And there's nothing you can do and the AI will not accept a peace deal? Is it okay to just dismiss all of your armies and sit back and collect money instead of racking up loans and draining your manpower? Or is there a smarter way to lose?
What do you do when you're losing a major war?
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Ah, this also one point i dont like about EU4, there are only total victories, or total defeats. War has to be more expensive to prevent them.
It's never happened to me except 1 or 2 speciality.
I left from game and deleted saves.
I left from game and deleted saves.
Continue spamming mercs.
You'll drain their manpower and extend the war, giving them lower war enthusiasm and leave them open to aggression from other nations. The longer wars take, the less they'll want to take and the quicker they want to get it over with.
You'll also not give them any money for the peacedeal - if you save up money they'll just take it all.
You'll drain their manpower and extend the war, giving them lower war enthusiasm and leave them open to aggression from other nations. The longer wars take, the less they'll want to take and the quicker they want to get it over with.
You'll also not give them any money for the peacedeal - if you save up money they'll just take it all.
Ah... very good idea. What sucks is that I just paid off 9 loans, now a 10+ strong coalition decides to knock me around some more. Welp, debt here I come!
Get military access to Venice, move your army there, and sit on their island playing checkers while you wait
I did this once as Sweden in a two fronted war against Denmark and Muscovy. Eventually my mercs and the Scandinavian winter allowed me to settle with both enemies for some relatively light tribute. The downside was that the massive debt, ruined provinces, and enormous popular unrest virtually crippled me for the next fifty years... long enough to shatter my dreams of a serious colonial empire. By the time I was back on my feet England had colonised all but the iciest bits of North America.
I tried a similar approach recently with Novgorod against (again) Muscovy and Denmark. This time my mercs couldn't hold back the muscovites, and instead drew the war on longer so that by the time I finally peaced out I was so annihilated they could claim half my country. I played on for a few more years until the truce ran out and the Muscovites decided to finish me off. At that point I decide it was time for peasant to lynch me and I restarted.
Good God...all of Europe hates France... just got utterly destroyed and France is now shattered after releasing 3 different countries as sovereign states. I had a 12 strong coalition I was fighting against including England, Portugal, Castile and Austria. Couldn't even build mercs fast enough to do anything at all. It was fun for awhile, but man... looks like it's time to throw in the towel with this game.
I know a thing or two about winning "unwinnable" wars, so here's my advice for what it's worth.
There are only ever 2 big picture options:
1. Draw the war out, peace out with non-target belligerents, and take what you want
2. Peace out ASAP
First note about #2: sometimes it's better to lose gracefully than "win," yet destroy your country. Beware of Pyrrhic victories.
1: Strategems: Think Russia in the Napoleanic wars, strategic retreats, scorched earth, and local superiority. It doesn't matter if the enemy outnumbers you 10:1 if every time you engage them you outnumber them locally 10:1. As your enemies take casualties and attrition, they will eventually want to white peace or will accept concede defeat. Note that employing these strategems depends heavily on the situation. If you are a 2PM who got DOW by Austria and France, you're screwed no matter what.
Using your navy is critical. Troops are only dangerous if they can be deployed against you. If you are an island nation like England or Japan, have critical straits that can provide strategic depth like Denmark or Byzantium, or are just a long damn way away from your enemie's homeland, you can use your navy to neutralize any threat of land engagement.
2: Earlier today, I was playing as Denmark. I had about half the troops of a Commonwealth-England Alliance. I thought I could beat them, so I attacked. It didn't take long before it became clear that I had underestimated my enemies. I peaced out after some losses and ended up being forced to give up 7 provinces. Fast forward 10 years or so and I have a better plan and new allies. In the next war, not only did I get everything back I lost, but I completely broke the back of this troublesome alliance permanently.
Moral: sometimes loosing is the best strategy. I've fought plenty of wars where I "won" and regretted it.
The correct strategy always depends on the situation, but if you take away one thing, remember this:
"It is always possible to win, but it's not always a good idea."
Edit: one useful trick for offering demand is for when the AI demands money, and then gets "satisfied." If you have a lower treasury, they will be "satisfied" with less money. i.e. France wants 500 ducats from you, but on the day of suggesting concessions you queue up a bunch of heavy ships. Now they only want 50 or so. Send the offer and cancel the ships.
There are only ever 2 big picture options:
1. Draw the war out, peace out with non-target belligerents, and take what you want
2. Peace out ASAP
First note about #2: sometimes it's better to lose gracefully than "win," yet destroy your country. Beware of Pyrrhic victories.
1: Strategems: Think Russia in the Napoleanic wars, strategic retreats, scorched earth, and local superiority. It doesn't matter if the enemy outnumbers you 10:1 if every time you engage them you outnumber them locally 10:1. As your enemies take casualties and attrition, they will eventually want to white peace or will accept concede defeat. Note that employing these strategems depends heavily on the situation. If you are a 2PM who got DOW by Austria and France, you're screwed no matter what.
Using your navy is critical. Troops are only dangerous if they can be deployed against you. If you are an island nation like England or Japan, have critical straits that can provide strategic depth like Denmark or Byzantium, or are just a long damn way away from your enemie's homeland, you can use your navy to neutralize any threat of land engagement.
2: Earlier today, I was playing as Denmark. I had about half the troops of a Commonwealth-England Alliance. I thought I could beat them, so I attacked. It didn't take long before it became clear that I had underestimated my enemies. I peaced out after some losses and ended up being forced to give up 7 provinces. Fast forward 10 years or so and I have a better plan and new allies. In the next war, not only did I get everything back I lost, but I completely broke the back of this troublesome alliance permanently.
Moral: sometimes loosing is the best strategy. I've fought plenty of wars where I "won" and regretted it.
The correct strategy always depends on the situation, but if you take away one thing, remember this:
"It is always possible to win, but it's not always a good idea."
Edit: one useful trick for offering demand is for when the AI demands money, and then gets "satisfied." If you have a lower treasury, they will be "satisfied" with less money. i.e. France wants 500 ducats from you, but on the day of suggesting concessions you queue up a bunch of heavy ships. Now they only want 50 or so. Send the offer and cancel the ships.
It's true. You can't win forever, and sometimes, it's better to lose. Forget ripping your nation apart, if you continue to war until you 'win', but destroy your own state in the process, you've lost everything, and that's actually one thing I appreciate about EUIV that I feel it does well. I've always found that whenever I do lose, it's because I failed diplomatically, not militarily. That, or I invaded Russia ._.
am i the only one who just ends up giving up my gains, and pulling a napoleon, once the truces are up and my AE was eliminated by the losses, i sweep back through, and end up taking down the ones who had to gather their massive coalition to even stand a chance against me ._.
thats the only situation where i've ever been aggressive enough to be on teh recieving end of a coalition, and i gotta say, it works out just dandy.
bankruptcy is worse than having 10 provinces and giving up 7....
your armies become quite literally, useless against anyone... for like , decades..
thats the only situation where i've ever been aggressive enough to be on teh recieving end of a coalition, and i gotta say, it works out just dandy.
bankruptcy is worse than having 10 provinces and giving up 7....
your armies become quite literally, useless against anyone... for like , decades..
exit to desktop
reconsider what went wrong
and be hit by the realisation that rolls and generals are pretty much all that matters
bravo
reconsider what went wrong
and be hit by the realisation that rolls and generals are pretty much all that matters
bravo
Only major wars I really lost so far was with Portugal against France in patch 1.5 as I used to be allied with them and gave no thought to being militarily powerful(no military ideas for one). I got away from it by releasing protectorates(that I wanted to conquer anyway) and cancelling alliances* while making use of all overseas territories, blockades, troop amount modifier(raised mercenaries to fill most of my force limit and then above) and whatever battles I could win to make it as cheap as possible. Also helped that those wars were either from CNs fighting or me declaring with a target not in Europe(or at least not the mainland) so wargoal was in my favour. France never got around occupying more than a few provinces before the war ended.
It is the advantage of not being a country composed of contiguous provinces, even when severely losing you can still do something. If all your land is easily accessible to the enemy and you really can't win I think the best is attacking other countries in the war while making use of scorched earth and small units luring troops from sieges to make the warscore against you as low as possible while war goes on and makes countries more willing to stop. Naval superiority can also be useful to some extent due to wiping out enemy navies(less mobility and trade income), more mobility to your own navies and blockades.
*Day truce ended I paused so I could immediately ally Austria again but wasn't necessary since they sent the offer first. Seems like Austria really understood the position it was in.
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Alternatively they could just change the AI's willingless to fight total wars. It's stupid I have to get 94% warscore to get the AI to accept a 26% peace deal, for example.
Fight to the bitter end!
I did that in vicky II once, I had pretty much lost a dual front war and so did everything i could to try and hurt France,m most of which involved sending all my armies into a giant slugfest along the rhine
I did that in vicky II once, I had pretty much lost a dual front war and so did everything i could to try and hurt France,m most of which involved sending all my armies into a giant slugfest along the rhine