manpower and force limits.

I know that manpower is generated in your provinces according to what is displayed in the province window. That's easy. What I would like to know is whether or not culture and religion play a part in generating manpower. Also, what about overseas provinces? Is manpower linked to population in anyway?

Also, how is your force limits determined? I know what modifies it (domestic policies, feudal monarchy, etc.), but how does the game determine your basic force limits? Is is linked to manpower? Or tax income?

I ask because sometimes I seem to have great force limits (60+ regiments) but my manpower can't really support my army at the force limit for longer than a year or two before draining to nothing. Other times, I seem to have no problem.

 

[unmerged(67738)]

In the spirit of South Park...

I'm not going anywhere near this one.

 

[Chaingun]

I don't know the specifics.

But it seems the force limit is too high to be an issue which the player must contend with for larger countries. One will probably only want to build his army to max approx. half of the force limit in most cases, in order to keep regiments reinforced in longer wars.

 

[Secret Master]

Hmm, this might mesh with my doctrine of "Build to the Force Limit, and end wars quickly." As Japan, after I conquered large portions of China, I had plenty of manpower... But, when I would fight wars in India, I would still run through 100k manpower if I fought for more than 2 years at a stretch.

To be honest, I don't even know where in the files these sorts of things are.

 

[durecellrabbit]

Is force limit not some combination of manpower, grain provinces and the modifiers?

 

[jdrou]

Is force limit not some combination of manpower, grain provinces and the modifiers?

That's what it was in EU2 but I'm not sure if it's still true in EU3; unfortunately the tooltips don't break down the force limit aside from the modifiers.

 

[Chaingun]

Hmm, this might mesh with my doctrine of "Build to the Force Limit, and end wars quickly." As Japan, after I conquered large portions of China, I had plenty of manpower... But, when I would fight wars in India, I would still run through 100k manpower if I fought for more than 2 years at a stretch.

To be honest, I don't even know where in the files these sorts of things are.

Building to the force limit is quite uneconomical though. A drawn out war vs AI is to prefer, because it will almost never go wrong anyway.

What is preferable in MP though I don't know, since it's a lot more dangerous to fight prolonged wars there.

There's also another big limit in the early game on how big you can possibly want your army to be: Provincial supply limits. Essentially, you don't want to build a massive army and use it at once because your manpower will vaporize with attrition. And you don't want to use one third while letting two thirds sit idle either (unless you expect to be attacked), I have a hard time getting enough money as it is since I ignore the tedium of trading.

 

[Secret Master]

I have a hard time getting enough money as it is since I ignore the tedium of trading.

Not much tedium to ignore once you get moderate Bad Boy. Conquest makes trade moot anyway.

I guess being at the force limit is why I'm always a tad bit behind in technology compared to people in my tech group. The surviving countries, at any rate.