newb question on war

[Wodin]

Hi folks, I just got Vicky:Revolutions patched up and modded to VIP. started playing just tonight. I feel I have a good handle on all other Paradox strategy games, but the warfare in Vicky has throw me for a loop.

I started out as USA, and DOW'd Mexico to assist Texas. I mobilized, and created another cavalry division. That gives me 6 divisions total. I can't make anymore right now because I lack the resources.

Mexico has 12 divisions and is kicking my butt. They are a lot tougher than they appear, or perhaps I am missing something. Is there a trick to building up military power, or am I just dumb for DOW'ing Mexico so early?

 

[germanpeon]

I think you should pick a country that doesnt have to deal with war for your first game. Maybe even your first few games.

I did the same thing and picked the good ol' USA for my first game and got my butt handed to me by Mexico, terror of the New World.

I think it would be a good idea to pick a nation like Sweden or The Netherlands where you can take your time to learn how the game mechanics and economy work. Its a little much for anyone to have to handle all the game has right off the bat.


As for your problem, you need to create more divisions. You do this by having sufficient manpower to create divisions and having the resources and moeny to create those divisions.

I am not to good on the military part of the game so I cant help you with strategy part, sorry.

 

[Wodin]

Thanks. Yeah, maybe I'll try a smaller nation. I guess I just need to be more patient. As far as gaining access to resources is concerned, it looks like having high prestige facilitiates that. Prestige is best gained through war...sort of a catch 22!

Thank you again for your timely reply.

 

[germanpeon]

No problem. I know I had a lot of questions when I started. I probably started like five or six threads. o

As for prestige, war can be a great way to get it but dont understimate culture techs. The culture techs that trigger inventions can give you up to (but very rarely) 300 prestige per invention! The amount of prestige you get depends on in what order the invention triggers for you after the tech is researched in relation to other countries that the invention triggered for. If you get it earlier than someone else, you get more. So if you go that route make sure that you research the techs as early as possible.

Yeah prestige does help you get goods on the market but thats only if the supply cant fill the demand. Which is unfortunately always the case for many goods early on.

In the long run you dont want to be importing a lot of expensive goods because it will cost you loads and loads of money. Much better for you to produce them yourself even if that means that you have to import goods to make that good. You can usually sell the surplus for more than it costs you to make it.

 

[killerdude11]

Hi folks, I just got Vicky:Revolutions patched up and modded to VIP. started playing just tonight. I feel I have a good handle on all other Paradox strategy games, but the warfare in Vicky has throw me for a loop.

I started out as USA, and DOW'd Mexico to assist Texas. I mobilized, and created another cavalry division. That gives me 6 divisions total. I can't make anymore right now because I lack the resources.

Mexico has 12 divisions and is kicking my butt. They are a lot tougher than they appear, or perhaps I am missing something. Is there a trick to building up military power, or am I just dumb for DOW'ing Mexico so early?

One thing to realize is that if you are going to war early, and you don't feel you have the military to win, your mindset must be on war and only war. If you don't have the resources (small arms and Canned Stuff) then your only focus should be getting that, even if it means going into debt or raising taxes to absurd levels.

As for fighting itself, well a good leader will have won the war long before it even started, but if you are outnumbered then you need to follow the simple strategy, defend and counter attacks, and your entire military strategy should be to surround enemy divisions and destroy them, forget territory, having a long chain of 1 division in each province isn't going to do you any good.

As for playing the US early on, **** Texas, they probably won't win against Mexico (the game doesn't have the "Army is taking a nap while the enemy is currently charging 10 feet away" combat modifier), but your economy has a much larger potential then Mexico's. So even if Texas lose one or 2 provinces early on, you shouldn't have much of an issue reclaiming them later.

Final pointer: if you army consists of 6 divisions, going to war may not be such a good idea.

 

[Wodin]

Well I started up a game as Prussia and played through 1865 so far. I found my manpower to be FAR and away higher than USA. For example, I can always keep my divisions reinforced after every siege. I have around 30 divisions.

The way I created my army is similar to how I usually did it for EU3. I have my mounted forces traveling around breaking enemy siege and harassing. The infantry (mostly with arty, guards, and an HQ brigade) siege. My stacks are 6K-8K. I also had no trouble keeping good generals in charge.

I steamrolled Russia and France. I decided a two front war would not be a good thing, and spammed Russia with relation improvements until it was +180. I then began the long process of improving my infrastructure.

Since early on, I had planned to be self sufficient with steel. So I increased the resource gathering operations to provide a nice surplus. However, even though I have a level 8 steel factory, I can't make enough steel to build up a stockpile for railroads. So I closed my artillery and small arms factories, then set the trader to not sell unless I had >50. This gave me enough to start building railroads all over at a decent pace. However, I observed France is fully developed with railroads and has eclipsed me for the #2 military spot.

Compared with my 30 divisions, France has 106! The war isn't going well. My strategy for the military has been to create quality divisions which are always brigaded.

I'm feeling a lot more confident with the market, and industrializing. I would really like to start a GC as USA though.

From what I have written, what do any of you see as things I have done right and wrong? Thanks for reading.

 

[Sarmatian]

I'm another noob such as you. I'm still playing vanilla. I want to master that before I move on to VIP. But I found that a lot of brigaded divisions aren't always good. They are much more expensive and usually you can maintain 2-3 or even 4 regular divisions for the same money. My advice is to have regular divisions complemented with some brigaded, depending on the situation.

I also have the same problem with early wars, so I tend to avoid them. As Russia I have never dared to start Crimean War, part from fear of UK, OE, France and potentially Austria all at once and part because there is not much to gain. Far better strategy to industrialize and take rich China provinces. As US I let Mexico trounce up Texas and then after a decade or so I took everything back. This gave me enough time to develop my economy and military power and left me enough time to prepare for war with the South.

I'm not sure if it's too much different in VIP.

 

[unmerged(76730)]

I agree, first play some smaller countries - Sweden (I know its biased ), Brazil. If you pick any major country you will end in a war (at least couple times).

Wodin just assume that AI is cheating - less surprises later . It is known fact to AI what you building (just like with HOI2), how strong your forces are and so on. Same with industry. When you struggling with factories (for various reasons like - annoying form of goverment...) AI is industrializing at an astonishing rate. Same with research. AI get no penalty when swaping for techs, you losing RP. AI is always ahead. Just acknowledge that.

There is however one country which always outclass AI if run by human - China. If you survive early troubles (be warned in particular if running with VIP mod!) and later you civilize, 30000-50000 or even more Industrial Power, no problem at all. No other country get so much POPs as an early Democratic China. Usually you have enough if you see state with like 700 POPs and all 'splitable' at least 3 times! :rofl: :wacko: And you can win game by sheer production of goods with minimal prestige and military.

Playing with China have one major drawback: Finger(s) hurts from clicking POPs without end!

Oh and BTW: always cover your backs/shore. Last thing you need is enemy in your capital when you toying with AI forces miles away from your home country.

 

[Wodin]

Thank you for the replies guys. I discovered that POPs work better if split and reassigned to jobs like craftsman and clerk to maximize production on factories. I had hoped if I would close down a factory in one province that they would see the openings in another and migrate, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

 

[Orm]

Thank you for the replies guys. I discovered that POPs work better if split and reassigned to jobs like craftsman and clerk to maximize production on factories. I had hoped if I would close down a factory in one province that they would see the openings in another and migrate, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

You have to delete the factory too. A closed factory is still seen as a job opportunity.

 

[unmerged(96944)]

Hi folks, I just got Vicky:Revolutions patched up and modded to VIP. started playing just tonight. I feel I have a good handle on all other Paradox strategy games, but the warfare in Vicky has throw me for a loop.

I started out as USA, and DOW'd Mexico to assist Texas. I mobilized, and created another cavalry division. That gives me 6 divisions total. I can't make anymore right now because I lack the resources.

Mexico has 12 divisions and is kicking my butt. They are a lot tougher than they appear, or perhaps I am missing something. Is there a trick to building up military power, or am I just dumb for DOW'ing Mexico so early?

After getting a handle on the way things work by playing Vicky vanilla I up graded also. Tried to play USA and dow with the same result as you got.

Restarted and declined Texas' requests. Built my military and industrial might through the research. Meanwhile Mexico defeated the Texans and then sold me Texas and New Mexico including the Arizona territory.

I am now having trouble with the CSA. So I guess it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. :rofl:

Have fun but don't be afraid to start again and try to find out how to change things to your liking

I think I am an addict -- Ricky addict right now

 

[Wodin]

Hey guys, got an update. I've been playing as Prussia/Germany. It's now 1906 and I've almost completed the tech tree. I had a few wars with France, and have taken about 1/3 of their European holdings. I also went to war with Great Britain and sank their tomato can fleet with minimal losses. After occupying all of England and Ireland, I settled for a humiliation victory condition.

I feel confident that none of the AI controlled nations can dent me. I'll likely just coast out the game and make sure I stay on top.

Perhaps next time around I will try industrializing as China.

Overall this has been an educational play-through for me. I learned how expensive brigades can be, and how to work the trade system to build up a large stockpile of things to use for expansion. I've learned that capitalists are pure love.