What soldier pips should i choose?

[Autoclave]

I am presented all these different choices of infantry, cavalry, artilerry when upgrading, but what pips should I really choose?
I see some have better attacking pips or defending pips, or morale pips, but how do i make the best choice.

I suppose they must be situational, but what situation exactly?

Since the regiment size (during combat, when casualities make it smaller) does have a significant importance on combat results, i find it hard to say what is better for me, having strong attacking pips or defending?

Because if I kill stuff faster, then i will take less and less damage from my enemies. But If I have stronger defense pips, i might have a higher regiment size at the later stages of combat and thus do more damage?

Or is it all just a fluff and in reality it doesn't matter between units having the same amount of pips?

Tactics, Discipline, Morale, infantry combat ability, combat width and terrain, depending on these you might want diffeernt pips for your military, but what and when?

 

[Rey]

I asked a similar question some time ago. Incompetent gave me some useful info:

What's the actual difference between two land units with the same number of total pips? Does the different distribution of Off/Def Morale, Fire and Shock pips significantly have influence in the outcome of a battle?

The influence is generally very marginal. All kinds of pips are good for infantry. The only difference is that more 'defensive' units will lead to a slower battle, but the overall outcome will probably be the same if neither side is able to bring reinforcements.

With cavalry and artillery, it makes more of a difference: offensive fire pips are useless on horses, because cavalry's fire modifier is weak throughout the game, and similarly offensive shock is weak on artillery. The best choice of cavalry unit type is usually the one with the most offensive shock pips (offensive morale is also good), in order to wreak havoc on the enemy's flanks. With artillery, it's a choice between offensive fire/morale (to maximise destruction of enemies) or defensive pips of all types (artillery gives 1/2 of its defensive pips as a bonus to troops on the front row).

The difference between unit types at the same tech level are slight, however. Where it really matters is with generals, because they give a whole pile of pips to your entire army. If you roll a general who is much better at shock than fire or vice versa, give him more/fewer horses as appropriate, and make sure your best fire general has plenty of guns.

 

[Hagen II]

Excellent advice, thx!!!

 

[ChildeR]

Apparently odd defense pips for artillery are just as good as one lower, when they are in the back row where they should be. That means there are a few cases where one cannon is better than another with the same pip total.

 

[ChildeR]

Tactics, Discipline, Morale, infantry combat ability, combat width and terrain, depending on these you might want diffeernt pips for your military, but what and when?

You can ignore tactics since it's just tech based and terrain and combat width don't really affect unit selection either. The difference between discipline and morale is that with the former you are trying to wear away the opposing army while with the latter you are trying to rout them. So when you have good discipline you probably want defensive morale so you don't get routed and do not want offensive morale because that just breaks them before you can decimate. With high morale you want offensive morale pips at least, but not sure what else, probably depends on how you value manpower vs. actually killing the enemy.

 

[Zqrfmb]

morale but low enemy casualties has worked for me in situations where if I win the enemy army routs so far that it's essentially out of the war until my army has sieged down a province or two and recovered most of its losses and morale. It also of course helps if you want to force a stack wipe by routing an army that can't retreat (nowhere to run to on the landmass, morale is too low to move when the battle started, or rout occurs before retreat is allowed, IIRC).