when deciding what kinds of armies to make and what to put in them, much depends on who you play...some countries can build cannons cheap, others make wave after wave of infatry, while Poland gets cheap cavalry
if you get cheap cavalry use em...making several 5k armies is good since they can lay seige to minimum forst and take them by themselves..and they are fast ...send them in waves to saturate the defences and disrupt enemy troops responding to you..those that get through can lay seige...i typically keep 3 armies of 20 k cavlary..which i will split and split again when war begins..after they punch through first line...early on in game high numbers of cavalry have major advantage over infantry depending on terrain..forest jungle mountains bad generally with most other countries simply have more cavalry in your army then your enemy..usuauly having 5 to 8k is fine this gives you the bonus for cavalry superiority which figures into the formulae for shock phase...if i have a army with 30k..it will typically be 30 cannon, 7 inf 20 inf most of the time
when making seiges armies keep in mind fort values and support value...i use waves to keeps seiges going...sending in just over the minimum to keep seige going then shipping in infantry in reinforcement colums few at a time...keeps my losses lower..generally 10 cannon plus 4k inf for every level of fort makes for solid seiges..double the cannons for fast seiges..double the inf for assaults..ie level level 1..4kinf 10 cannon will take it within year easy,,20 cannon 4kinf will usualy take 6 months or so..20cannon 8k inf can assault it easily..if they fail first try second one usualy works..depending on tech and leader..so for a level 6 fort get 60 cannon at least...although once you hit level 4 and better the cannons seem to play an even bigger role..so i would plan on the double numbers..cause attrition will eat you alive if you go for full year seiges
build armies with purpose...generally there are field armies seige armies and raiders...raiders being the small armies used to head out fast and disrupt enemy6 columns and or cover/seige unguarded provs reducing what they can build to fight you..generally they are very small..and are quite effective till level 4 forst come about...at that point unless your land tech is realy good..this will not work...general 5k inf or cavalry is good for min, 10k for 2's and 15k for 3's dont put cannon with them cause they slow them down..you can always bring the seige armies
in later to finish off what they soften..these armies can take cities on their own many times..but their main role is to prevent builds and disrupt the enemy armies from slowing your big field armies down
field armies..these are your biggest forces..usually mainly infantry with a solid core of cavalry..no cannons again because these are the armies you use to break enemy sieges against you..and to break enemy garrisons so your seige armies can get in and begin their work..typically 20k inf 6 to 10k cavalry is good mix...you can always combine 2 or more field armies if needed to take on really big enemies..these also make good anti rebel forces being fairly mobile and powerful
seige armies...generally like the above mix mentioned for seiges...cannon plus infantry...the larger the number the faster the seige...keep in mind cannon are worthless in the field, the they are very slow..which is why you use small cavalry units to disrupt enemy columns every time they try to move to break your seige, or look like they will engage your seige army before it can finish its move <nothing is more painful then to have your seige armies in a low supply prov trying to move to next to do quick seige and having the enemy send 2 to 3k inf/cavalry to keep hitting you which pins you in place cause each attack resets your move...so attrition eats you alive..use those raiding armies to counter this peicemeal stuff so your main seiges can mvoe freely..use your field armies to counter the bigger ones..and if needed to reinforce a seige army to assault...
typically i will send raiders in first to do what they can... pinning enemy armies in place so i can get my armies into his land first...i always leave a corridor if i can so his troops can go after a prov of mine and take them out of my hair..i go for annexation which gives me their intact armies so i dont want to kill them all....send in the seige armies to your first goals..and your field armies to counter his big armies as needed..when seiges are halfway done send the field army in and assualt it...usually has better chance if you get the forts halfway down before assaulting...as war goes on you can split the field armies into more raiders to make sure you keep all enemy provs covered/and or seiged
hope this helps...this is just my opinion and how i fight..it seems to work well..but maybe someone else has better plan
resposted by request from general discussion <thnx uglyduck...i feel useful now that ive been told i made stickys
>
if you get cheap cavalry use em...making several 5k armies is good since they can lay seige to minimum forst and take them by themselves..and they are fast ...send them in waves to saturate the defences and disrupt enemy troops responding to you..those that get through can lay seige...i typically keep 3 armies of 20 k cavlary..which i will split and split again when war begins..after they punch through first line...early on in game high numbers of cavalry have major advantage over infantry depending on terrain..forest jungle mountains bad generally with most other countries simply have more cavalry in your army then your enemy..usuauly having 5 to 8k is fine this gives you the bonus for cavalry superiority which figures into the formulae for shock phase...if i have a army with 30k..it will typically be 30 cannon, 7 inf 20 inf most of the time
when making seiges armies keep in mind fort values and support value...i use waves to keeps seiges going...sending in just over the minimum to keep seige going then shipping in infantry in reinforcement colums few at a time...keeps my losses lower..generally 10 cannon plus 4k inf for every level of fort makes for solid seiges..double the cannons for fast seiges..double the inf for assaults..ie level level 1..4kinf 10 cannon will take it within year easy,,20 cannon 4kinf will usualy take 6 months or so..20cannon 8k inf can assault it easily..if they fail first try second one usualy works..depending on tech and leader..so for a level 6 fort get 60 cannon at least...although once you hit level 4 and better the cannons seem to play an even bigger role..so i would plan on the double numbers..cause attrition will eat you alive if you go for full year seiges
build armies with purpose...generally there are field armies seige armies and raiders...raiders being the small armies used to head out fast and disrupt enemy6 columns and or cover/seige unguarded provs reducing what they can build to fight you..generally they are very small..and are quite effective till level 4 forst come about...at that point unless your land tech is realy good..this will not work...general 5k inf or cavalry is good for min, 10k for 2's and 15k for 3's dont put cannon with them cause they slow them down..you can always bring the seige armies
in later to finish off what they soften..these armies can take cities on their own many times..but their main role is to prevent builds and disrupt the enemy armies from slowing your big field armies down
field armies..these are your biggest forces..usually mainly infantry with a solid core of cavalry..no cannons again because these are the armies you use to break enemy sieges against you..and to break enemy garrisons so your seige armies can get in and begin their work..typically 20k inf 6 to 10k cavalry is good mix...you can always combine 2 or more field armies if needed to take on really big enemies..these also make good anti rebel forces being fairly mobile and powerful
seige armies...generally like the above mix mentioned for seiges...cannon plus infantry...the larger the number the faster the seige...keep in mind cannon are worthless in the field, the they are very slow..which is why you use small cavalry units to disrupt enemy columns every time they try to move to break your seige, or look like they will engage your seige army before it can finish its move <nothing is more painful then to have your seige armies in a low supply prov trying to move to next to do quick seige and having the enemy send 2 to 3k inf/cavalry to keep hitting you which pins you in place cause each attack resets your move...so attrition eats you alive..use those raiding armies to counter this peicemeal stuff so your main seiges can mvoe freely..use your field armies to counter the bigger ones..and if needed to reinforce a seige army to assault...
typically i will send raiders in first to do what they can... pinning enemy armies in place so i can get my armies into his land first...i always leave a corridor if i can so his troops can go after a prov of mine and take them out of my hair..i go for annexation which gives me their intact armies so i dont want to kill them all....send in the seige armies to your first goals..and your field armies to counter his big armies as needed..when seiges are halfway done send the field army in and assualt it...usually has better chance if you get the forts halfway down before assaulting...as war goes on you can split the field armies into more raiders to make sure you keep all enemy provs covered/and or seiged
hope this helps...this is just my opinion and how i fight..it seems to work well..but maybe someone else has better plan
resposted by request from general discussion <thnx uglyduck...i feel useful now that ive been told i made stickys
>