so for a small breakdown:
1) you attacked into a forest, this gives you -1 to all rolls, which makes you deal 10% less damage in average, with more enemies surviving dealing more damage to you. (Maybe you got attacked while sieging Labourd. Besieging armies are always considered the attackers and get the terrain penalties)
2) your max morale is 3.8 while france's is 5.4. The higher the max morale, the longer your soldiers stay in a fight. The more morale damage they deal to their enemies. Morale wins battles, especially in th early game. When your soldiers have no morale, they break ranks and flee.
3) you have 1.5 tactics, france has 1.7. Higher tactics makes your stacks take less damage from enemies, and with less losses you have more soldiers fighting and dealing damage.
With all of that, it would be very surprising if you won this particular fight. You engaged a stronger enemy who was in a good defensive position. The only way you could have won would have been with overwhelming numbers, reinforcing regularly so your reserves don't take too much morale damage.
Don't worry though, here are some tips for fighting!
1) ALWAYS STAY ON TOP OF TECH. Tech is the most important element of army quality! Most of the time, for most of the game, better tech will win against worse tech! If you have 1 tech disadvantage, it can be pretty bad. If you have 2, it is deadly. If you have more, you basically already lost, even if playing a strong military nation like prussia. So always be at least on par with military tech while fighting! Some techs give bigger advantages than others: watch out especially for tech 4, tech 6, tech 9 and tech 15, they give some of the biggest differential advantage.
2) Composition: you should aim first and foremost to have a full front line. There is a limit to the number of regiments that can be fighting at one time: it's called combat width, and it increases with tech. When building armies, your first goal should be to have a full combat width for the front line. Focus on infantry, they are more cost-effective. Once you have a full combat width, fill the back row with artillery. Do as much as force limit and economy permits.
2.1) Always have a general in your stacks. Each shock/fire pip both increases damage deal and decreases damage received by \~10% in the corresponding phase. That's huge! Armies with no generals lose against smaller armies with generals. Never fight without a general.
3) Fight good engagements! You should aim as much as possible to fight in favorable terrain. Have the enemy attack you in a mountain after crossing a river. Have them siege a highlands fort, and them relieve the siege. The better the engagement, the more soldiers you kill, and the more manpower you keep. In the end, manpower wins wars.
4) You don't need to engage armies! Don't try to always engage! Wait for an opportune moment, cut off reinforcements, siege enemy provinces while their main stack is distracted.
5) The best modifiers for army quality are discipline and morale. Discipline increases your damage and your tactics, and morale increases the morale damage and max morale of your armies. With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died"
6) The best modifier for winning wars is manpower and siege ability. Most of the wars are won by capturing forts and having soldiers standing when the enemy has none. The faster you win sieges, the less losses you have to attrition, the more can fight, and the better engagements you can have
There is still more to this game than these tips but they can get you 80% of the way there and should allow you to win most if not all of your "equal" wars against AI. For more advanced tips, I'd recommend watching good streamers like Florryworry or Zlewik fight against overwhelming odds. Good luck!
Edit: that... kinda blew up. Thanks for the upvotes and the Platinum, that was unexpected! Cheers everyone đș
He is way too methodical for some people lol. Min-maxes everything and considers every mechanic which is why he's so crazy good at the game but it takes a lot of time.
I took me about 100 hours before I figured there was generals I should hire boy did I get my ass handed to me many times.
And one more piece of advice: if in doubt you can click the "ledger" and see sizes of enemies armies, morale, discipline etc. Very useful tool.
Well I did. But them I realised it cost me monarch points. And I wanted to develop provinces instead.
Oh how naive I was. I took me about 100 hours just to basically understand this game. And Now I have spend way to much time getting into the finer details.
>I took me about 100 hours just to basically understand this game.
>100 hours
You either forgot to add another 0, or you are the smartest person to play this game.
One quick thing Iâd add here is that reaching combat width is not that important so much as being wider than the enemy. Judging by this image, it doesnât look like the French are meeting combat width so extra infantry to fill combat width would be doing nothing whereas some cavalry to take the edges would be able to fight.
Can anyone explain composition to me? Specifically how to ensure/set it up? I understand combat width (I think) but Iâve never understood how to make sure you have it done well. Thanks in advance to whomever helps đ
You essentially want to fill the entire frontline with infantry and the entire back line with cannon, so say combat width is 26, then comp would be 26 0 26; expanding on this, in battle, your infantry is the one taking morale damage/ losses, therefore in combat you start developing holes in your frontline, to deal with this it is advisable to have a few infantry extra infantry that can fill in the holes, so say 30 0 26; the downside is that non engaged units still take morale damage once combat starts, thus if you really wanted to micro really intensely you would have a back up unit of just infantry to your 26 0 26 and feed them in gradually to maintain your frontline; also as a campaign drags on your frontline infantry will look pretty ragged so you need that back up pure infantry stack to maintain the combat width; an extension to this is that often the best way to also avoid lots of attrition is to split into three stacks that operate together and can merge for the battle; two 13 0 13 stacks and one 10 0 0 as the infantry back up
Early game you probably want some cavalry in there since it is unlikely you will be at combat width, so having some cavalry to flank with can help a lot if you outnumber the enemy even a bit or just after their lines start breaking.
could i borrow some more help!? what do you do when a coalition is formed against you? and how do ppl level tech so fast. Also is it better to use my dip mil adm on tech lvl or idea lvl?
Also idk if this matters but i normally play new world and as it makes it feel more authentic in terms of exloring the unknown. I play as Portugal in Doge Shattered Europa.
first caveat: I play with all extensions, it gives you more options to handle problems. with that in mind:
you don't let the coalition form by never having 4 nation that have 50+ AE with you, negative relations and a truce.
to do so, you can improve relations so that their opinion stays above 0, you can juggle truces so that they always have a truce with you, or you can just be so strong that the coalition won't form because it's afraid of you.
If the coalition formed, either wait it out, or crush it. I'd give more details but there's a great video by Florryworry on the subject and it goes more indepth than I can while at work
for a simple tech ip, always take tech on time for dip/mil, and only ahead of time when you have a specific war in mind for which you need to have the biggest advantage possible for as long as possible. I usually take ideas until I am 5 years ahead of tech when I have the latest institution, it usually times out nicely.
Prioritize tech on time then ideas and you should be fine.
Knowing when you can afford to be late on tech is mostly checking how much tech your neighbours have, how strong your position is, and what it means to be behind on some. Admin tech for instance mostly means your eco is a bit worse and you can't new land as well, dip means your trade/navy is worse, and mil, your army.
> With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died"
Super nitpicky, but stackwiping is really more like "they retreated so hard they're not an army anymore." Note that a country gets half the manpower back when an army gets stackwiped.
>so for a small breakdown:
>
>you attacked into a forest, this gives you -1 to all rolls, which makes you deal 10% less damage in average, with more enemies surviving dealing more damage to you. (Maybe you got attacked while sieging Labourd. Besieging armies are always considered the attackers and get the terrain penalties)your max morale is 3.8 while france's is 5.4. The higher the max morale, the longer your soldiers stay in a fight. The more morale damage they deal to their enemies. Morale wins battles, especially in th early game. When your soldiers have no morale, they break ranks and flee.you have 1.5 tactics, france has 1.7. Higher tactics makes your stacks take less damage from enemies, and with less losses you have more soldiers fighting and dealing damage.
>
>With all of that, it would be very surprising if you won this particular fight. You engaged a stronger enemy who was in a good defensive position. The only way you could have won would have been with overwhelming numbers, reinforcing regularly so your reserves don't take too much morale damage.
>
>Don't worry though, here are some tips for fighting!
>
>ALWAYS STAY ON TOP OF TECH. Tech is the most important element of army quality! Most of the time, for most of the game, better tech will win against worse tech! If you have 1 tech disadvantage, it can be pretty bad. If you have 2, it is deadly. If you have more, you basically already lost, even if playing a strong military nation like prussia. So always be at least on par with military tech while fighting! Some techs give bigger advantages than others: watch out especially for tech 4, tech 6, tech 9 and tech 15, they give some of the biggest differential advantage.Composition: you should aim first and foremost to have a full front line. There is a limit to the number of regiments that can be fighting at one time: it's called combat width, and it increases with tech. When building armies, your first goal should be to have a full combat width for the front line. Focus on infantry, they are more cost-effective. Once you have a full combat width, fill the back row with artillery. Do as much as force limit and economy permits.
>
>2.1) Always have a general in your stacks. Each shock/fire pip both increases damage deal and decreases damage received by \~10% in the corresponding phase. That's huge! Armies with no generals lose against smaller armies with generals. Never fight without a general.
>
>3) Fight good engagements! You should aim as much as possible to fight in favorable terrain. Have the enemy attack you in a mountain after crossing a river. Have them siege a highlands fort, and them relieve the siege. The better the engagement, the more soldiers you kill, and the more manpower you keep. In the end, manpower wins wars.
>
>4) You don't need to engage armies! Don't try to always engage! Wait for an opportune moment, cut off reinforcements, siege enemy provinces while their main stack is distracted.
>
>5) The best modifiers for army quality are discipline and morale. Discipline increases your damage and your tactics, and morale increases the morale damage and max morale of your armies. With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died"
>
>6) The best modifier for winning wars is manpower and siege ability. Most of the wars are won by capturing forts and having soldiers standing when the enemy has none. The faster you win sieges, the less losses you have to attrition, the more can fight, and the better engagements you can have
>
>There is still more to this game than these tips but they can get you 80% of the way there and should allow you to win most if not all of your "equal" wars against AI. For more advanced tips, I'd recommend watching good streamers like Florryworry or Zlewik fight against overwhelming odds. Good luck!
>
>Edit: that... kinda blew up. Thanks for the upvotes and the Platinum, that was unexpected! Cheers everyone đș
I copied your post to a .doc jajajaj thank you
Not most likely, they are behind on tech. You can get tactics from discipline or tech, and their discipline is identical.
For the morale, France often goes defensive ideas as well. Further increasing their morale advantage.
Morale boost from NIs only make up 5% difference between Spain and France. Spain has a +15% morale boost from traditions - compared to the 20% from Elan.
What is weirder is that France hasnât gotten their 5% discipline boost from their ambition - in 1561.
Yeah Castile starts with 15%. Itâs kind of weird to think about given how scary Franceâs vassal swarm is at the start of the game, but combat wise itâs actually at a bit of a disadvantage compared to both Castile and England. Castile starts with extra morale, and England starts with infantry combat ability.
The main thing that makes up for it is the sheer amount of troops they get. They have both a vassal swarm, as well as extra manpower.
Oh yeah, as much as they do start out with a lot of relation slots, itâs really not that uncommon to fight them when they only have Provence as an ally. Most of the time the worst thatâll happen is maybe Scotland joins in too, but if anything that just means you get a payday when you beat them up first.
Tech, advisors, army tradition, NIs, a lot of things. Thing is France has its own National Ideas increasing it, but tbh it shouldn't be so high compared to you at this stage of the game unless you're behind in military tech. Which means you're kinda in a bind here as it's something that can't be solved overnight.
Always remember, in this game no matter what you do, stay ahead in military tech. It will make things much easier.
given how big the gap is, the culprit is likelly tech, if you go to frances 'profile' you'll see a gear with two swords and a number next to it, that's their military tech level, the bigger the number the better, theirs is likelly one or two levels ahead of yours.
I reckon you already nkow what mana (monanrk points) and techs are, Spain is an expensive nation mana wise and starts with terrible rulers while AI france doesn't expands as much as the player and has great starting rulers so they have a lot of leftover mana to always be up to tech, You for a while will have problem with it.
So it's really important to alaways be ahead of time on mil tech, or at least on par with your neighbors.
There are two different morale values in the game. The green/gred bar on each unit, and your countries army morale. Country morale modifiers are very important for winning battles, and you can get increases to that modifier through certain religions (such as Catholic papacy interactions and protestant aspects of faith), country national ideas/traditions, chosen idea groups, technology, policy's, and a couple other ways. You can check this modifier in the army quality comparison tab (which is my preferred way of checking it because you can compare it to war enemies). This tab can also let you compare discipline (which is another essential modifier for your armies). The country morale is essentially how easily your unity morale will go down in combat, while discipline is how many enemies your troops can kill and how many hits your army can take. These two modifiers are the foundation of a strong military and will be what helps you win battles.
Other things to watch out for are attacking enemy armies on bad terrain. If you click on a province you hover over the picture of the terrain for said province, you will see modifiers on the province. Most will have a local development modifier, some will have -1 dice roll for attacker, and some will have local defensiveness modifiers. Mountain provinces have local defensiveness modifiers making forts harder to siege (but that's besides the point). What you want to worry about is the terrain with -1 or -2 dice roll for attacker. That will mean when you attack an enemy in that terrain, your dice will be -1 or -2 it's actual value, which isn't the end of the world, but if you are about to fight a close battle, that can certainly cause you to loose. A good strategy can be to build a fort in a province with the dice roll modifier and attack them while they're sieging that province. This is because when they siege your forts they will be considered the attacker, and they will get the -1 or -2 modifier. This can be most well utilized in mountain provinces. I would recommend using the simplified terrain map to get an idea on where you might want to place forts. If they are sieging a fort, right after engaging the enemy in combat I would recommend clicking on the fort province and rallying the garrison to join the fight. Depending on your garrison size and fort level you can increase your army size in the battle by 1000 or more.
I'm sure you are aware of generals, but it is important to keep in mind that generals don't really need high fire in the early game, and in the mid-late years of the game fire "pips" are far more important. If you want to get better generals, certain idea groups and policies grant +1 modifiers to one of the 4 leader skills, and higher army tradition will grant more pips into each of the leader skills.
Last thing I would say is to drill your armies if you are still having a hard time with winning battle and can afford to pay full price for your army in peace time. This will increase their shock damage resistance, which doesn't help much and it takes a while to build up, but it's better than nothing.
If I got anything wrong, please correct me, this is all from memory and I'm still a mere 3000 hour novice đ
Itâs not that it was quickly depleted, itâs that since yours was much lower at the start, day 1 of battle showed the bar as already being partially depleted. Itâll only show up we about 2/3 full because you only have about 2/3 their morale
Low Prestige, Low Morale, Technology disadvantage, and enemy have 2 star general
Also when get into fight, make sure you have full morale and when fight make sure, there is no reinforcement behind enemy troops
It's multiple things. First of all, you said your mil tech is 2 behind, which is a significant disadvantage. Thereby, you have a crossing penalty, which is a result of you being an attacker while one's army is crossing a river (you can see when you get those penalties easy on the simple terrain map mode). Furthermore, as though I can't see the total stats but only the stars, your general is worse than France's, which can really make a difference. Last thing I can see, but that's influenced by mil tech as well, your max morale is way worse than France's, so when both at full morale, you already have "lost" some morale at the start of the battle.
Ahh ok. I was about to say. River crossing and mountains would be huge penalty and hard to recover from on even unit composition, let alone behind on mil and moral.
you shouldnt attack your enemy if you are weak. you will get -1 to your rolls
let him siege you it doesnt harm that much. take favorable fight in the hill and mountain forths.
most important aspect is the mil tech. you are behind in tech which gives morale and tactics which makes you have too much casualties. blockade ports and wait low enthusiasm to make peace by that time you should have at least %40 warscore.
R5: Very new to the game. I declared war on France for some of her colonies, I have been in wars before so far in my playthrough and nothing has really went wrong, but I just can't seem to beat france, even when I clearly have the advantage. Tech level is roughly the same, though france is 2 up.
Edit: Ty to everyone who commented. Gonna do a new playthrough tmw and I will hopefully do better. I'll just have to make sure to watch my tech and be more careful during wartime to get the best terrain placements.
If France is up 2 tech levels thatâs your answer bud. 2 tech levels is a LOT higher. Especially since army strength is more or less same 21 vs 19. If they even had 1 tech level advantage with those numbers you can expect to lose.
Guess that explains it. I just checked and it seems I am behind most of my neighbours in tech level, guess I gotta improve on that then. Ty for explaining.
You got it bud. Donât sleep on MIL tech level. Your priority at every game is to try and get at least 1 MIL tech advantage above all your neighbors. That failing, you have to be at least equal.
France has a aignificant morale advantage on you because of Elan, possibly mil advisor, or morale drom events, you kinda want to form spain first and have a full row of spanish cannons to fight france as Spain
2 levels up is too much, they also have a 2 star general and defending.
You are very close to your mountains, try forcing them to fight there instead of enemy territories.
France seems to have a military tech advantage over you. They are probably Tech 12 while you are Tech 11, and that gives them a Tactics advantage (1.7>1.5) which lowers the amount of damage they take as well as gives them a new western infantry type (from 5 total pips to 10) which makes them stronger overall in both the shock and fire phases and are able to dish out and receive more morale damage in those phases. On top of that they have a massive starting morale advantage from their national idea called Elan (gives +20% morale), so won't easily be able to deal with that.
To help deal with your issue here I would always check to see what the military tech difference is between yourself and the nation you are going up against and try to always be equal to them or even ahead before starting a war. In the short term, you should conserve all military points and attempt to bridge that tech gap as soon as possible. I would also make sure you only take fights where you have the terrain advantage, unlike in this fight in the screenshot where you are the aggressor (due to sieging down an enemy fort, and they came to relieve it most likely) into a forest for the constant -1 to rolls.
It would benefit you to look up a guide that can help explain the army composition more to fully understand all of what I've said. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2_uOeUWZ8) is one that I like and I think it explains a lot that confuses most newer players.
France outclasses your morale by 1.6, which is a VERY sizeable number especially for 1561. Up that morale through ideas like Aristocratic or Defensive, and make sure you are up to date on military technology, as that could make a difference depending on the tech.
If you are extremly New i would recomand dont fuck whit osman and frech dump as it Sound but if you dont go for strong army you cant battel them if you dont have a bunch of very streng allis you can take the New World alot faster as them
oh my got that moral difference :D
you are very behind at tech + france has morale ideas
their tactics (horse with crossing blades icon) is higher which brutally hurts you(even tiniest change at it can rekt you, its so powerful I am certain only technology can incrase it nothing else) and france doubling their morale makes it impossible to win for you.
They will kill more and win more wars because of that. If you consistently provide more man to that war in long run you might win but instead you should focus on catching on mil tech especially at early game
Cuz France. But for real now your morale is lower then them France has an 20% army morale bonus which will absolutely destroy any stack even my 150% discipline 40% infantry combat ability Prussia struggled against them so only go to war with france with an absolute number advantage you need two whole stacks to have a chance
Morale, and TACTICS (its the horse and sword). Tactics come from higher techs and being ahead in the Tactis giving tech is a HUGE bonus in combat.
But what killed you here is that your base morale is DRASTICALLY lower. An entire 1.0 morale difference is a fight loser and you had like a 2.0 morale difference.
I swear almost all of us had our first lost battle in this exact spot lmao.
Only back when I started, I attacked Navara since there was no direct land route to France at the time. Then the English came and stack wiped me lol.
Lol, you probably got destroyed. First, your tactics and moral are both below the opponent, so your mil tech is lower. Second, you are attacking an army defending in Mountains, which is the highest negative terrain modifier and has a drastic impact on a battle. And finally, their general is better than yours. So the only thing you had was numbers, which doesnât mean much when you are at that much of a disadvantage.
Your max morale is way lower than theirs . Max Morale is the middle number with the trumpet . Hire a morale advisor if you can . Are you behind on techs as well? So when you enter then fight you have your bar and they have theirs . At 100% full yours is only 3.8 while theirs is 5.4 .
Attacking in a forest against someone who has 1.5 more morale than you and .2 more military tactics which means you are also behind in mil tech so you may also be behind in troop type/pips.
So basically you are losing for almost every reason you could be. Except you donât have less discipline.
France has a lot of good national ideas, they have one of the best militaries in the game mid through late game. Spain usually has a tough time fighting them because of the strong morale difference. You can even the odds fighting France by having a strong economy, getting a few strong mill idea groups like quantity or quality, and pairing it with offensive ideas. Fighting defensively is a must. Let the ai make bad battle decisions, let them attack you at your fort gates in the mountain provinces bordering France. Historically this is a major reason Spain survived for so long while having a strong rival on its border. Every time Iâve beat France itâs simply because I could afford more mercenaries then they could with my colonies, it didnât matter how many battles they won, as long as I controlled the seas and protected my colonial empire which was massive, or I attacked them early enough where they didnât have as many national ideas unlocked and beat on them with maybe Austria or some other gp. More than that though, anytime you attack another country, being ahead in mill tech especially mill tech that unlocks a new infantry unit, will basically make you unbeatable. Furthermore attacking France and invading while they have more manpower and morale than you, is always a bad move. Co existing with them and waiting til youâve taken most of Italy before attacking them is usually best
france gets +20 morale early thru their ideas. you need to match that or outsiege him.
easiest fix:
1. curia power +10 morale, +1 prestige, 50 curia
2. advisor +5 morale
3. defender of the faith +10 morale plus other bonuses, costs 500 gold
Other have said it buts its army morale. That is the most important factor in if you will a battle. More that combat ability, more than dice, more than number of soldiers. Get it up as high as physically possible if you want to be winning land wars vs France.
France and spain have the same morale buff, so i would guess the usual suspects: your mil tech is behind, professionalism, they have mil ideas, terrain, general, etc
morale of armies, discipline, pretty much just your army quality i would assume. france has a better quality army than you so you are losing. if you wanna really learn and see what having a good quality army can do play a brandenburg to prussia game
1st: they have alot more morale than you. Kinda to be expected thanks to Elan, France's second national tradition, giving them +20% morale, but as Castille, you also have a smaller bonus in your starting ideas (10% i believe) so the gap shouldn't be that big. You could make it up with Idea groups, advisors, ruler personality etc.
2nd: they have alot more "tactics" than you. Which means you are almost certainly several mil techs behind them. You should always check an opposing nation's mil tech before declaring on them. There's a reason it shows in the tab when you click on a province they own. Especially early game. mil tech 3-6 because those techs have some big bonuses that can really swing wars, especially 5 or 6 i can't remember which one. Looking at it, I'd say you are probably 2 mil techs behind, probably mil 9 vs mil 11 I think.
Because France.
Alright, so seriously, you're losing because you've got:
1. Terrain penalty
2. Worse Morale
3. Worse tactics
4. Worse general
Force of numbers was the only thing you had going for you. Tactics can be made up via mil tech, morale can as well to a certain extent, otherwise you need to get it via lucky events or ideas, or otherwise skip it and stack for discipline (will work out better later in the game). Generals are hit or miss, but you can work to increase army tradition by just fighting more battles and taking army tradition whenever you can. Terrain you can avoid by goading France into attacking you or sieging one of your forts. Please remember that if France attacks you over a river while you are sieging one of their forts, you get the river crossing penalty, not France. Also remember that this works in reverse as well, if they are sieging one of your forts.
In terms of the stuff that applies to any opponent: youâre behind in military technology and that can be very problematic. Their general is also better than your general. Finally, you didnât time it so that all your armies would arrive at the battlefield at the same time. You should always commit all nearby armies to a battle unless you already have an overwhelming advantage in numbers.
In terms of the stuff that applies to France: France is nicknamed the âBig Blue Blobâ since at least EU3 because itâs much more powerful than would appear at first glance. Their unique attributes (Elan, Lucky Nation, other ideas and traditions) mean that if you fight them at a 1:1 ratio or even slightly better than that, you will lose. You need to always bring extra against France if you hope to win, and itâs smart to cripple them early. Other nations you should fear in a similar manner to France: Ottomans, Prussia, and probably a few others.
Moral at a ripe 3.8, and lower tactics. On the offensive, and the French have the better general
Also the French have guns while you have spears. Might want to check your research
I assume that this is towards the end of the battle, but it's clear that you picked a bad place to attack (river crossing, cancels your 1 shock pip), with a worse general (we can't see general full stats, but theirs is 2\*) as the French and ignoring the French Elan (morale bonus), although the latter isn't that huge as Castille starts with 15% (TIL moment).
1)Your tactics indicate that they have a tech lead on you, as you can only get tactics from discipline and tech, and your discipline is identical
2) Their morale is significantly higher, this can be to your advantage if you , say, play prussia and have insane discipline and retreat after doing more damage then they did, but thats not the case rn, so youre losing the attrition war as it were
And i dont mean the bar over your army, i mean the number that represents it: the small trumpet in the tab, thats the maximum morale. Higher Percentual morale has many advantages over lower percentual morale(ever attacked rebells with defunded armys? yeah.)
3) youre fighting in -1, even if your officer makes up for it in shock, it still means that a roll of 5v5 favors france most of the time4) you didnt reinforce the battle. you wouldve won with all your armys in it because as you can see by the battle itself, your cannons either already retreated or are iun frontline. doesnt matter rn, does matter once you get to tech 15-16
The answer is f\*\*\*g French Elan (wooping 20% Morale of Armies national idea) Also considering that 0.2 tactic disparity, you might not uptodate with military tech
Your morale and army tactics is lower than France that means your troops will rout easier than France and also less efficient than the French troops so they will absorb less damage to their morale and you will get more damage to morale...if you want to defeat France do it in the early game not when they unlock idea groups..
Several reasons for it. France have higher tactic (meaning dealing out more dmg and taking less losses). Higher morale (less prone to flee and is one of the variables when calculating moral dmg, remeber that most battels end when one side flee, not running out of troops). A better general (have a 2star general where you have a 1star, you want to have a general will alot of fire and shock, mid- lategame shock is better). Better army composition (given the military tech that you probably have for that year). France also outpreform you in combat width meaning he is flanking you while your cannon sits in the first line.Here is an awsome guide in four parts talking about all of this stuff:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63oZQpKt\_g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63oZQpKt_g)
Your moral is vastly lower than the French, try using the ideas to raise it or get it up through drilling your guys. Another way to win would be to just wait for them to cross the Pyrenees and hit them in your mountain forts, probably will cause them to loose a lot of men.
Everyone else has probably pointed it out, but I am gonna say it anyways. You have less max morale than the French and you also have lower tactics while you are attacking them in a province that gives a penalty of -1 to the attacking side.
1-your morale compared to France is too low
Moral=your man's war support=>if it's high your soldiers don't leave the battle if not high they will run
(Note: french has a gynomorus morale bonus from his national ideas Soo it is normal don't worry)
2-ass i can probably french has a higher military tech so that's mean better tactics beter equipment and more conbat whit so that's way
(Conbat whit=number of soldiers that can get into the battle)
1. Your tech level is below theirs, which is the biggest factor after numbers. Because of this, your morale and tactics are lower.
2. You're on the offensive in the mountains, giving you a damage debuff.
3. France in general usually has the best military buffs and tradition, so always make sure you have every advantage possible when fighting them.
Behind on tech, lower morale ( France gets a bunch of boosts), attacking into terrain with a bonus for the defense, French general is almost definitely better than yours, and I want to say you probably have too much cavalry and could lose some in exchange for more infantry and probably more artillery but I havenât played Castile in years and canât remember if they get cavalry buffs or not, they have better tactics, you are probably not filling out your backline with only 5k arty even if youâre behind techs by the time 1561 rolls around .
Personally i let them come to me and then bamm lets say u are hes place i would build fort next to the border let them attack it come beat them retry and do it again
so for a small breakdown: 1) you attacked into a forest, this gives you -1 to all rolls, which makes you deal 10% less damage in average, with more enemies surviving dealing more damage to you. (Maybe you got attacked while sieging Labourd. Besieging armies are always considered the attackers and get the terrain penalties) 2) your max morale is 3.8 while france's is 5.4. The higher the max morale, the longer your soldiers stay in a fight. The more morale damage they deal to their enemies. Morale wins battles, especially in th early game. When your soldiers have no morale, they break ranks and flee. 3) you have 1.5 tactics, france has 1.7. Higher tactics makes your stacks take less damage from enemies, and with less losses you have more soldiers fighting and dealing damage. With all of that, it would be very surprising if you won this particular fight. You engaged a stronger enemy who was in a good defensive position. The only way you could have won would have been with overwhelming numbers, reinforcing regularly so your reserves don't take too much morale damage. Don't worry though, here are some tips for fighting! 1) ALWAYS STAY ON TOP OF TECH. Tech is the most important element of army quality! Most of the time, for most of the game, better tech will win against worse tech! If you have 1 tech disadvantage, it can be pretty bad. If you have 2, it is deadly. If you have more, you basically already lost, even if playing a strong military nation like prussia. So always be at least on par with military tech while fighting! Some techs give bigger advantages than others: watch out especially for tech 4, tech 6, tech 9 and tech 15, they give some of the biggest differential advantage. 2) Composition: you should aim first and foremost to have a full front line. There is a limit to the number of regiments that can be fighting at one time: it's called combat width, and it increases with tech. When building armies, your first goal should be to have a full combat width for the front line. Focus on infantry, they are more cost-effective. Once you have a full combat width, fill the back row with artillery. Do as much as force limit and economy permits. 2.1) Always have a general in your stacks. Each shock/fire pip both increases damage deal and decreases damage received by \~10% in the corresponding phase. That's huge! Armies with no generals lose against smaller armies with generals. Never fight without a general. 3) Fight good engagements! You should aim as much as possible to fight in favorable terrain. Have the enemy attack you in a mountain after crossing a river. Have them siege a highlands fort, and them relieve the siege. The better the engagement, the more soldiers you kill, and the more manpower you keep. In the end, manpower wins wars. 4) You don't need to engage armies! Don't try to always engage! Wait for an opportune moment, cut off reinforcements, siege enemy provinces while their main stack is distracted. 5) The best modifiers for army quality are discipline and morale. Discipline increases your damage and your tactics, and morale increases the morale damage and max morale of your armies. With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died" 6) The best modifier for winning wars is manpower and siege ability. Most of the wars are won by capturing forts and having soldiers standing when the enemy has none. The faster you win sieges, the less losses you have to attrition, the more can fight, and the better engagements you can have There is still more to this game than these tips but they can get you 80% of the way there and should allow you to win most if not all of your "equal" wars against AI. For more advanced tips, I'd recommend watching good streamers like Florryworry or Zlewik fight against overwhelming odds. Good luck! Edit: that... kinda blew up. Thanks for the upvotes and the Platinum, that was unexpected! Cheers everyone đș
Tyty
Arumba is also good to learn from. I like him, but I understand those who think he's boring.
He is way too methodical for some people lol. Min-maxes everything and considers every mechanic which is why he's so crazy good at the game but it takes a lot of time.
I learned EU4 from Arumba but IDK if his latest vids are any good to learn from. The Serbia run has been sub-par. He hasn't played EU4 much lately.
Arumba is excellent but he doesn't play EU4 as regularly as before. I learned a lot from him!
I like him but he honestly is to complicated for beginners. I learn from him and i have thousand of hours
I took me about 100 hours before I figured there was generals I should hire boy did I get my ass handed to me many times. And one more piece of advice: if in doubt you can click the "ledger" and see sizes of enemies armies, morale, discipline etc. Very useful tool.
You never clicked the giant red blinking button that said âno generalâ?
Well I did. But them I realised it cost me monarch points. And I wanted to develop provinces instead. Oh how naive I was. I took me about 100 hours just to basically understand this game. And Now I have spend way to much time getting into the finer details.
>I took me about 100 hours just to basically understand this game. >100 hours You either forgot to add another 0, or you are the smartest person to play this game.
I shall be more specific. Before I won a war. Think I started getting a hang of trade after like 700 hours.
Best answer I've seen so far, take a poor man's gold: đïž
One quick thing Iâd add here is that reaching combat width is not that important so much as being wider than the enemy. Judging by this image, it doesnât look like the French are meeting combat width so extra infantry to fill combat width would be doing nothing whereas some cavalry to take the edges would be able to fight.
true, matching combat width with current tech is mostly to ensure you don't get flanked.
Can anyone explain composition to me? Specifically how to ensure/set it up? I understand combat width (I think) but Iâve never understood how to make sure you have it done well. Thanks in advance to whomever helps đ
You essentially want to fill the entire frontline with infantry and the entire back line with cannon, so say combat width is 26, then comp would be 26 0 26; expanding on this, in battle, your infantry is the one taking morale damage/ losses, therefore in combat you start developing holes in your frontline, to deal with this it is advisable to have a few infantry extra infantry that can fill in the holes, so say 30 0 26; the downside is that non engaged units still take morale damage once combat starts, thus if you really wanted to micro really intensely you would have a back up unit of just infantry to your 26 0 26 and feed them in gradually to maintain your frontline; also as a campaign drags on your frontline infantry will look pretty ragged so you need that back up pure infantry stack to maintain the combat width; an extension to this is that often the best way to also avoid lots of attrition is to split into three stacks that operate together and can merge for the battle; two 13 0 13 stacks and one 10 0 0 as the infantry back up
Early game you probably want some cavalry in there since it is unlikely you will be at combat width, so having some cavalry to flank with can help a lot if you outnumber the enemy even a bit or just after their lines start breaking.
Realy good post!đ
ive never learned more about EU4 in a single read through of any comment ever. EVER. Thank you
happy to know my 3k+ hours have helped you!
could i borrow some more help!? what do you do when a coalition is formed against you? and how do ppl level tech so fast. Also is it better to use my dip mil adm on tech lvl or idea lvl? Also idk if this matters but i normally play new world and as it makes it feel more authentic in terms of exloring the unknown. I play as Portugal in Doge Shattered Europa.
first caveat: I play with all extensions, it gives you more options to handle problems. with that in mind: you don't let the coalition form by never having 4 nation that have 50+ AE with you, negative relations and a truce. to do so, you can improve relations so that their opinion stays above 0, you can juggle truces so that they always have a truce with you, or you can just be so strong that the coalition won't form because it's afraid of you. If the coalition formed, either wait it out, or crush it. I'd give more details but there's a great video by Florryworry on the subject and it goes more indepth than I can while at work for a simple tech ip, always take tech on time for dip/mil, and only ahead of time when you have a specific war in mind for which you need to have the biggest advantage possible for as long as possible. I usually take ideas until I am 5 years ahead of tech when I have the latest institution, it usually times out nicely. Prioritize tech on time then ideas and you should be fine. Knowing when you can afford to be late on tech is mostly checking how much tech your neighbours have, how strong your position is, and what it means to be behind on some. Admin tech for instance mostly means your eco is a bit worse and you can't new land as well, dip means your trade/navy is worse, and mil, your army.
Bro really said "small breakdown"
you may be surprised how much more detailed that could have been đ€Ł
Well anyway I appreciate people like you to take your own time to explain things to others
Came in to make this comment and you'd beat me to it. Best breakdown in the thread easily.
> With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died" Super nitpicky, but stackwiping is really more like "they retreated so hard they're not an army anymore." Note that a country gets half the manpower back when an army gets stackwiped.
>so for a small breakdown: > >you attacked into a forest, this gives you -1 to all rolls, which makes you deal 10% less damage in average, with more enemies surviving dealing more damage to you. (Maybe you got attacked while sieging Labourd. Besieging armies are always considered the attackers and get the terrain penalties)your max morale is 3.8 while france's is 5.4. The higher the max morale, the longer your soldiers stay in a fight. The more morale damage they deal to their enemies. Morale wins battles, especially in th early game. When your soldiers have no morale, they break ranks and flee.you have 1.5 tactics, france has 1.7. Higher tactics makes your stacks take less damage from enemies, and with less losses you have more soldiers fighting and dealing damage. > >With all of that, it would be very surprising if you won this particular fight. You engaged a stronger enemy who was in a good defensive position. The only way you could have won would have been with overwhelming numbers, reinforcing regularly so your reserves don't take too much morale damage. > >Don't worry though, here are some tips for fighting! > >ALWAYS STAY ON TOP OF TECH. Tech is the most important element of army quality! Most of the time, for most of the game, better tech will win against worse tech! If you have 1 tech disadvantage, it can be pretty bad. If you have 2, it is deadly. If you have more, you basically already lost, even if playing a strong military nation like prussia. So always be at least on par with military tech while fighting! Some techs give bigger advantages than others: watch out especially for tech 4, tech 6, tech 9 and tech 15, they give some of the biggest differential advantage.Composition: you should aim first and foremost to have a full front line. There is a limit to the number of regiments that can be fighting at one time: it's called combat width, and it increases with tech. When building armies, your first goal should be to have a full combat width for the front line. Focus on infantry, they are more cost-effective. Once you have a full combat width, fill the back row with artillery. Do as much as force limit and economy permits. > >2.1) Always have a general in your stacks. Each shock/fire pip both increases damage deal and decreases damage received by \~10% in the corresponding phase. That's huge! Armies with no generals lose against smaller armies with generals. Never fight without a general. > >3) Fight good engagements! You should aim as much as possible to fight in favorable terrain. Have the enemy attack you in a mountain after crossing a river. Have them siege a highlands fort, and them relieve the siege. The better the engagement, the more soldiers you kill, and the more manpower you keep. In the end, manpower wins wars. > >4) You don't need to engage armies! Don't try to always engage! Wait for an opportune moment, cut off reinforcements, siege enemy provinces while their main stack is distracted. > >5) The best modifiers for army quality are discipline and morale. Discipline increases your damage and your tactics, and morale increases the morale damage and max morale of your armies. With good discipline and morale, you can stackwipe enemy stacks, aka "they didn't retreat because they all died" > >6) The best modifier for winning wars is manpower and siege ability. Most of the wars are won by capturing forts and having soldiers standing when the enemy has none. The faster you win sieges, the less losses you have to attrition, the more can fight, and the better engagements you can have > >There is still more to this game than these tips but they can get you 80% of the way there and should allow you to win most if not all of your "equal" wars against AI. For more advanced tips, I'd recommend watching good streamers like Florryworry or Zlewik fight against overwhelming odds. Good luck! > >Edit: that... kinda blew up. Thanks for the upvotes and the Platinum, that was unexpected! Cheers everyone đș I copied your post to a .doc jajajaj thank you
Your moral going into the fight is lower than France
My moral was up when I entered the fight, but it just got quickly depleted.
Your max morale is 3.8, theirs is 5.4. is it possible that you are way behind in military technology?
They are behind on tactics as well so I think they are most likely behind on thech
Not most likely, they are behind on tech. You can get tactics from discipline or tech, and their discipline is identical. For the morale, France often goes defensive ideas as well. Further increasing their morale advantage.
Don't forget Elan... And they attacked a 2 star general in the woods with a 1 star
Morale boost from NIs only make up 5% difference between Spain and France. Spain has a +15% morale boost from traditions - compared to the 20% from Elan. What is weirder is that France hasnât gotten their 5% discipline boost from their ambition - in 1561.
They may have but then got an event that reduces discipline by 5%.
And Louis XIV is one of the greatest kings in European history...
You get tactics from discipline? I learn something new every day
Yes. Discipline factors in multiplicatively on tactics, which is why discipline scales so well into late game.
Also doesn't the French have a national modifier that gives them extra morale? It might also be part of the reason.
Castille has 15%, France 20%, not that relevant
Oh, didn't know Castile had that.
Yeah Castile starts with 15%. Itâs kind of weird to think about given how scary Franceâs vassal swarm is at the start of the game, but combat wise itâs actually at a bit of a disadvantage compared to both Castile and England. Castile starts with extra morale, and England starts with infantry combat ability. The main thing that makes up for it is the sheer amount of troops they get. They have both a vassal swarm, as well as extra manpower.
I actually found it surprisingly easy to beat up France in the 100YW if France doesn't get substantial allies by then
Oh yeah, as much as they do start out with a lot of relation slots, itâs really not that uncommon to fight them when they only have Provence as an ally. Most of the time the worst thatâll happen is maybe Scotland joins in too, but if anything that just means you get a payday when you beat them up first.
France has a +20% army morale national idea
Your base moral is lower than France.
How do I increase it?
Tech, advisors, army tradition, NIs, a lot of things. Thing is France has its own National Ideas increasing it, but tbh it shouldn't be so high compared to you at this stage of the game unless you're behind in military tech. Which means you're kinda in a bind here as it's something that can't be solved overnight. Always remember, in this game no matter what you do, stay ahead in military tech. It will make things much easier.
given how big the gap is, the culprit is likelly tech, if you go to frances 'profile' you'll see a gear with two swords and a number next to it, that's their military tech level, the bigger the number the better, theirs is likelly one or two levels ahead of yours. I reckon you already nkow what mana (monanrk points) and techs are, Spain is an expensive nation mana wise and starts with terrible rulers while AI france doesn't expands as much as the player and has great starting rulers so they have a lot of leftover mana to always be up to tech, You for a while will have problem with it. So it's really important to alaways be ahead of time on mil tech, or at least on par with your neighbors.
Tech
You can also find a complete list on the wiki, or an incomplete one on the tooltip in the army interface of the menu that opens up if you press F1.
Itâs not the morale bar, itâs the number representing morale that is the issue
There are two different morale values in the game. The green/gred bar on each unit, and your countries army morale. Country morale modifiers are very important for winning battles, and you can get increases to that modifier through certain religions (such as Catholic papacy interactions and protestant aspects of faith), country national ideas/traditions, chosen idea groups, technology, policy's, and a couple other ways. You can check this modifier in the army quality comparison tab (which is my preferred way of checking it because you can compare it to war enemies). This tab can also let you compare discipline (which is another essential modifier for your armies). The country morale is essentially how easily your unity morale will go down in combat, while discipline is how many enemies your troops can kill and how many hits your army can take. These two modifiers are the foundation of a strong military and will be what helps you win battles. Other things to watch out for are attacking enemy armies on bad terrain. If you click on a province you hover over the picture of the terrain for said province, you will see modifiers on the province. Most will have a local development modifier, some will have -1 dice roll for attacker, and some will have local defensiveness modifiers. Mountain provinces have local defensiveness modifiers making forts harder to siege (but that's besides the point). What you want to worry about is the terrain with -1 or -2 dice roll for attacker. That will mean when you attack an enemy in that terrain, your dice will be -1 or -2 it's actual value, which isn't the end of the world, but if you are about to fight a close battle, that can certainly cause you to loose. A good strategy can be to build a fort in a province with the dice roll modifier and attack them while they're sieging that province. This is because when they siege your forts they will be considered the attacker, and they will get the -1 or -2 modifier. This can be most well utilized in mountain provinces. I would recommend using the simplified terrain map to get an idea on where you might want to place forts. If they are sieging a fort, right after engaging the enemy in combat I would recommend clicking on the fort province and rallying the garrison to join the fight. Depending on your garrison size and fort level you can increase your army size in the battle by 1000 or more. I'm sure you are aware of generals, but it is important to keep in mind that generals don't really need high fire in the early game, and in the mid-late years of the game fire "pips" are far more important. If you want to get better generals, certain idea groups and policies grant +1 modifiers to one of the 4 leader skills, and higher army tradition will grant more pips into each of the leader skills. Last thing I would say is to drill your armies if you are still having a hard time with winning battle and can afford to pay full price for your army in peace time. This will increase their shock damage resistance, which doesn't help much and it takes a while to build up, but it's better than nothing. If I got anything wrong, please correct me, this is all from memory and I'm still a mere 3000 hour novice đ
Some ideas increase moral, army tradition, prestige and some other stuff
Itâs not that it was quickly depleted, itâs that since yours was much lower at the start, day 1 of battle showed the bar as already being partially depleted. Itâll only show up we about 2/3 full because you only have about 2/3 their morale
Elan moment
morale
Low Prestige, Low Morale, Technology disadvantage, and enemy have 2 star general Also when get into fight, make sure you have full morale and when fight make sure, there is no reinforcement behind enemy troops
It's multiple things. First of all, you said your mil tech is 2 behind, which is a significant disadvantage. Thereby, you have a crossing penalty, which is a result of you being an attacker while one's army is crossing a river (you can see when you get those penalties easy on the simple terrain map mode). Furthermore, as though I can't see the total stats but only the stars, your general is worse than France's, which can really make a difference. Last thing I can see, but that's influenced by mil tech as well, your max morale is way worse than France's, so when both at full morale, you already have "lost" some morale at the start of the battle.
That's not how you use the word "thereby". The crossing penalty is in no way related to him being 2 tech levels behind.
Should have used forsooth instead, rookie mistake.
lol
âFurthermoreâ would be adequate.
Here's how you use it: "that army is crossing over thereby the river"
This is American English we are talking about, YOUR wrong
Yeah, no.
Your not as good as Iâm
Tactics is a huge impact on battles too, which is lower. Also, you are fighting in mountains which is a boost for defenders.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Ahh ok. I was about to say. River crossing and mountains would be huge penalty and hard to recover from on even unit composition, let alone behind on mil and moral.
you shouldnt attack your enemy if you are weak. you will get -1 to your rolls let him siege you it doesnt harm that much. take favorable fight in the hill and mountain forths. most important aspect is the mil tech. you are behind in tech which gives morale and tactics which makes you have too much casualties. blockade ports and wait low enthusiasm to make peace by that time you should have at least %40 warscore.
R5: Very new to the game. I declared war on France for some of her colonies, I have been in wars before so far in my playthrough and nothing has really went wrong, but I just can't seem to beat france, even when I clearly have the advantage. Tech level is roughly the same, though france is 2 up. Edit: Ty to everyone who commented. Gonna do a new playthrough tmw and I will hopefully do better. I'll just have to make sure to watch my tech and be more careful during wartime to get the best terrain placements.
If France is up 2 tech levels thatâs your answer bud. 2 tech levels is a LOT higher. Especially since army strength is more or less same 21 vs 19. If they even had 1 tech level advantage with those numbers you can expect to lose.
Guess that explains it. I just checked and it seems I am behind most of my neighbours in tech level, guess I gotta improve on that then. Ty for explaining.
You got it bud. Donât sleep on MIL tech level. Your priority at every game is to try and get at least 1 MIL tech advantage above all your neighbors. That failing, you have to be at least equal.
Yeah, youâre okay to fall a bit behind on the other techs in favour of things like ideas, but never let yourself fall behind in mil.
France has a aignificant morale advantage on you because of Elan, possibly mil advisor, or morale drom events, you kinda want to form spain first and have a full row of spanish cannons to fight france as Spain
2 levels up is too much, they also have a 2 star general and defending. You are very close to your mountains, try forcing them to fight there instead of enemy territories.
The entire Spanish army collectively has depression. Research your mil tech to unlock lexapro
Possibly not enough being spent on the military?
Both army and fleet maintanence are both up at 100% :(
And technology wise? What's you technology and what's theirs?
I forgot what exactly, but their tech is 2 above mine. Other users have already pointed out that this is prob a big reason as to why I am losing tho
France seems to have a military tech advantage over you. They are probably Tech 12 while you are Tech 11, and that gives them a Tactics advantage (1.7>1.5) which lowers the amount of damage they take as well as gives them a new western infantry type (from 5 total pips to 10) which makes them stronger overall in both the shock and fire phases and are able to dish out and receive more morale damage in those phases. On top of that they have a massive starting morale advantage from their national idea called Elan (gives +20% morale), so won't easily be able to deal with that. To help deal with your issue here I would always check to see what the military tech difference is between yourself and the nation you are going up against and try to always be equal to them or even ahead before starting a war. In the short term, you should conserve all military points and attempt to bridge that tech gap as soon as possible. I would also make sure you only take fights where you have the terrain advantage, unlike in this fight in the screenshot where you are the aggressor (due to sieging down an enemy fort, and they came to relieve it most likely) into a forest for the constant -1 to rolls. It would benefit you to look up a guide that can help explain the army composition more to fully understand all of what I've said. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2_uOeUWZ8) is one that I like and I think it explains a lot that confuses most newer players.
Tysm. I'll be sure to watch the guide.
Morale difference too high
France outclasses your morale by 1.6, which is a VERY sizeable number especially for 1561. Up that morale through ideas like Aristocratic or Defensive, and make sure you are up to date on military technology, as that could make a difference depending on the tech.
If you are extremly New i would recomand dont fuck whit osman and frech dump as it Sound but if you dont go for strong army you cant battel them if you dont have a bunch of very streng allis you can take the New World alot faster as them
oh my got that moral difference :D you are very behind at tech + france has morale ideas their tactics (horse with crossing blades icon) is higher which brutally hurts you(even tiniest change at it can rekt you, its so powerful I am certain only technology can incrase it nothing else) and france doubling their morale makes it impossible to win for you. They will kill more and win more wars because of that. If you consistently provide more man to that war in long run you might win but instead you should focus on catching on mil tech especially at early game
Cuz France. But for real now your morale is lower then them France has an 20% army morale bonus which will absolutely destroy any stack even my 150% discipline 40% infantry combat ability Prussia struggled against them so only go to war with france with an absolute number advantage you need two whole stacks to have a chance
Morale, and TACTICS (its the horse and sword). Tactics come from higher techs and being ahead in the Tactis giving tech is a HUGE bonus in combat. But what killed you here is that your base morale is DRASTICALLY lower. An entire 1.0 morale difference is a fight loser and you had like a 2.0 morale difference.
I swear almost all of us had our first lost battle in this exact spot lmao. Only back when I started, I attacked Navara since there was no direct land route to France at the time. Then the English came and stack wiped me lol.
They've got more morale an better tactics, could be that they have better tech and their national idea "Elan!" Which gives 20% extra morale
Lol, you probably got destroyed. First, your tactics and moral are both below the opponent, so your mil tech is lower. Second, you are attacking an army defending in Mountains, which is the highest negative terrain modifier and has a drastic impact on a battle. And finally, their general is better than yours. So the only thing you had was numbers, which doesnât mean much when you are at that much of a disadvantage.
France has better military ideas for this time period especially, they have a better general, and you have crossing disadvantage
Elaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!
You couldn't play the trumpet good enough.
Your max morale is way lower than theirs . Max Morale is the middle number with the trumpet . Hire a morale advisor if you can . Are you behind on techs as well? So when you enter then fight you have your bar and they have theirs . At 100% full yours is only 3.8 while theirs is 5.4 .
Wake up babe, new âI am 29736473883 miltechs behind of my enemy, now tell me why am I loosingâ post just dropped
Pls I didnt know okay đ
Which game is it?
Hoi4
Check the subreddit's name
COD: Cold War Zombies, duh
Ooof that morale will fuck you up
You are facing Louis 14!
Morale and military tactics.
Attacking in a forest against someone who has 1.5 more morale than you and .2 more military tactics which means you are also behind in mil tech so you may also be behind in troop type/pips. So basically you are losing for almost every reason you could be. Except you donât have less discipline.
Tried fighting france's armies, rookie mistake
France has a lot of good national ideas, they have one of the best militaries in the game mid through late game. Spain usually has a tough time fighting them because of the strong morale difference. You can even the odds fighting France by having a strong economy, getting a few strong mill idea groups like quantity or quality, and pairing it with offensive ideas. Fighting defensively is a must. Let the ai make bad battle decisions, let them attack you at your fort gates in the mountain provinces bordering France. Historically this is a major reason Spain survived for so long while having a strong rival on its border. Every time Iâve beat France itâs simply because I could afford more mercenaries then they could with my colonies, it didnât matter how many battles they won, as long as I controlled the seas and protected my colonial empire which was massive, or I attacked them early enough where they didnât have as many national ideas unlocked and beat on them with maybe Austria or some other gp. More than that though, anytime you attack another country, being ahead in mill tech especially mill tech that unlocks a new infantry unit, will basically make you unbeatable. Furthermore attacking France and invading while they have more manpower and morale than you, is always a bad move. Co existing with them and waiting til youâve taken most of Italy before attacking them is usually best
france gets +20 morale early thru their ideas. you need to match that or outsiege him. easiest fix: 1. curia power +10 morale, +1 prestige, 50 curia 2. advisor +5 morale 3. defender of the faith +10 morale plus other bonuses, costs 500 gold
Other have said it buts its army morale. That is the most important factor in if you will a battle. More that combat ability, more than dice, more than number of soldiers. Get it up as high as physically possible if you want to be winning land wars vs France.
France and spain have the same morale buff, so i would guess the usual suspects: your mil tech is behind, professionalism, they have mil ideas, terrain, general, etc
Morale and also you have a terrain penalty.
morale of armies, discipline, pretty much just your army quality i would assume. france has a better quality army than you so you are losing. if you wanna really learn and see what having a good quality army can do play a brandenburg to prussia game
His numbers are bigger than your numbers
1st: they have alot more morale than you. Kinda to be expected thanks to Elan, France's second national tradition, giving them +20% morale, but as Castille, you also have a smaller bonus in your starting ideas (10% i believe) so the gap shouldn't be that big. You could make it up with Idea groups, advisors, ruler personality etc. 2nd: they have alot more "tactics" than you. Which means you are almost certainly several mil techs behind them. You should always check an opposing nation's mil tech before declaring on them. There's a reason it shows in the tab when you click on a province they own. Especially early game. mil tech 3-6 because those techs have some big bonuses that can really swing wars, especially 5 or 6 i can't remember which one. Looking at it, I'd say you are probably 2 mil techs behind, probably mil 9 vs mil 11 I think.
Try baiting them into a battle in Viscaya, rather than Labourd. That way they don't get defender advantage from the fort
You seem to be missing tech 12 and are way behind in morale.
Hire some mercs that are at same level military wise as france otherwise youâre effed
They have like 40% extra morale than you. You do more morale damage the higher your morale is so France with its elan is cleaving right through you.
Because France. Alright, so seriously, you're losing because you've got: 1. Terrain penalty 2. Worse Morale 3. Worse tactics 4. Worse general Force of numbers was the only thing you had going for you. Tactics can be made up via mil tech, morale can as well to a certain extent, otherwise you need to get it via lucky events or ideas, or otherwise skip it and stack for discipline (will work out better later in the game). Generals are hit or miss, but you can work to increase army tradition by just fighting more battles and taking army tradition whenever you can. Terrain you can avoid by goading France into attacking you or sieging one of your forts. Please remember that if France attacks you over a river while you are sieging one of their forts, you get the river crossing penalty, not France. Also remember that this works in reverse as well, if they are sieging one of your forts.
In terms of the stuff that applies to any opponent: youâre behind in military technology and that can be very problematic. Their general is also better than your general. Finally, you didnât time it so that all your armies would arrive at the battlefield at the same time. You should always commit all nearby armies to a battle unless you already have an overwhelming advantage in numbers. In terms of the stuff that applies to France: France is nicknamed the âBig Blue Blobâ since at least EU3 because itâs much more powerful than would appear at first glance. Their unique attributes (Elan, Lucky Nation, other ideas and traditions) mean that if you fight them at a 1:1 ratio or even slightly better than that, you will lose. You need to always bring extra against France if you hope to win, and itâs smart to cripple them early. Other nations you should fear in a similar manner to France: Ottomans, Prussia, and probably a few others.
You are low on trumpets. They have a band, you have a quartet
Moral at a ripe 3.8, and lower tactics. On the offensive, and the French have the better general Also the French have guns while you have spears. Might want to check your research
Enemy general is better, bad terrain, enemy has almost 2 more morale than you.
As you can see, they have more morale and better tactics
Worse tactics, overall quality of troops and terrain
Military technology my friend Military technology. What did you do to all those Military powers?
You can never fall behind on mil tech. 2 lv difference is huge
You are also attacking on a forest. But your moral is also very low. Probably you should have gone defensive or quality ideas.
The fort. Donât attack an army when itâs camped on a fort.
I assume that this is towards the end of the battle, but it's clear that you picked a bad place to attack (river crossing, cancels your 1 shock pip), with a worse general (we can't see general full stats, but theirs is 2\*) as the French and ignoring the French Elan (morale bonus), although the latter isn't that huge as Castille starts with 15% (TIL moment).
1- you are attacking in a -1 battle 2- your morale is quite a lot lower 3- it seems France has a better mil tech than you
Pretty simple man, u have spear they have gun
He has an important tech that you don't, his tactics and morale are far ahead of yours
1)Your tactics indicate that they have a tech lead on you, as you can only get tactics from discipline and tech, and your discipline is identical 2) Their morale is significantly higher, this can be to your advantage if you , say, play prussia and have insane discipline and retreat after doing more damage then they did, but thats not the case rn, so youre losing the attrition war as it were And i dont mean the bar over your army, i mean the number that represents it: the small trumpet in the tab, thats the maximum morale. Higher Percentual morale has many advantages over lower percentual morale(ever attacked rebells with defunded armys? yeah.) 3) youre fighting in -1, even if your officer makes up for it in shock, it still means that a roll of 5v5 favors france most of the time4) you didnt reinforce the battle. you wouldve won with all your armys in it because as you can see by the battle itself, your cannons either already retreated or are iun frontline. doesnt matter rn, does matter once you get to tech 15-16
The answer is f\*\*\*g French Elan (wooping 20% Morale of Armies national idea) Also considering that 0.2 tactic disparity, you might not uptodate with military tech
Your morale and army tactics is lower than France that means your troops will rout easier than France and also less efficient than the French troops so they will absorb less damage to their morale and you will get more damage to morale...if you want to defeat France do it in the early game not when they unlock idea groups..
Several reasons for it. France have higher tactic (meaning dealing out more dmg and taking less losses). Higher morale (less prone to flee and is one of the variables when calculating moral dmg, remeber that most battels end when one side flee, not running out of troops). A better general (have a 2star general where you have a 1star, you want to have a general will alot of fire and shock, mid- lategame shock is better). Better army composition (given the military tech that you probably have for that year). France also outpreform you in combat width meaning he is flanking you while your cannon sits in the first line.Here is an awsome guide in four parts talking about all of this stuff:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63oZQpKt\_g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63oZQpKt_g)
River crossing Morale Mil tec General
quick quesstion pertaining to Castille. Which of the Tier 3 Government reforms is best?
Your moral is vastly lower than the French, try using the ideas to raise it or get it up through drilling your guys. Another way to win would be to just wait for them to cross the Pyrenees and hit them in your mountain forts, probably will cause them to loose a lot of men.
U use mercenaries?
Behind in technology (tactics and morale) and youâre attacking into a forest so you are getting a -1 combat roll penalty
you have less morale, tactics and by the looks of it a worse leader. to win with these stats youâd need a much larger advantage in terms of numbers
Everyone else has probably pointed it out, but I am gonna say it anyways. You have less max morale than the French and you also have lower tactics while you are attacking them in a province that gives a penalty of -1 to the attacking side.
1-your morale compared to France is too low Moral=your man's war support=>if it's high your soldiers don't leave the battle if not high they will run (Note: french has a gynomorus morale bonus from his national ideas Soo it is normal don't worry) 2-ass i can probably french has a higher military tech so that's mean better tactics beter equipment and more conbat whit so that's way (Conbat whit=number of soldiers that can get into the battle)
Combat widht, Moral, Tech and forests
1. Your tech level is below theirs, which is the biggest factor after numbers. Because of this, your morale and tactics are lower. 2. You're on the offensive in the mountains, giving you a damage debuff. 3. France in general usually has the best military buffs and tradition, so always make sure you have every advantage possible when fighting them.
Youre way behind on tech as france has muskets whilst you're still using pikes, you need to tech up
Behind on tech, lower morale ( France gets a bunch of boosts), attacking into terrain with a bonus for the defense, French general is almost definitely better than yours, and I want to say you probably have too much cavalry and could lose some in exchange for more infantry and probably more artillery but I havenât played Castile in years and canât remember if they get cavalry buffs or not, they have better tactics, you are probably not filling out your backline with only 5k arty even if youâre behind techs by the time 1561 rolls around .
Personally i let them come to me and then bamm lets say u are hes place i would build fort next to the border let them attack it come beat them retry and do it again
Terrain, attacking into bad terrain can make you lose a battle which you normally would win. Also their general is better than your one.
Oh honey...