my armies are annihlated

[kury]

I'm sure that I'm asking a question that has already been answered before, but I couldn't find an answer by searching the archives of Victoria 2 threads. So, please forgive my ignorance, but please answer my question.

I always outfit my armies with a general whom, at the very least, has either +1 to attack or defense. This usually results in at least draws, but it has recently lead to several interesting developments. First off, I'm a complete newb playing the USA. I think part of the problem is that I don't know how to create a casus belli against opponents (except for Mexico and romanticism). The result of this at the beginning is that after I've finished with Mexico, Britain immediately attacks me in a containment war.

The game I'm playing basically is me attacking someone and then Britain declaring war upon me. This has lead to some unusual situations, where, I seized manitoba and british columbia, but extended slavery in an effort to abolish it before the civil war could occur (as per the wiki's instructions for the abolish slavery event) , which failed, which lead to both declaring for the confederacy (Interestingly, when the civil war was finished, I was asked to extend slavery, said no, and found that even though I'd won the civil war and CSA was gone, all provinces were USA blue, the slave icon was still on all the former confederate states. Would appreciate advice on how to make it that slavery was abolished.).

However, I won those wars and have basically forced britian off the north american continent. The problem is this. Britain still declares war on me (usually to liberate british columbia) and won't actually invade, so in order to even get them to offer white peace, i have to invade other british possessions. The easiest of these is britains african possessions, because britian HEAVILY colonized africa (seriously, the only other country that has a good piece is france; spain and portugal have like two or three provinces at most). So it should be an easy sell right? I have good generals and can field truly huge armies at this point. Well, you'd think, but when invading africa, I run into several problems.

the most prominenet, is that my armies will die when engaging british armies despite having commanders and outnumbering them by as much as two or three to one. there will be no battle screen; the game will just inform me that an army of 12000 has utterly annihlated an army of 50000 without taking any damages. In fact, in one particularly egregious example, I had beaten a british army down to 2000 troops, pursued them to the next province with an army of 35000, and with no explanation my army somehow lost all its troops while the beaten and whipped 2K stack took absolutely no damages.

This came to a head when I invaded haiti, won it, had the british declare on it and land 18000 men there, and they annihlated an army of 55000 without taking any casualties, when I tried to liberate port au prince. So, I did what I thought was right, and landed an additional 140000 troops on the northern half of the island, and that army of 18000 british troops (with no commander, mind you) marched straight into both of my armies (one of which had an attack +5 and the other having a defense of +3), killed every soldier, and took absolutely no casualties.

I've had enough of this. If I'm doing something wrong, please tell me. If this is a bug, how can i fix it, because this is just bullshit. I realize I'm new at this, but it really is an experience to turn you off a game when the enemy can just wipe out your troops in the blink of an eye despite all your preparations without incurring any penalty.

Please offer assistance. Thank you.

 

[grommile]

Obvious questions:

What state is your army supply slider in?

What does your army technology look like compared to Britain's?

 

[PanH]

What grommille said

Plus : What is your army composition ?

Also, if Britain is declaring "Containement" Wars, you might want to look at what infamy is.

 

[Owl Raider]

You raise several issues. The first is getting a CB, which is done via the "Justify War" button which is directly to the right of the "Declare War" button. Justifying wars generally costs infamy, in the "Justify War" button you'll see the max amount of infamy you can lose from each war goal, that max number will only happen if you get caught immediately. If not than you will generate less infamy or if extremely lucky than sometimes none at all. If you add a war goal to an existing war than unless you had a CB for it(for example fabricating an acquire state war against Mexico than declaring war for a core and adding the acquire state later) than you will receive full infamy for the new war goal. This is the reason why it's always better to prepare your CB in advance, sometimes even preparing 2 CBs(for example acquire state+humiliate) to get less than max infamy. 25 infamy is the soft limit, as long as you remain below it than all is good in the world. Once you reach 25 and pass it than you're open game as at that point every nation in the world gets a free containment CB on you, which is what you've described above. Generally most people tend to stay below the infamy limit to not get into these endless cycles of containment wars. Some advanced tactics put you in position where you can ignore the infamy limit and just be at war with the rest of the world, but that's a very specific strategy that's not recommended for a new player at all.

The second is your messaging system, as all battles should be shown with the default message settings, if you don't get notifications for battles try resetting the message settings to default. The third is combat. Combat is similar to other Paradox games. There are 6 determining factors in combat:
1. Generals, the better the general the stronger the army.
2. Army composition, ideal composition is X infantry, 1 Engineer, 1/2 Dragoons/Hussars and X-2 up to X-4(basically smaller stacks want X-2, larger stacks want X-4) artillery for the majority of the game(this changes when tanks and airplanes become available but that's the late game). This composition is well balanced and provides everything you need, flanking, support, recon and solid front line, and also works well for sieging both provinces with and without forts.
3. Army organization and supplies, organization should generally be full unless you're recovering from a battle. Supplies depend entirely on your budget. If your army maintenance slider is maxed than as the US you should have no problem fully supplying your armies.
4. Technology and inventions, the more advanced your armies are the better they'll fight. Look at the army tab in your research to see how you can improve your armies.
5. Terrain, attacking into mountains/river crossings give you a penalty, also if you attack a dug-in defensive stack you'll also receive a dug-in penalty.
6. Luck, RNG plays a role in combat like in any other Paradox game. The dice roll has an impact on how combat goes, nothing you can do about it just sheer luck. With that said, due to the above factors, luck is pretty negligible so don't blame RNG(random number generator) if you lose battles, look at the other 5 issues first and if none of them explain your losses than and only than blame it on luck.

 

[Will Steel]

Firstly, do you have all the expansions? You cannot declare war without even having a casus belli with the latest expansion. To get a casus belli you can just click on 'Justify War' and try to get a valid claim for war against the target.

Secondly, what is your infamy? You gain infamy each time you get caught trying to justify a war, or putting wargoals without having justification, or rarely, through events. The more infamy you have, the angrier the world will get at you. Once your infamy is over 25, everyone will hate you and consider you an extremist aggressive warmonger, they'll all get casus belli against you, and will attack you if they think they can defeat you.

In case of British, they usually have a far larger army, certainly the best navy and a bigger economy compared to USA. So they'll keep attacking you to 'punish' you for aggression at any chance they get. The only way to prevent this is to be more powerful than them, and cooling down your infamy and getting it below 25.

That's why, don't declare wars until your infamy has cooled down a bit. Keep a gap between every war. The infamy points are shown on the 'politics' tab on the top of the screen (not inside it) if I recall correctly.

Thirdly, what are your armies composed of? Every army requires proper composition and types of units. Having infantry-only armies will easily get them bombarded and massacred by enemy, who usually has combined infantry-artillery-cavalry armies.

I suggest watching/reading some tutorials about the game so that you can understand it better. And get the expansions if you haven't already, they are absolutely necessary for a real gameplay.

 

[kury]

Hello all. Thank you for your prompt replies.

@grommile-the supply slider is at 100%. That was one of the first lessons I learned after mexico invaded me during my first game (without my having done anything, if you can believe that) and I couldn't replace lost soldiers because I wasn't supplying them.

@ Will Steel and Owlraider-I don't have any of the expansions, I just got the plain vanilla version after discovering it on youtube playthrough. This will probably explain why there is no "justify war" button for me. There is nothing next to the "declare war" buttonHowever, your inferred suspicions are correct; I had an enormous infamy (it was over 100, and I will say no more)

@ will steel-My infamy basically got over the 25 limit after I seized everything from California to Texas from Mexico. This was before I read the wiki and learned that I could get a CB on Mexico by researching Romanticism and clicking manifest destiny. Britain immediately declared a containment war, which I felt should justify me getting something from them for all the trouble they put me through, and I took Quebec by adding it as a war goal. Given what you told me, this appears to have shot my infamy up into the stratosphere, and Britain has never shied from trying to reclaim its canadian possessions.

@Owlraider-thank you for the advice on army composition!

Another question, how do I prevent communist rebels from spawning

 

[kury]

Thought I posted a reply here but it apparently has disappeared.

Thank you everyone who responded. To summarize my response, I only have the original victoria 2, none of the expansions, so there is no "justify war" button next to the "declare war" button.

@owlraider-thank you for the advice on army composition. without a justify war button, how will I be able to make a casus belli?

@grommile-the military slider is up to maximum. I learned that when mexico invaded me in 1837 and I couldn't replace any of my units that died.

How do I prevent communist rebels from spawning?

 

[kury]

I take it from the responses I've received that there's really no way to manufacture a CB with just the vanilla victoria 2? Which mod would I need to buy to get that option?

 

[Gnorf]

Perhaps they have unlocked gas attack?

 

[sgt.stickybomb]

I take it from the responses I've received that there's really no way to manufacture a CB with just the vanilla victoria 2? Which mod would I need to buy to get that option?

There is no way to manufacture a CB in vanilla Victoria 2, However if i remember correctly you could just declare war without needing one.

To get the full game you need to buy A) Victoria 2: A House Divided. B) Victoria 2: Heart Of Darkness.