Is a war with 3mil monarch vs a country with an 8mil monarch winnable?

[Lamprey]

I'm playing Castile and early on I got Juana II as my monarch (nuts... in real life she was known as Juana the Mad, she went off the deep end after her husband died) and while she's a decent monarch, she has 3 in military skill. No stars.

I got involved in a war of Portuguese succession with Aragon and noticed that their monarch had 8 in his military skill. And now I can't win a battle.

His monarch is leading a 4-5k army around the map cutting through my troops like a hot knife through butter. I've tried defending with a stack 2x the size of his, and when he attacks the casualties each combat turn are 312/10 me/him. Then I tried attacking him with 3 armies whose total troop count is around 14k against his 4, same story. He takes next to no casualties while I lose thousands of men. I tried having more cav than him, more infantry, more of both. Nothing.

This one leader is making it utterly impossible for me to win the war. Everytime I face him he kills off 6 months' worth of reinforcements. Is it even possible for me to win the war against him?

Has anyone ever won a war against a great military monarch while having a crappy one without MASSIVE numerical superiority? How did you do it?

 

[unmerged(49083)]

You're supposed to recruit some leaders!

 

[Jasmo]

A lot depends on comparative military technologies. If equal it then depends on what you mean by "winning". If you can raise one or two cav armies to eat away at the main invaision force and then siege a lot of his provinces with smaller forces you should be able to at least reach a white peace. I faced virtually the same situation with at one point Aragon controling nearly all of Iberia but I was actual able to eventual get a province from them with a couple of two regiment groups recapturing my own a couple taking his and attrition force to slowly eat up his uber army.

 

[unmerged(1776)]

I'm playing Castile and early on I got Juana II as my monarch (nuts... in real life she was known as Juana the Mad, she went off the deep end after her husband died) and while she's a decent monarch, she has 3 in military skill. No stars.

I got involved in a war of Portuguese succession with Aragon and noticed that their monarch had 8 in his military skill. And now I can't win a battle.

His monarch is leading a 4-5k army around the map cutting through my troops like a hot knife through butter. I've tried defending with a stack 2x the size of his, and when he attacks the casualties each combat turn are 312/10 me/him. Then I tried attacking him with 3 armies whose total troop count is around 14k against his 4, same story. He takes next to no casualties while I lose thousands of men. I tried having more cav than him, more infantry, more of both. Nothing.

This one leader is making it utterly impossible for me to win the war. Everytime I face him he kills off 6 months' worth of reinforcements. Is it even possible for me to win the war against him?

Has anyone ever won a war against a great military monarch while having a crappy one without MASSIVE numerical superiority? How did you do it?

More than likely it's not the military stars, it's his shock rating that's causing all the casualties. You're going to need units with a high defensive shock rating, a leader with a good shock rating, and either defend in rough terrain or attack in flat terrain. If Aragon has higher land tech and/or has military drill and you don't - I suggest suing for peace because you're about to get mauled.

 

[Lamprey]

Recruiting leaders isn't an option I'm particularly enamored with since my tradition's only in the high teens and any leader recruited under 40 tradition tends to be quite bad. As far as the cavalry, I did try a 2-1 cavalry superiority and it didn't help.

What units have a high shock defense value? I'll recruit those. To give you an idea of troops available, the year here is 1460 and we're both at land tech 1. My national idea's quest for the new world, his (I believe) is the one that increases manpower by 50%.

 

[Jasmo]

Recruiting leaders isn't an option I'm particularly enamored with since my tradition's only in the high teens and any leader recruited under 40 tradition tends to be quite bad. As far as the cavalry, I did try a 2-1 cavalry superiority and it didn't help.

What units have a high shock defense value? I'll recruit those. To give you an idea of troops available, the year here is 1460 and we're both at land tech 1. My national idea's quest for the new world, his (I believe) is the one that increases manpower by 50%.

You are not going to beat the main force, only delay it. The real key is in the multiple units recapturing or capturing provinces. The uber Army can only be one place at a time. You need to be in five or six small ones at a minimum In the end game of this particular war I had the uber force marching around in cirlces between three provinces I kept liberating meanwhile I was busy capturing the provicnes he could recruit troops in.

 

[unmerged(503)]

save, reload as the other side, then check the leaders they have. you will be able to see what his real abilitys are then. likely as someone said, he has a high shock value. also be aware that cavalry are the real killers in battle they have 4 times the shock effect as a infantry regiment, and from what I understand units that appear to have utility in the fire phase do little or no damage in the early part of the game.

look around the forum for details regarding this, there are threads related to unit ability, in shock and fire.

 

[Chaingun]

Remember that whenever his über general led army captures a province, its fortress will be totally empty of defenders. This means, if the über general leaves it, you can go in and assault it back very easily.

If you can't win versus his army, don't try, and go sieging somewhere else instead.

 

[unmerged(1776)]

Recruiting leaders isn't an option I'm particularly enamored with since my tradition's only in the high teens and any leader recruited under 40 tradition tends to be quite bad. As far as the cavalry, I did try a 2-1 cavalry superiority and it didn't help.

What units have a high shock defense value? I'll recruit those. To give you an idea of troops available, the year here is 1460 and we're both at land tech 1. My national idea's quest for the new world, his (I believe) is the one that increases manpower by 50%.

Well, a bad leader is better than none at all, even a +1 shock leader could cut your losses dramatically. Being it is that early there is nothing you can really do unit-wise. Recruit men at arms if you can. (I forget which tech level they are).

 

[unmerged(1776)]

Remember that whenever his über general led army captures a province, its fortress will be totally empty of defenders. This means, if the über general leaves it, you can go in and assault it back very easily.

If you can't win versus his army, don't try, and go sieging somewhere else instead.

Sound advice. Scipio strategy FTW.

 

[unmerged(21937)]

Or try WP:ing them and wait until the 8 mil (and prolly very high shock leader) king dies and do some payback.

 

[Lamprey]

I'd love to WP them so they'd finally piss off but it's a succession war, I wanna win it! :rofl:

Portugal is worth a few graves.

 

[AdmiralNelson]

Any leader is better than no leader at all.

Any leader that you create is going to have at least one point somewhere, and the default "leader" has zeroes in all stats.

 

[unmerged(21937)]

Well, either try sieging them then or fight enough battles with them that you'll get your Military Tradition high enough for you to be able to recruit a formidable commander.