Why did my 30-unit army lose to a 8-unit peasant army?

[DukeDayve]

I'm sure there's a good reason for it but I don't fully understand the game yet. I am France and peasant rebels rose in Baern (little province on the border with Aragon/Navarre). I put my military slider up to full, waited for the morale bar to fill up, appointed my best leader (he was only 2/2/2 or something but he was the best I had) and attacked. My army was 22,000 men-at-arms, 7,000 Latin knights and 1 unit of cannons (the earliest ones). Their army was 5,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry.

I made sure there were no terrain modifiers and stuff. The battle lasted ages and my army got thoroughly beaten by the peasants. The ridiculous thing is that I had another identical army (I keep 60 units, I'm rich dontcha know) and attacked again, but they got beaten too! So what happened?

 

[grommile]

Ummm... Béarn is - like all the provinces along the Pyrenees - full of mountains.

That said: Have you been updating your units?

 

[Contiguous]

I think rebels all share army tradition and that, so later in the game they wind up being led by gods. Or maybe your morale is just low, even with the military maintenance slider on maximum.

 

[unmerged(739896)]

Zealot rebels are pretty much invincible unless you bring 3 times their size

 

[DukeDayve]

Yeah I update my units. it was only 1507 or something, I didn't really have anything else. I had Galloglaich or however you spell it but... I'm france... why would I be using kilt-wearing 2-handed swordsmen? It's madness.

Also I did bring 3x their army size =P

 

[El Jojo]

A screenshot of the battlescreen would help to identify the problem if you can make one

 

[Ruanek]

Yeah I update my units. it was only 1507 or something, I didn't really have anything else. I had Galloglaich or however you spell it but... I'm france... why would I be using kilt-wearing 2-handed swordsmen? It's madness.

Also I did bring 3x their army size =P

Having more men than them isn't going to matter as much if you're fighting in a terrain that limits the combat width, like mountains.

 

[Jaol]

A screenshot of the battlescreen would help to identify the problem if you can make one

Yes. If you can, please take at least one showing the tooltip from when you hover over one of your units, too. The information there is useful.

 

[unmerged(815621)]

Ummm... Béarn is - like all the provinces along the Pyrenees - full of mountains.

That said: Have you been updating your units?

I think rebels all share army tradition and that, so later in the game they wind up being led by gods. Or maybe your morale is just low, even with the military maintenance slider on maximum.

If you combine mountains, with high rebel tradition (and their god-like leaders), you end up with nearly undefeatable rebels. Depending on how much prestige you have and how much prestige means at the moment, in addition to their demand effects (though usually them having only one provence means that the effects are alms nil) it may be better to let them capture the province and accept their demands.

Rebels are also great in wars where you start out losing and pull ahead in the end (they suck the other way around), as the enemy will waste their manpower on defeating them for you (especially when rebels appear in provinces they own).

 

[daringly]

The terrain modifier for the attacker is often -4 in the Bearn mountains. Bearn is do deadly, it is the bet way to crush Spain if a coalition goes after you -- defend Bearn with a smallish stack, 15 or so, let Spain attack, then reinforce Bearn. They will suffer catastrophic losses, even if they have better leader.