Should I actually use Grand Army in this situation?

[DABegley]

I am continuing my Inca game and have reached 1645 with some help from jez9999, Serzis and cuendillar. I am very close to equal in tech levels to the European invaders and can swat any single attacker or coalition. England gives me trouble as her navy is just massive. Everyone else I can repel many naval invasions and crush land forces that make it through. My problems come when three or more coalitions come at me. In my current war a Prussian led coalition (England, Holland being her main allies), an Aragon led coalition with Castile, Milan, Genoa, Navarra and 4 or 5 other countries, and a Norway led group (Scotland, Denmark, Burgundy, Portugal and more) all attacked me. I have peaced out with the Aragon and Prussian groups. I currently have 45 large ships, 42 regiments and a 120,000 manpower ceiling. I have the finances and manpower to easily support many more regiments except they get so expensive above the land force limit, currently at 39. I own all the Pacific coast from Panama to Arica (England owns both those) and all the inland provinces up to and including Barina. I have no Caribbean coastal provinces. I own all of inland Argentina and southern Brazil but the coast is owned by different European powers. My problem is with so large a country I can't move my troops around fast enough to deal with the multiple invasions. It would really be helpful to have another 20 regiments or so. Would the best way to get those regiments be;

1. Choose the Grand Army National Idea to raise the land force limit

2. Ignore the force limit, buy them anyway and just pay the price

3. Stop building naval and land building and switch over to buildings that increase my Tax to raise my Land Force Limit, I actually don't know if building things like workshops that raise Tax also increase the Land Force Limit or it only counts original base tax

Thanks

 

[AndrewT]

As you mention NIs I'm guessing you have EU4, not EU3. Moving accordingly.

 

[TheDecider]

As you mention NIs I'm guessing you have EU4, not EU3. Moving accordingly.

Well, there is apparently something called NIs in EU3: http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/National_Idea_review

Regardless, if you are confident that your troops can perform in battle, increase the number of them.
If you're unsure about their performance, or might have to fight only slightly larger stacks, increase performance.
Since it sounds like you essentially fighting on many fronts (either to keep their combined stacks small or because they're sieging) and your economy is sound, I would've gone with "Grand Army" (increasing number of regiments)

 

[Owl Raider]

Another, and I think better, option is to rely on mercenaries to beef up your army. If you haven't taken Administrative ideas yet than take them, as they're great regardless of mercenaries. With them you'll double the amount of available mercenaries which makes relying on them more reliable, it also makes them cheaper. Also, make sure to always send your mercenaries into battle first, 1 day before your standing army, that way the mercenaries take the brunt of the enemy force rather than your own troops. This both saves manpower and war exhaustion albeit costs a bit more money as mercenaries are more expensive to reinforce than standing armies unless you invest in a lot of cheaper mercenaries ideas+policies.

 

[cwg9]

This article in the wiki on force limits should answer some of your questions: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Force_limit.

If you are really worried about the opportunity cost of taking the grand army idea, the economic buildings do indeed contribute to your force limits, although you'd have to do the math to figure out whether you get more bang for your buck prioritizing military buildings or economic ones. Obviously since most economic buildings give percentage modifiers, you get the highest returns on investment in your highest base tax provinces (some exception apply depending on the specific bonuses for each building, but in general you can't really go wrong prioritizing your infrastructure investments in this way).

The idea above about mercenaries is also good advice in your situation. If you don't have it already and have the time to unlock all 7 ideas, taking offensive ideas to get forced march will also help you get your troops where they need to be much faster.

 

[DDRJake]

As you mention NIs I'm guessing you have EU4, not EU3. Moving accordingly.

This is an EU3 question. Grand Army is a National Idea from EU3 and in EU3 Workshops raise basetax. In EU4 they increase goods produced.

To the OP, I would take Grand Army. There is no problem that cannot be solved by throwing more troops at it.

 

[Pellucid]

Upgrading forts can also help you buy more time to move troops around to deal with multiple invasions.

 

[AndrewT]

Right you are - back we go then! Shows how long it's been since I fired up EU3 ...

 

[DABegley]

Yes this is an EU3 question. I played a little more and split the difference by building only 10 more regiments and building workshops as fast as I can. I will change to Grand Army when I start up again to increase my Land Force Limit and also build more troops as well. I figure I will need as many troops as I can afford with my constant multi-front wars. I will change from colonial ventures as soon as the last province is a city. I need the colonists now to convert captured colonies to my religion/culture and a few are still left to capture/convert or colonize. Mostly on the N.American west coast owned by Castile who I am conveniently at war with. I have a good manpower supply and strong economy so I can afford to carry the troop load. Thanks all.