We need an auto army management function

[Ashantai]

I would agree with that, though the AI would have to be taught not to careen around the oceans, get half way, then retreat back, rinse and repeat.

 

[Zhetone]

I don't get how anyone can let the AI manage their armies. I know it's grand strategy but isn't half the fun managing your own armies and sending them places to fight? I know it is for me.
Plus they still should fix the automatic rebel hunting first. I don't like when my armies go halfway around the world through straits and whatnot because there's a rebel army that I can take care of another way.

 

[George LeS]

I would agree with that, though the AI would have to be taught not to careen around the oceans, get half way, then retreat back, rinse and repeat.

That's a legitimate point. However, I'd guess that at least 1 time in 3, the result would be better for the AI than letting it do what it wants. At least the fleet would be somewhere likely to be useful, and not get lured to the Falklands by someone planning to invade England. (That's just a slight exaggeration of some of the things I've seen the AI do.)

If it worked out as 33% better, 33% worse, and 33% no real difference, it'd probably improve the game, net.

 

[Klarum]

"EU3 isnt a war-game, war is a very small part of it"

What? :blink: So what do you do when you play?

.Merchants are on auto-send
.Rebel police is on auto-pursue
.You get a slider changes every 10-15 years
.You get to order new buildings 5-10 times in a year
.In between there are some decisions you can take

Then what? You just stare at your pretty country for hours on end? :wacko:

The original post idea is just... :blink:

 

[diceyy]

One way to heavily cut down the micro would be to make the ai not attempt to attack smaller armies that have the potential to be reinforced by larger ones. Having small sieges going on in border provinces and having to move then cancel move your larger army dozens of times because the ai just can't get the point is time consuming and rather pointless.

 

[Ashantai]

Your army is ALWAYS auto managed in that this isn't Total War - your armies fight their battles without your direct guidance.

 

[Gqarz]

I agree with army automation as an OPTION for players. Personally, I have had almost 0 trouble for any length of time with rebels. I park small army and navy detachments all over my empires as a matter of course. I also pay special attention to keeping my people happy. The problem for me has always been spies causing revolts.

Anyway, the idea being that you could/should be able to assign your armies goals/tasks during war is a fair one given the state of technology today. Personally, I doubt I would utilize it as I like fighting massive colonial wars...

 

[ajsciri4]

I like the way it is... it isn't difficult, just takes more time than the earlier game. Auto-managing armies would be really stupid. If you feel like it's boring then start a new campaign if you can't finish...

I keep an army group in each region. As Sweden, I have one (or two depending) stack in each:

-Stockholm
-Mid Norway
-North Norway
-East Finland
-Denmark
-Pommerania
-Baltic states (where TO used to be before I annexed)
-Northern Poland which I took a few provinces from
-Hannover
-Swedish North America in Manhattan and North Carolina (I colonized original 13 colonies)
-Puerto Rico and Havanna (I own entire Carib)
-Gold coast in Africa
-Benin in Africa
-Southern India which I annexed

So I can defend every part of my empire within the day an invasion starts, and I can ferry troops around to different theaters if the war gets hot.

 

[MrElm]

Yes please. Eventually I tend to get so strong that no-one can really threaten me. Waging wars of conquest then is just a chore, the enemy seldom has any chance. It would be nice to be able to go on a giant conquest spree without extreme micromanagement. Yeah, the AI will probably use the armies very sub-optimally, but when you gain 500 ducats a year and have half a million manpower, you don't really care.

 

[tapewormlondon]

I was going to suggest this last night, when as a huge ottoman empire i was fighting a HUGE Blobhemia and literally couldn't be bothered to move so many armies all about the place and peaced out with minimal gains.

A tick box to put certain units under AI control with simple orders like: Attack nearest enemy, Hold position, siege provinces etc would be great I think. And if you dont want to use it you dont have to.

I would love to see this feature in EU4 (lets face it we are not going to in EU3!)