Troops badly underperforming...

[unmerged(93281)]

Hi,

I'm playing VIP as Russia and have been very sucessful until reaching the Crimean War. I split my army into three groups, one on the Crimea, one guarding the Balkans border with the Ottomans and the last group on the Caucausus until quite late in the war my navy stopped any troops being landed on the Crimea, but in the Caucausus the Ottomans attacked my army of 30000 at Erevan with 24000 troops and started wining.

I was killing 50 of them per day, while they killed 200 of my men per day. I also had a dug-in factor of 20. This was repeated across the the Caucausus until the Ottomans had pushed me into Ukraine and started completely destroying whole divisions at which point I quit in disgust.

Why is this happening? Difficulty is on normal, the only army tech I have is Army Professionalism. Could that be why? Also, when my troops fight British troops they have no trouble, but that might be cause I always outnumber them enormously.

By the way, what triggers the loss of the Crimean War for Russia? I've heard losing it is the best option as it gives you the oportunity to free the serfs and want to end it as soon as possible. On my previous attempt i got to late 1855.

Thanks very much!

 

[Andrelvis]

It's probably the lack of technology. Did you have fortresses or favorable terrain for defense? That would help offset what you lack in technology.

 

[unmerged(93281)]

Well, the fighting was in the Caucausus, which is mostly mountains... I didn't have any forteresses though.

 

[Andrelvis]

A thought just occurred to me - maybe they have brigades, like artillery, attached.

 

[unmerged(93281)]

I'm pretty sure they didn't have brigades in all our battles in the Caucausus & Balkans, and the real problem isn't the casualties they're inflicting on me, but the ridiculously low number i'm inflicting on them.

 

[Andrelvis]

The brigades don't show up in battles AFAIR, so only the division's controller knows if it has one, except if you detect by numbers; for example, if a division in a battle has more than 10000 soldiers, it has a brigade. Non-fully-reinforced units under 10000 soldiers are not possible to know if they have one, unfortunately.

 

[SeedSnatcher]

Did you choose Jominian attitude or Clausewitzian attitude at the start of the game?

And is your army maintenence all the way up?

 

[unmerged(48056)]

VIP...


They're attacking you and winning? With the equal number of men and good terrain? There's something wrong here.


1. Did you assign a general? Even a bad general is better than no general, because the black-icon general gives -1 fire and -shock (-1 to a lot of stuff. Even a -10 organization general is better than having none at all).


2. It's possible that the Ottomans had a very good leader (a leader with +4 fire is like having breech loading rifles in 1835).

3. What kind of soldiers are you using? Calvary are very bad to use on the defensive.




The problem to me is that your army is seriously behind technology and doesn't have a capable general. I think breech loading rifles are available in 1953, and the Ottomans might have had them, while you didn't even have muzzle rifles (this coupled with the Ottomans having decent generals could explain why your getting your ass kicked by the sick man of Europe)

 

[unmerged(48056)]

Here's my understanding with ViP... I don't claim to be a pro but eh...



Normal Infantry = Good for the Defensive and as ''Police Battalions'' in autocratic countries. Horrible for attacking - period. The only time I'll use normal infantry on the offensive is when conquering Haiti and leaving two divisions behind as coastal defense.


Calvary = In Europe, it can be useful for about a decade and than it gets pulverized in battle.
Normally, I'll use two-Calvary corps as ''Partisan Divisions" (both for home and on campaign) and three-Cuirssar corps for chasing enemy corps.
Calvary does retain it's usefulness a lot longer in Latin America and the undeveloped world. And Calvary are the best to use against uncivilized nations.



Dragoons... Now I've heard some people using them as motorized artillery but not me. I just don't use Dragoons. Brigade Infantry hits harder and Calvary is much better suited for partisan and chasing roles.



Infantry brigades... Infantry + Guards is your staple offensive unit in Europe.
Infantry + artillery is extremely expensive and some people will conquer uncivilized nations, just for the ''natives'' (1/10 maintained price for -3 reliable. Just slap on a ''Diplomat'' General and you have a ghetto artillery unit which is as powerful as the real thing)



At the beginning of the game let's not forget that numbers are the most important. You don't need Guarded Infantry, if you're playing as Austria, if you're hitting the Italian minors. But if you go up against Prussia with an all Calvary army, you're going to lose a lot of young men.

 

[unmerged(93281)]

I didn't assign generals, they assigned a few.

My armies are largely infantry, although a few cavalry.

Tomorrow I'm gonna have another go, but research more military orientied techs rather than industrial ones and appoint generals

And should I choose Jominian or Clauswitzian in the event?

Thanks very much.

 

[unmerged(48056)]

I didn't assign generals, they assigned a few.

My armies are largely infantry, although a few cavalry.

Tomorrow I'm gonna have another go, but research more military orientied techs rather than industrial ones and appoint generals

And should I choose Jominian or Clauswitzian in the event?

Thanks very much.

Officers are the second most important unit for me after Clerks. I'll typically assigned 80,000 to 100,000 men as officers (so I can get a maximum of 100 points).

It's important because HAVING a general makes a HUGE difference. Having no general gives you -1 to everything (from reliability, fire to defense).
For instance, I had a general which gave me -4 shock and +6 fire, -20 speed and -2 defense... Useless? Nope, on the contrary, the perfect general for killing tons of infantry.


Calvary is important for tackling enemy armies. I.E. use your infantry first, force the enemy to retreat and send the Calvary after the slow infantry (since they have 0 morale, the Calvary will force them to retreat. That means your infantry can secure a lot of undefended provinces, if your Calvary keeps on forcing the enemy back).


As for Jominian/Clauswitzen... it's understood that Jominian is better in the beginning and Clauswitzen in the endgame. Jominian just grants you a huge organization bonus (meaning shock armies are less effective), while Clauswiten have greater morale recovery (meaning quicker to reorganize their defense. It's just like Hoi2, French doctrine = defense and german = blitzkrieg)

 

[Andrelvis]

It's important because HAVING a general makes a HUGE difference. Having no general gives you -1 to everything (from reliability, fire to defense).
For instance, I had a general which gave me -4 shock and +6 fire, -20 speed and -2 defense... Useless? Nope, on the contrary, the perfect general for killing tons of infantry.

Except for those +10 attrition buggers. Got to hate them

 

[Spacehusky]

Except for those +10 attrition buggers. Got to hate them

With Megalomaniac/Unqualified+Hell Bent you can get +15 Attrition

 

[unmerged(48056)]

Except for those +10 attrition buggers. Got to hate them

More or less the reason why I aim for a minimal of 100,000 officers. Because more or less about half of the leaders are going to end up with repulsive traits.
-8 reliability? Who'll be stupid enough (other than the A.I.) to pick such a leader?

 

[NikkTheTrick]

More or less the reason why I aim for a minimal of 100,000 officers. Because more or less about half of the leaders are going to end up with repulsive traits.
-8 reliability? Who'll be stupid enough (other than the A.I.) to pick such a leader?

If you are fighting on home turf, that is not a problem (provided other stats are good ).

Hell Bent is the fastest general out there - great for marching your troops through large spaces of your land.

As for the OP, a few things to consider.

1. Early on, fire modifier from leaders can make a HUGE difference. Nothing is as fun as sinking Royal Navy as Russians using that high-fire admiral early in the game and then balancing your budget by having British pay War indemnities every 5 years

2. Small Arms technology makes a huge difference. Get Mussle-loaded rifles as soon as you can if you plan on fighting. Then, get Breech-loaded (please forgive wrong spelling) rifles ASAP. They make a huge difference in terms of firepower. If you develop Breech-loaded rifles and your opponent does not have them (can be checked by initiating trade and checking if you can sell the technology to them), it may be a very good idea to declare war: 1 your soldier will be worth 2 theirs.

3. Brigades can add a lot to firepower. Infantry with artillery in roughly twice more effective than no-brigade infantry (varies throughout the game), though a lot more expensive to maintain. An unbrigaded division has 10000 soldiers (under full manitenance) while brigaded division has 12000 soldiers. Since they had 24000 soldiers, multiple of 12000, both their divisions had brigades.

 

[lz14]

Well you only have one army tech so what are you expecting ???

You said yourself you beat the British only with numbers.