Optimal Army Setup?

[megaspider01]

I've tried all kinds of setups, infantry with support from artillery, 40% inf 40% art 10% eng 10% cav, cavalry heavy with some infantry and some artillery and more but no matter what I get crushed even when I fight pure mobilized stacks with worse tech even though the terrain isn't that bad and the generals are about equally good. I always go for about 10 regiments, although sometimes I use 12. What do I need to do to win battles without having to do the deathstack and retreat to reinforce tactic? It's worth noting I have the Concert of Europe mod which influences how good some techs are.

 

[General WVPM]

Maybe this can help?
It's a tool which allows you to setup your own Victoria 2 battles, customize all the stats you want to and see how the battle would progress.
I didn't make it for army setup, but I'm sure it will be of some use

Alternatively, this post might clear things up.
If you like more information, I'd highly recommend searching up some older threads, since this is a much discussed topic.

 

[MrTrt]

Maybe this can help?
It's a tool which allows you to setup your own Victoria 2 battles, customize all the stats you want to and see how the battle would progress.
I didn't make it for army setup, but I'm sure it will be of some use

Alternatively, this post might clear things up.
If you like more information, I'd highly recommend searching up some older threads, since this is a much discussed topic.

Is that saying that by late game I should have, ideally, changed all my inf to tank and all my art to planes? Or I'm misunderstanding? I never get a good army composition once I unlock planes and tanks.

 

[General WVPM]

Tanks + Planes is really good, but they are very expensive...
The tanks would go in the frontline while the airplanes will be in the second (support) line.
Planes can attack from the support line and do more damage there as their support value is over 1.
However, planes are a tiny bit worse at attacking than arty, so you might want to mix it up a bit.
Tanks are great at offense, but worse at defending than infantry and guards.

 

[Jorlaan]

My ideal 12 stack is 6 infantry, 3 arty, 1 engineer and 2 cavalry. I do not go for an even split of arty vs infantry as you don't really need to. With combat width all your infantry likely won't be fighting anyways, they rotate in and out combat.

I find that this army tends to work very well against any opponent anywhere in the world. I don't split em to siege because together they siege even a high level fort quite quickly. Many people seem to think that only recon and engineers matter, that numbers don't, but they do. Higher numbers with high recon will always trump low numbers with high recon, or high numbers with low recon. I find Dragoons work well enough if you have 2 of them, but Hussars are better. Yes their combat stats are a little lower but their recon is double that of a dragoon.
Main thing is to keep army tech high, it is of paramount importance.

Lastly you can't shy away from doom stacking, sort of. Don't be afraid to throw many of these armies in to a fight to overwhelm the enemy. If you vastly outnumber them you'll likely just crush them outright and no having to chase them down. Some of what people consider gamy tactics are really just tactics. Just about any real general would prefer to have the enemy attack them in the hills across a river rather than the other way around. So don't go putting yourself at any disadvantages you can avoid. Keep your attacks on level ground wherever possible and goad them in to attacking you by presenting a weak army in the middle of strong ones, they'll attack the weak one and you can then reinforce. This is not gamey this is war. I can cite a ton of examples from reality where this has happened, gullible, overzealous commanders always want to attack. So give them something to attack and make them regret their impatience.


Really just use common sense. If you got an army all alone it'll get wiped out. Use them together and your chances are MUCH better. That is how real armies work, coordination and teamwork. Always try and fight with the advantage, either in numbers, terrain, tech or all 3.

 

[Rusma]

I do the 4 Inf , 3 Art, 2 Dragoons, 1 Eng. All the way up intel tanks and planes are unlocked. Once they are unlocked I do
4 Tanks, 2 Guards, 2 Airplanes, 2 Artillery. That usually works but ill sometimes just x2 that when i know im going to go to war with a other great power and also take into consideration of the supply limits of the places im invading.
I also find doing 8 tanks, 2 planes, 2 guards does great also

 

[thedarkendstar]

I go with a General 14 stack 5 infantry/Guard 5 arty 2 dragoons and engineers

 

[EllisDee]

I build to have the same amount of Inf as Art, though i usually replace 2 Inf with 2 Guards, and 2 Art with 2 Engineers. Then 2 Dragoons, and a single Hussar.
Recon only takes into account the highest in the army, so you only need the one Hussar, since Dragoons are better in every other way. I only use 2 Dragoons so that the line is an extra block thicker on either side, so you have the bonus flanking.

Then it's just a case of getting equal numbers into the current supply limit.

 

[thedarkendstar]

I build to have the same amount of Inf as Art, though i usually replace 2 Inf with 2 Guards, and 2 Art with 2 Engineers. Then 2 Dragoons, and a single Hussar.
Recon only takes into account the highest in the army, so you only need the one Hussar, since Dragoons are better in every other way. I only use 2 Dragoons so that the line is an extra block thicker on either side, so you have the bonus flanking.

Then it's just a case of getting equal numbers into the current supply limit.

I use the two dragoons for the flanking and the recon engineers for obvious reasons you can get away with having equal numbers arty and infantry/Guards because the dragoons add another layer to their defense.

I keep the armies that are already infantry but once I unlock guards almost all my future armies switch to that.

 

[RedTangent]

10 stack armies are the most efficient due to the need for 1 siege / 1 recon unit per 10 units total. If you have less than 1 per 10 then your siege or recon loses efficiency.

Early/mid game the best composition would be 4 inf(or guard) / 4 art / 1 engineer / 1 hussar. After a battle or two the inf in the front line will get shredded so be sure to back them up with your mobilized reserves.

Late game depends on your techs and doesn't have a single all-around army comp. For offensive armies stack tanks, for defensive armies stack planes.

 

[thedarkendstar]

10 stack armies are the most efficient due to the need for 1 siege / 1 recon unit per 10 units total. If you have less than 1 per 10 then your siege or recon loses efficiency.

Early/mid game the best composition would be 4 inf(or guard) / 4 art / 1 engineer / 1 hussar. After a battle or two the inf in the front line will get shredded so be sure to back them up with your mobilized reserves.

Late game depends on your techs and doesn't have a single all-around army comp. For offensive armies stack tanks, for defensive armies stack planes.

There two small in my opinion I keep the 42 stack because It can fight a decent amount of time before needing reinforcements.

 

[grimkm]

I tend to go with 5 inf/4 art/1-2 engineers/1 dragoon/1 hussar..although I tend to use the curassier instead of the hussar in early game. I find this to generally last all game. If I am rich and all powerful, I will do some 50/50 splits of tanks/airplanes. I can't tell you why as I generally don't follow battles very closesly, but it works pretty good against most things. For larger battles, I will rotate a stack and re-inforce with doomstacks of mobilised troops if necessary. Again, dependant on country and context. As a major european country or the US I'd probably never mobilise anyway. On the flipside, it can be a bit large to compose for smaller nations.

Apparently, the tank/airplane mix doesnt' really work in the last patch as it is a little OP perhaps.

 

[RedTangent]

There two small in my opinion I keep the 42 stack because It can fight a decent amount of time before needing reinforcements.

The 10 stack is a building block, it can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc. The important part is that you have 1 hussar & 1 engineer for every 10 units, and every artillery must be behind at least 1 infantry, which means armies built with a base of 1hus / 1eng / 4art / 4inf are the most efficient.

 

[grimkm]

The 10 stack is a building block, it can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc. The important part is that you have 1 hussar & 1 engineer for every 10 units, and every artillery must be behind at least 1 infantry, which means armies built with a base of 1hus / 1eng / 4art / 4inf are the most efficient.

Doesn't it help to have extra inf to provide a little extra cover so your art doesnt get to the front line if an inf unit is murdered?

 

[RedTangent]

Doesn't it help to have extra inf to provide a little extra cover so your art doesnt get to the front line if an inf unit is murdered?

Yeah it does, but you shouldn't stack inf in your standing armies. When your armies start taking casualties send in the inf from your mobilized reserves.

 

[thedarkendstar]

Yeah it does, but you shouldn't stack inf in your standing armies. When your armies start taking casualties send in the inf from your mobilized reserves.

Pfft inf im always on the attacking side so I use guard if im defending I must already be outnumbered.Also I almost never mobilize I don't need my farmers and Craftsman dieing thats what the standing army is for I only Mobilize if I dont think I can win the war without them.

 

[Soviets CIFS]

IE. i just do the "The Grand Army" each of them has this compostion standardized 10 guards 10 artillery and 3 engies and 3 hussars universeal armies for single player

 

[thedarkendstar]

IE. i just do the "The Grand Army" each of them has this compostion standardized 10 guards 10 artillery and 3 engies and 3 hussars universeal armies for single player

I tend to go with like 5 5 2 2 or when supply gets high enough 7 7 2 2 making them too big makes it far more annoying to cover fronts.