What ratio of infantry, cavalry and cannons should you have in the 1600's and 1700's?

[Vapiritapiri]

After a certain point i just end up losing every battle due to this of me satcking infantry

 

[NIborGER]

Here a few rule of thumb i go by:

• Unless you have a lot of Cav combat ability or +shock damage (Hordes, hungary, poland etc.) don't use cav.
• Pre Mil tech 13: arty does nothing for combat. So never more then 11 for max siege bonus on a fort. Usually its just 1 arty. It really is just a luxury good at this stage.
• Tech 13-16 is an intermediate. For SP 1/3-1/2 of cambat with in arty as backline and a few more inf then arty for the frontline. In MP you must have a full backline at this stage or you get murdered.
• Tech 16+ you always want a full backline of arty in bigger battles. For SP you can get away with running 1/2 arty backline for each stack and merge 2 stacks before slapping the AI. For MP your designated combat stacks should have 1x combat with in arty and 2x combat width in infantry.

Edit: fixed to tech 16+

 

[Vapiritapiri]

Here a few rule of thumb i go by:

• Unless you have a lot of Cav combat ability or +shock damage (Hordes, hungary, poland etc.) don't use cav.
• Pre Mil tech 13: arty does nothing for combat. So never more then 11 for max siege bonus on a fort. Usually its just 1 arty. It really is just a luxury good at this stage.
• Tech 13-16 is an intermediate. For SP 1/3-1/2 of cambat with in arty as backline and a few more inf then arty for the frontline. In MP you must have a full backline at this stage or you get murdered.
• Tech 17+ you always want a full backline of arty in bigger battles. For SP you can get away with running 1/2 arty backline for each stack and merge 2 stacks before slapping the AI. For MP your designated combat stacks should have 1x combat with in arty and 2x combat width in infantry.

So what does that mean? Do i put half artillery at tech 17?

 

[vitek69]

So what does that mean? Do i put half artillery at tech 17?

Ideally from tech 17 onwards, you would have as much artillery as you can fit to the combat width, but ofc you must have at least the same amount of front line troops (infantry + cavalry). That way the artillery fires ‘over’ your front line but is not engaged directly by an enemy unit.
If you only play SP and don’t want to min/max, simply use an army with the same amount of artillery and infantry, and adjust the total number of units to your need/supply limit constraints

 

[Nostalgium]

Ideally from tech 17 onwards, you would have as much artillery as you can fit to the combat width, but ofc you must have at least the same amount of front line troops (infantry + cavalry). That way the artillery fires ‘over’ your front line but is not engaged directly by an enemy unit.
If you only play SP and don’t want to min/max, simply use an army with the same amount of artillery and infantry, and adjust the total number of units to your need/supply limit constraints

I'd amend this to suggest you add a few more infantry units than you have artillery. I usually go with +10% inf, so if my combat width is 27, I'll run 30 infantry. This is simply so your cannons don't get put on the frontline (where they take extra damage) the moment your infantry starts dying/fleeing, giving your army a bit more staying power.

 

[necro84]

Ideally from tech 17 onwards

from tech 16, tech 17 gives +1 cavalry shock and doesn't affect artillery

 

[Vapiritapiri]

Ideally from tech 17 onwards, you would have as much artillery as you can fit to the combat width, but ofc you must have at least the same amount of front line troops (infantry + cavalry). That way the artillery fires ‘over’ your front line but is not engaged directly by an enemy unit.
If you only play SP and don’t want to min/max, simply use an army with the same amount of artillery and infantry, and adjust the total number of units to your need/supply limit constraints

Ty!

 

[Fusilliban]

The simplest cavalry rule in EU4:

Never use cavalry.

There are times to break this rule, and as you learn the game better, you learn when those are, and you can afford increasingly-expensive things. But until you learn those things... if you have to ask, you can't afford cavalry.