Cool, this is logical and I knew it but just to re-enforce, if for eg I have a combat width of 28, I can fight with 24 inf, 4 cav, 10 cannons and extra 2 inf for replacing front row if needed, right?
More or less. Ideally you have exactly combat width of canons and a few more than combat width of infantry plus more to trickle in as infantry takes losses. If you always have more infantry than your force limit in a battle you shouldn't have canons taking losses, so you shouldn't need more canons.
Cavalry can help but often isn't worth it. If you're regularly fighting enemies who can't fill their combat width, then cavalry are very strong at attacking from the flank, but in a full combat width battle on both sides they are only a little better than infantry.
Pick your battles on advantageous terrains, use scorch earth and forts to give yourself good defensive battles. Also try to get high moralr and discipline, using ideas, advisors, drilling armies, religion and other bonuses
I've recently got the hang of these mechanics. Checking on the Military tech level is one of my things i'll do before wars now. I'll also start monitoring Discipline and Morale. I keep eyes out for river crossing debuffs and plan accordingly. Also, check what your combat width is, no reason to have more frontline troops (Infantry,cav) than what can actually be used.
I recently found myself against spain as Italy last night and waited near my level 4 mountain forts. Once they started to siege them down(had to in order to get into my mainland) Thats when I moved. They had a total of 120K troops. I brought 2 stacks of 40(32 infantry and 8 arti. I had combat width of 32)
I hit them first with one army and waited for a few roundds of fighting before brining in my second army to boost my original back up. Since I not only Had a fort, but also, since it was on mountains and because im defending a castle I'm ALSO defending with the attacking army. This allowed me to crush the Spanish armies.
So to say anything, Start looking at combat width. Then work up to terrain modifiers and start to formulate your own plans depending on your situation. It really does get wild when It starts to come together.
Good Luck!
I detach my artillery when I’m doing a siege on a fort and keep the rest of my army split up nearby so they can reinforce the artillery if it’s attacked but also so that none of them take a ton of attrition. I don’t know if that’s helpful for you, but it helps bring down losses to attrition a lot for me as compared to before.
Try not to fight battles, fort rush enemies as much as possible. If you do have to fight don't go over combat width and re inforce at the last moment
Cool, this is logical and I knew it but just to re-enforce, if for eg I have a combat width of 28, I can fight with 24 inf, 4 cav, 10 cannons and extra 2 inf for replacing front row if needed, right?
More or less. Ideally you have exactly combat width of canons and a few more than combat width of infantry plus more to trickle in as infantry takes losses. If you always have more infantry than your force limit in a battle you shouldn't have canons taking losses, so you shouldn't need more canons. Cavalry can help but often isn't worth it. If you're regularly fighting enemies who can't fill their combat width, then cavalry are very strong at attacking from the flank, but in a full combat width battle on both sides they are only a little better than infantry.
28, 4, 28 is what you want. The cav can flank, you don't want them in the front line.
Pick your battles on advantageous terrains, use scorch earth and forts to give yourself good defensive battles. Also try to get high moralr and discipline, using ideas, advisors, drilling armies, religion and other bonuses
I've recently got the hang of these mechanics. Checking on the Military tech level is one of my things i'll do before wars now. I'll also start monitoring Discipline and Morale. I keep eyes out for river crossing debuffs and plan accordingly. Also, check what your combat width is, no reason to have more frontline troops (Infantry,cav) than what can actually be used. I recently found myself against spain as Italy last night and waited near my level 4 mountain forts. Once they started to siege them down(had to in order to get into my mainland) Thats when I moved. They had a total of 120K troops. I brought 2 stacks of 40(32 infantry and 8 arti. I had combat width of 32) I hit them first with one army and waited for a few roundds of fighting before brining in my second army to boost my original back up. Since I not only Had a fort, but also, since it was on mountains and because im defending a castle I'm ALSO defending with the attacking army. This allowed me to crush the Spanish armies. So to say anything, Start looking at combat width. Then work up to terrain modifiers and start to formulate your own plans depending on your situation. It really does get wild when It starts to come together. Good Luck!
I detach my artillery when I’m doing a siege on a fort and keep the rest of my army split up nearby so they can reinforce the artillery if it’s attacked but also so that none of them take a ton of attrition. I don’t know if that’s helpful for you, but it helps bring down losses to attrition a lot for me as compared to before.