Maintenance trick to beat rebels

[unmerged(3931)]

Hey, I just came up with a new trick to beat those pesky rebels. Now that the rebels are toughened up, they have the same tech and morale as a player. If my troops greatly outnumber the rebels I still will typically arrive on the 30th and retreat on the first to wittle them down with attrition then just annihilate them at some point.

But, in some cases I have to stop a rebellion with less than half as many troops as the rebels have. Now in such case, the goal is to beat down the rebels morale. But since the rebels quickly charge up to the same morale you have it actually works against you to put maintenance to 100%; the rebels get more morale too, making the battle last longer, meaning you lose more troops, meaning the difference in numbers becomes greater and greater. Whamo! The rebels can annihilate you.

So my new technique is to have mainenance at 50% and arrive with a very small number of troops on the 30th. Before the first of the month I drag the maintenance slider to 100%. Then, the rest of whatever small band of troops I could muster arrive on the first. The initial attack holds the rebel morale down to the 50% maintenance level. The second, main attack wave arrives and boosts my troops' morale. This gives a much better chance of breaking the rebels' morale.

 

[Rythin]

Have to try it out.

 

[kurtbrian]

sneaky!

 

[der Alte]

Nice trick! I just wonder how u can plan, that your troops arrive exactly on the 30th.

I normally use a simplified version of this system, just split my troops and send in the 2nd one about 1-3 days later. If the composition of troops reflects the terrain, I normally win about 90% of the battles with marginal losses.

 

[unmerged(10894)]

Very nice!

Der Alto, there's a FAQ on troop movement, which may be of help.

 

[Owen]

Nice one Tom.

I can't wait to try this in MP at above normal.

 

[Knug Anders]

A nice trick, but doesn't the rebels morale get higher as well when you increase the maintanence slider?

 

[Owen]

A nice trick, but doesn't the rebels morale get higher as well when you increase the maintanence slider?

Only if they're not fighting.

 

[der Alte]

Very nice!

Der Alto, there's a FAQ on troop movement, which may be of help.

Fair enough! But do u always bother with this calculation when u play? Too much micromanagement for me...

 

[Armfeldt]

Yep, but is still a very nice idea!

 

[unmerged(6147)]

But do u always bother with this calculation when u play? Too much micromanagement for me...

Ws2_32 is the king of micromanaging in EU He is even the inventor of the micromanaging hell called "synchronised looting" in which he uses cavalry forces of down to 17 men... it takes some micromanaging just to create such 17 men heaps

 

[der Alte]

Ws2_32 is the king of micromanaging in EU He is even the inventor of the micromanaging hell called "synchronised looting" in which he uses cavalry forces of down to 17 men... it takes some micromanaging just to create such 17 men heaps

The guy must be amazing!!
I better shut up and listen to the gurus.

 

[unmerged(18425)]

Ws2_32 is the king of micromanaging in EU He is even the inventor of the micromanaging hell called "synchronised looting" in which he uses cavalry forces of down to 17 men... it takes some micromanaging just to create such 17 men heaps

I would edit it down to 17 in the save...or does that take away the fun?

 

[unmerged(19936)]

Ws2_32 is the king of micromanaging in EU He is even the inventor of the micromanaging hell called "synchronised looting" in which he uses cavalry forces of down to 17 men... it takes some micromanaging just to create such 17 men heaps

He must be a sorcerer of some kind!

 

[unmerged(3931)]

Fair enough! But do u always bother with this calculation when u play? Too much micromanagement for me...

Yes, I do a fair amount of micromanagement. When I'm whittling down the rebels with attriition, I need to calculate exactly how many troops I can get in without getting attrition myself. But I've gotten much faster in the math and I always have a rough estimate of the numbers and dates I need even for the provinces that I haven't memorized.

 

[unmerged(3931)]

I would edit it down to 17 in the save...or does that take away the fun?

No, I don't edit the save game. That makes serious cheating more tempting. I am pretty quick with the split and reorganize having at least 2K infantry and some cavalry.

 

[unmerged(7784)]

Cool. Such micromanaging is vital if you're playing a poor minor. I had 32K worth of rebels popping up on Rhodes while playing as the Knights once. I just managed to drag off my leader army with about 2K infantry left before it vanished. Let's just say I owed only Rhodes and Thrace at that point of time.. so the Knights weren't exactly overflowing with ducats.

 

[iBaLkiD]

Woah! Sneaky sneaky!

 

[unmerged(34982)]

Killing rebels

Some of the posts here seem to be suggesting there's an easy way of killing rebels with lots of small units, plus Ive often seen the AI attack them repeatedly with 1000 infantry. How does this work? I usually find it hard enough to kill them with a proper-sized army, let alone tiny ones...

 

[wryun]

The first post suggested a hard way to do it with a relatively small number of troops But the AI faces rebels using the old morale system, so it finds them a lot easier.