OH MY GOD everything is dieing im losing to france!

[Nirubu]

Look at this:
http://imgur.com/a/qZvob
http://imgur.com/a/vNkb8
!

Im fighting the french and having losses of several 1000 to 100! Even tho i have better tech, my organization: 80, his: 50. Doesnt matter if I have more or less men in the battle. Doesnt matter if my diceroll is WAY up there. Doesnt matter if i have generals, nothing seems to help! THIS should not be happening, but it is, but why! I want to be Hitler, I even formed the Reich, but I cant because of this, please, I dont understand!

 

[KevinG]

In the 1st picture you have a 3 vs an 8 roll, that's almost 3-1 casualties by itself. Then you are the attacker, and lategame units' defensive stats are often twice as high as their offensive stats. Also even though you have artillery in the army, when you look closely at the battle lines, none of your artillery is in the 2nd row while the French have half their back row filled with artillery. Finally, since your frontline is all vanilla infantry, they can't flank the enemy and thus your numerical advantage is worthless.

What happened in this battle is you attacked the AI with an all infantry army, which filled up your front/back rows completely, then you brought in an army with some artillery. When you stagger your armies like this it means the artillery won't reinforce the back row until your first front row completely dies.

Finally, read this:

http://www.victoria2wiki.com/Why_Ar...me:_How_Arbitrary_Mechanics_Shape_Victoria_II

Out of the 4 reasons why you got slaughtered in that battle, lack of artillery is probably the biggest factor. The theoretical best army composition is 50/50 infantry/artillery with 1 regiment of hussar or dragoon to provide recon. There's no reason to ever deviate from this composition until you unlock tanks and airplanes later in the game.

Also organization doesn't impact casualties at all. A unit with 5 org fights just as well as a unit with 80 org. Since lategame battles are fought until one side runs out of men, org plays no part in the outcome.

 

[Nirubu]

ty, just restructured my army and now Im slaughtering the french
http://imgur.com/a/lG39I

Also, how should i use mobilize which gives me like 1k infantry divisions atm if theyre that ineffective? Just siege with them? Or is it possible to have them reinforce regular armies 1st rows so the enemy divisions never reach my arty?

 

[Cohacq]

They're just infantry. Use them if you need the extra fodder.

 

[RELee]

Standing armies should be your core. Design them to be offensive juggernauts, with mounted troops, artillery and guards (later tanks and planes). Then, as said above, if wars arise that require conscripted troops, add in the conscripted infantry as "cannon fodder" to spread out the casualties and spare your elite troops.

Also, please remember that combat always favors the defensive. Watch out regarding where you are attacking so as to prevent throwing troops away in attacking good defensive positions. Use engineers to nullify fortified positions that you absolutely must attack, otherwise avoid them.

Be a smart general, not a dead one.

 

[Esben_DRK]

ty, just restructured my army and now Im slaughtering the french
http://imgur.com/a/lG39I

Also, how should i use mobilize which gives me like 1k infantry divisions atm if theyre that ineffective? Just siege with them? Or is it possible to have them reinforce regular armies 1st rows so the enemy divisions never reach my arty?

Like during WW1, conscripts are mostly meat for the slaughter. The best situation you can be in is never needing to mobilise; relying solely on your professionals. If you ever have to mobilise, your mobilised units will be simple cannonfodder, there to die instead of more valued units.
And as RELee said: If you ever can, make the enemy attack you, preferably on a fortified province or across a river, and then just reinforce your own position as needed. Even better, if you can get the enemy to attack with a large force, and encircle them so you can potentially eradicate their forces.

 

[thedarkendstar]

Germany is one of the richest nations if you want to ensure dominance of France use national focus to get 4 percent of your pops as soldiers you will massively out number then while having a larger industry. And since these are professional troops they will be far more effective honestly if you play Right you can fight France Austria and Russia at the same time but its kinda difficult kill all of Frances armies then send your troops back to stop the Austrian and Russian invasion.

 

[grimkm]

Germany is one of the richest nations if you want to ensure dominance of France use national focus to get 4 percent of your pops as soldiers you will massively out number then while having a larger industry. And since these are professional troops they will be far more effective honestly if you play Right you can fight France Austria and Russia at the same time but its kinda difficult kill all of Frances armies then send your troops back to stop the Austrian and Russian invasion.

Yes, 4% is a good number for soldier pops to dominate anyway.