Hopes for warfare

[Palna Thoke]

Hello, not sure if this is correct place to write suggestions/ideas but here are some of my hopes for warfare.

1. Armies will be supplied via railroads/infrastructure and can be cut off from these supply lines. The railroads/infrastructure can only transport a certain amount of supplies per day depending on how developed it is, resulting in an organic supply limit for your army. Such a supply system seems like a no-brainer to me, when railroads are already in the game. This also makes front lines more viable instead of doom-stacks as you would want to protect yourself from being flanked and cut off from supply.

2. Armies have actual supplies like weapons and food - and if your country don't produce enough yourself, you would have to import it (making something like a WW1 blockade of Germany possible). Also different kinds of weapons: If you import weapons from Russia they could be worse than Prussian ones (if they have superior weapons tech).

3. I hope the morale of the troops are influenced by the loyalty of the enlisted pops. If you have an entire generation of radicals in your armies - I don't think they should have the same fighting spirit as a generation of loyalists. Also please no artificial raise army-maintenance slider for them to get their morale back.

4. Training and battle experience have an effect of the fighting ability of troops.

5. "Make a frontline" order, like we have in HOI4. Just makes life easier.

 

[Limbojack]

1. Armies will be supplied via railroads/infrastructure and can be cut off from these supply lines. The railroads/infrastructure can only transport a certain amount of supplies per day depending on how developed it is, resulting in an organic supply limit for your army. Such a supply system seems like a no-brainer to me, when railroads are already in the game. This also makes front lines more viable instead of doom-stacks as you would want to protect yourself from being flanked and cut off from supply.

I wholeheartedly agree. Railroads are already used to "move" goods from production centers to the market, so they obviously want railroads to be more than a simple modifier accompanied by a visual appearance on the map. Something like this would help a lot in making railroads feel extremely important, and would probably make things like the trans-Siberian railroad a thing.

2. Armies have actual supplies like weapons and food - and if your country don't produce enough yourself, you would have to import it (making something like a WW1 blockade of Germany possible). Also different kinds of weapons: If you import weapons from Russia they could be worse than Prussian ones (if they have superior weapons tech).

This is kind of how things worked in Victoria 2, so I think it's safe to assume that soldiers will need to be supplied with equipment and food in Victoria 3 too. It would be amazing if the second part of your suggestion would be implemented as well, as that is one of my favorite parts of HoI4 - it's not enough to research new weapons. You have to produce them and then refit your armies, and Victoria 3 should absolutely follow in the same path.

3. I hope the morale of the troops are influenced by the loyalty of the enlisted pops. If you have an entire generation of radicals in your armies - I don't think they should have the same fighting spirit as a generation of loyalists. Also please no artificial raise army-maintenance slider for them to get their morale back.

This is a great idea. Throughout history, multicultural empires often refused people from especially rebellious cultures the ability to join the army (even during wars such as WW1) because they didn't trust them, so yeah - this would be great.

4. Training and battle experience have an effect of the fighting ability of troops.

This was already the case in Victoria 2 so I see no reason why it shouldn't be in Victoria 3 as well.

5. "Make a frontline" order, like we have in HOI4. Just makes life easier.

Agree, but such tools shouldn't be available at the start of the game. Warfare should slowly develop as it did in Victoria 2 where the combat width was reduced step by step until you could fill the entire frontline, and once that's done, something like a frontline order ala HoI4 should take over.

 

[The Goldfinch]

As far as I mostly agree with your ideas, there already is a dozen of threads about it, perhaps it could be better to express your ideas there - for the sake of devs looking for some military feedback when the time comes

 

[kviiri]

I think the ideology of the army needs to have a profound impact, not just "weaker stats" but the possibilities of mutinies like what happened with Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire or French army during WWI. It's not something that should happen whimsically or instantly, but I want military to be very dangerous or unreliable if not kept happy or checked.

 

[Muhu]

One thing I would like to see is the amount of troops you can mobilize being limited by the amount of equipment you have in stock for them, instead of just summoning the supplies out of thin air when pressing the mobilize button.

 

[WARenie]

I would like mobilisation to be much, much less of attrition war against your own peasants while they go to the rally points.
I imagine something like ability to build "dummy divisions" that are just empty 0 men divisions until mobilisation and after mobilisation actual unarmed division appears where corresponding pop is and moves toward "dummy division" to merge with it and to start replenishing of supplies. After demobilisation, mobilised divisions split from their "dummy", return their supplies back and go back to place where they were living. It would preserve this feeling when you mobilise something like Russia or China and watch people from all corners of countries flock to your armies and will make it much less a micromanagement hell (effectively it's an automation of common practice of building art/engi/other support divisions and attaching them to incoming mobilised hordes).

 

[Arizal]

To be very honest, as much as I would like a pure management game, I will always be drove to huge conquests and stunning military and diplomatic victories.

The suggestions I say from the OP are very interesting, as they might make war more expensive.

 

[PK_AZ]

(effectively it's an automation of common practice of building art/engi/other support divisions and attaching them to incoming mobilised hordes).

Honestly I would keep that common practice. Specifically, I would give every corp ability to harbor both active and reserve infantry battalions, and when mobilization is ordered, reserve battalions would mobilize and move towards their corp. So f.e. high readiness corp would have 20 active battalions and 4 reserve, standard corp would have 12:12, and reserve corps would be just 'equipment storages', with maybe 72 guns, battalion of cavalry, battalion of engineers, and 'dummies' for 24 infantry battalions mobilized.