Military questions

[unmerged(146373)]

I bought this game recently and am now playing as Brazil following that guide someone posted. (Sorry I can't recall your name off-hand.)

I realized Peru had one of my cores, so I started to look around my military screens and got completely lost.

• I gain around 0.3 manpower a year at full defense spending and army maintenance, but need 10 manpower to build a single regiment. Should I even worry about building more units?

• There doesn't seem to be any form of attrition listed in the provinces, so I guess that isn't a feature of Victoria?

• What kind of unit balance do most players use? How much calvary should I use compared to infantry? Should I worry about attachments in the early years?

• What determines an army's movement speed? I got a rebellion event and the two rebel infantry units could take over and leave provinces much faster than my starting units could catch them.

• How can I tell if an AI will accept alliances? I've tried to form a defensive alliance with Argentina since the guide said I should have an ally, but they won't accept even after raising relations to around 100.

 

[Najs]

Well, since the game is based on the EU2-engine, you cannot see whether or not someone will accept your proposals. I don't know about the other questions, but I do recall someone saying that the Brazil-guide isn't completly relevant to Vicky:Revolutions (I assume thats what you play from the icon).

 

[unmerged(146373)]

Well, since the game is based on the EU2-engine, you cannot see whether or not someone will accept your proposals. I don't know about the other questions, but I do recall someone saying that the Brazil-guide isn't completly relevant to Vicky:Revolutions (I assume thats what you play from the icon).

Well that's a shame.

Should I bother trying to form an alliance then?
Would it be better to just build up relations with my neighbors and hope one of them offers an alliance?
Also should I bother with the exception settings?
It seems like a lot of hassle, and I don't see the point of making an alliance to only defend against anyone who isn't Russia. :wacko:

 

[A_Dane]

been a while since i played Victoria, but try and turn some mroe of your workers into soldiers to get a bigger manpower pool?

 

[Eärendil]

• I gain around 0.3 manpower a year at full defense spending and army maintenance, but need 10 manpower to build a single regiment. Should I even worry about building more units?

• There doesn't seem to be any form of attrition listed in the provinces, so I guess that isn't a feature of Victoria?

• What kind of unit balance do most players use? How much calvary should I use compared to infantry? Should I worry about attachments in the early years?

• What determines an army's movement speed? I got a rebellion event and the two rebel infantry units could take over and leave provinces much faster than my starting units could catch them.

• How can I tell if an AI will accept alliances? I've tried to form a defensive alliance with Argentina since the guide said I should have an ally, but they won't accept even after raising relations to around 100.

• You can always convert POPs to soldiers and you will get more manpower. A 10K POP gives 10 manpower.

• Attrition is a feature, you can see it in the top right corner (IIRC) in the window of a unit/army. It isn't listed though, but some terrains (like deserts) give a attrition penalty, so does stacking many units in the same province.

• Early in the game cavalry is quite useful as morale is low and they move faster than infantry. Late/mid game I use mostly infantry, but keep cavalry to battle rebels. Dragoons are pretty much worthless, except that you can get artillery with the increased speed of dragoons, IIRC

• Movement speed depends on tech and what unit you're using. Province capturing speed depends on the size of your army, however there is a cap at maximum 12% per day.

• You can't. Try raising relations further and/or put the UK or another great power as exception to the alliance.

 

[MannheimCouncil]

The ability to simply turn your pops into a different type is a common newbie problem. Just select a random farmer or labourer pop in one of your provinces and convert it into a soldier pop. Depending on your game version you need money or money and regular clothes for that. Non-national culture pops are generally better to convert as national culture pops are better in factories etc.

Attrition only occurs in foreign countries, provinces with really low life-rating and border provinces bordering high-level foreign forts. There is no increased attrition for larger stacks, but attrition can really be a big killer.

Unit balance is less essential than for example in unpatched EU3. Generally cavalry is king early on and infantry rules the later game. Dragoons are a compromise and mostly used for fast artillery transport. Attachments are mainly a bonus, but are good when you have limited manpower. In that case some artillery (if you can afford it), guards and engineers (only one per corps) are good. Tanks are important in late-game and planes and HQs are mainly flavour. The cavalry attachments are either hussars (more speed) or cuirassiers (more shock). The former are good for patrolling a large empire, the latter are great in the early game.

Movement speed depends on type and is shown in the unit details. Cavalry is very fast, dragoons are fast, infantry is slow. Hussars make cavalry go faster, artillery slows down everything and tanks are really slow. Try not to mix different speeds in the same corps, because a corps moves with the speed of its slowest division.

You cannot tell whether a country will accept an alliance, but you can try to trade techs with them and see whether they accept a one-for-one deal. If they do, they might also accept an alliance offer. Alliance offers depend on many factors, not at least the AI script. You should have relations above 150 before trying, 200 would be ideal. In general try to take a great power ally with an ability to get their troops to your targets. In your case Britain or France fit the bill. Buy up relations and hope they either offer an alliance themselves or offer it when you are really good friends. Defensive alliances and alliances with exceptions vs. a great power are also more easily accepted.

Oh and check your badboy (hit F12 and type in badboy). If you are above 20 don't even bother. Even 10+ is pretty bad for alliances. You'll also get alliances when you satellite a country.

 

[unmerged(146373)]

Advice.

Thanks.
So then, should I have just as many soldier POPs as I have units?
Should I, as Brazil, even be concerned with having many units or just keep enough to stay equal with my neighbors?

I was thinking I'd attack Peru, but now I think I'll just try to survive a game first.
Next time I'll go crush my neighbors.

This might be a bit off topic, but what nation would you recommend to get the hang of fighting without getting into wars with nations I could never hope to beat?
The USA so I just have a couple of wars and can isolate myself the rest of the game?

 

[Eärendil]

Thanks.
So then, should I have just as many soldier POPs as I have units?
Should I, as Brazil, even be concerned with having many units or just keep enough to stay equal with my neighbors?

I was thinking I'd attack Peru, but now I think I'll just try to survive a game first.
Next time I'll go crush my neighbors.

This might be a bit off topic, but what nation would you recommend to get the hang of fighting without getting into wars with nations I could never hope to beat?
The USA so I just have a couple of wars and can isolate myself the rest of the game?

I'd make sure to have at least 10 extra manpower to reinforce your units in case you get into a war.
It depends on what you want, if you plan on conquering your neighbours you obviously need a bigger army than them. If you don't, I'd keep about the same number of units but a bigger mobilization pool. This will give you a higher military score than them and it will make it unlikely for them to attack you, but you also don't pay any extra maintenance for the mobilization pool.
Early game USA can be a bit difficult as Mexico is about equal in strength, but if you can beat them initially USA is a very good choice.
Otherwise you can try Japan, they will civilize by event and after that you can go conquering the Asian uncivs.

 

[unmerged(16676)]

Just played a vicky Brazil game.

Don't concern yourself with wars until at least the 1860s or later, there is a chance the great powers will attack (France attacked me, but it cost them their SA holdings).

Brazil has something of a manpower problem, you can't have a lot of factories or large armies until quite late in the game.

Oh, and as for converting pops, you can only do it to non nationals if you have a political party in power that has full citizenship.