[EU4] War Academy I: Army Composition & Basic Combat

In this video I delve into proper army compositions. I give general tips and show several examples of good army builds that can be used in your campaigns. I also discuss the basics of the combat system, and tie the information into why the best army compositions are the way they are.
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Triangle by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/

[@remansparadox8604]

Got a new mic for Christmas, let me know what you guys think of the sound quality.

[@omgrussian]

Last one was pretty good but this one manages to be even better. Great!

[@EmmaOWnzU]

I like it, especially with your edits, in earlier videos you could tell which stuff was recorded, now it's a constant. Thanks for a great video! Just completed your Ming to Mughal!

[@DummyUrD]

Your previous mic was already pretty good, I don't hear a big difference but there is still a slight improvement. Thanks for your informative vids!

[@redoputra1611]

Finally! Thanks Reman 😀

[@theworstvow]

It's very gut, mein Freund!

[@beefyblom]

0:46 "Here's an example of a normal battle you might see" Revolutionary Theodoro vs Russia

[@cavejohnson982]

9 morale

[@sanda386]

Lmao

[@arcadiusrex215]

This is the ideal army composition. You may not like it but this is what peak damage looks like.

[@niklas4842]

Arcadius Rex nice meme

[@Kingdemonpigfromhell]

It's not what peak damage looks like though, that's just not the case nor what the video is saying. When it comes to western troops infantry only deal more damage than cav at tech 6 and 7.

[@Dusty2084]

@@Kingdemonpigfromhell i'm late to the party, but they were making a meme.

[@Cherryfish386]

ALL CAVALRY

[@granttutty6210]

Calm down little kid...

[@Ulas_Aldag]

Have like 1000 hours in the game and after watching your video, Iam felling like a complete noob.

[@niklasnoeske5850]

Ulaş Aldağ I actually have 3000 and still :D

[@dickheaddan4106]

3800 and still :(

[@user-rj8pp6br8e]

820 hours and still.. oh wait I am an actual noob

[@NoOnesBCE]

He is good very good but still did not advertise the Best easy Micro strat just keep your Inf and Cannons CW Stacks seperate so you can adjust on the fly (arrival dates become paramount )

[@AlanMakbeth]

You are not alone, mate.

[@frysebox1]

But cavalry loot faster... important thing to consider when you're pulled into war by your ally and have to strategically plunder your enemies land while they do the fighting

[@hubeargreat7212]

I like you.

[@graveeking]

Actually a really good point I often forget. It's particularly relevant when one is 'carpet sieging' an already defeated enemy - the amount of extra loot they can get from a even slightly developed province that you want to move on from to occupy the next province is actually a pretty sizable amount. And of course, it also hurts the enemy's economy in the short-term if you're not able to annex that province, especially with devastation in the game.

[@XonokMe]

"Strategically" enrich yourself out of someone else's war, instead of helping them out. I like it.

[@xytez3452]

You really like hordes, don't You?

[@winser21]

Doesn't matter much when you're gouging yourself with that cavalry cost the entire late game.

[@FatheredPuma81]

Cross a straight into a mountain province without a general while the enemy is waiting there with a 6/6/6 General. Greatest meatgrinder I hope to one day see.

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

Do not forget to add crossing a strait I abused the ai alot by defending an Island to the south of India that way Once their 30+ stack would land, I'd cut reinforcements off with my navy

[@Vincrand]

@@MrDwarfpitcher That is also how I beat Teutonic Order + Livonion Order + Riga as Ösel (custom nation with 3 dev).

[@BrandstifterFussel88]

"Dead soldiers can't fire their guns" - *Laughs in Vampire Coast*

[@alphamikeomega5728]

*Laughs in Osowieć Fortress*

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

Can we get a degree at the end? I feel like this knowledge would have an actual monetary value.

[@kedrak90]

Trygve Plaustrum Only if there is an exam at the end. Reddit get on that!

[@mazlog5431]

well some people pay for a degree in womens studies and other things where you cannot get a job so... why not this? And it's free?! heck ya lol

[@Real_SkyRipper]

@@mazlog5431 oh yeah Gender studies, first class: there are two, that's it congrats you all pass. XD

[@revolutionarycomrade]

@@Real_SkyRipper conservatives have one joke... and it's not even funny.

[@henriquec8848]

@@revolutionarycomrade it is not a joke.

[@Graybat12]

Wonder if paradox has plans in some future update to make late game cavalry more relevant given the critical role even going into the 1600s. There were tons of battles in the late modern period where cavalry was critically important.

[@darkestkhan]

Cavalry was important because w/o threat of cavalry there is no need for infantry - just go straight into artillery. Add threat of cavalry and it is no longer so simple.

[@MultiNacnud]

cavalry in later years were used as scouts (J.E.B Stuart american civil war for example),maybe paradox could reduce the fog of war if they are deployed in an army.

[@noaccount4]

The Mughals, the Cossacks and the Central Asian powers all primarily relied upon their heavy or light cavalry throughout this period, it's wrong to say cavalry didn't play a major role

[@pinturicchio4400]

Would be nice if Cav can operate out of the combat with (make 3-4 fields which just Cav can use) so they are more out of the scope of the main army. Maybe let them attack the second line directly if no other Cavalry is on the enemy side? Dunno if that would be to strong or wouldnt change anything but at least it sound nice to me

[@rabidfurify]

The way that armies deploy, particular wrt reinforcements, is so obviously broken by design that I occasionally forget exactly how it works because of how incredibly stupid, unintuitive and damaging to gameplay it is. Cavalry should clearly be able to exceed normal combat width limits to make them relevant in the later portion of the game where every combat is at max width. And armies should adjust themselves mid-combat in order to keep cavalry on the flanks (where the enemy is not at max width) and all artillery should be pushed to the back line. Even if we don't allow cavalry to be able to exceed normal combat width limits (which would be a fairly significant change) they would still have some marginal use late game if they could be deployed to the flanks from 'reserve' as the enemy line shortens, in order to allow you to deal maximum damage to a crumbling enemy army.

[@darkfireslide]

Hey Reman, as always your videos are really in-depth and precise. I think what you could have done better, however, is emphasizing how much more important artillery becomes later in the game, compared to how relatively weak it is when first unlocked. I think there's even an argument to be made that until about tech 16 or so that there isn't really a point to building artillery except to siege. But maybe this is in the next video? I think something else to consider is how your tech group's pips and your current general can affect your army composition. A 3/6 general in the late game isn't ideal, but a few cavalry regiments could really make use of the shock modifier since their shock is still so much higher than infantry in the late game. I could be wrong, of course, and that's fine too, but I love that EU4'S combat is complex enough to warrant this kind of discussion.

[@remansparadox8604]

I plan on covering exactly how artillery becomes better next video when I go into the second half of the combat equation, which includes fire and shock modifiers. The part about how general/unit pips can impact army composition is... intriguing. It obviously has an impact and a 0/6/x/x general late-game would obviously be much better with cav than a 6/0/x/x. However, generals are so ephemeral and tend to bounce around all over the world that it's usually not worth the effort. In my many hours of watching other advanced players, I don't think I've ever seen them change their army composition late-game due to general or unit pips. Still, it would be interesting to see how much better a composition could be.

[@darkfireslide]

Yeah, and to be fair, minmaxing to that degree would probably honestly be something you would only do in single player; in multiplayer there just isn't time or impetus to do so. Of course, in single player, often at that point in the late game it doesn't really matter anyway if you've already snowballed. It's still mostly theoretical and to be honest, I'm just being contradictory for the sake of being contradictory, haha. Odds are the improvement isn't enough to justify the amount of money spent getting the 6-12 cavalry regiments you would need to change your army. Still, if you have a 0/6/x/x in the late game, why I thought you might cover that, because yeah, cav is really important in the early game, I feel. Even at tech 7, having full combat width artillery technically isn't a *bad* thing, but if you have that much money anyway, you can probably build twice or three times the number of regular, combat-capable troops. That being said, I did an England campaign on my channel a while ago and artillery was actually useful for a short bit when I rolled a 5 fire general at mil tech 12 or something like that. Did it really matter? It's hard to say. And I mean, at the end of the day, it's a grand strategy game, so usually what matters most are things not related to generals or unit pips. I just feel that if a player bothers to learn how shock/fire, generals, and pips all work, you might as well try something interesting if you get put into a weird situation with a general or something.

Tech group pips mattered a lot in EU3 and very early EU4 patches. They really flattened the difference at some point, and it's really not worth thinking too much about now.

[@rwfr190]

armies without cavalry are dishonorable sir. Do you expect a cannon to charge and save the day?

[@tomothan]

Of course not, there's infantry for that

[@ShahjahanMasood]

Boom 🔥🔥🔥

[@-Faris-]

Reminds me of the time the Polish cavalry charged German tanks in WW2

[@panzertee9790]

The Lone Traveller That didn’t actually happened it was a myth perpetrated by the nazis to demean the poles and convince the the Germans that they were fighting and inferior enemy, when in fact the Nazi army had hundreds of cavalry themselves

[@ecksdee8021]

@@panzertee9790 i thought that polish cavalry did attack tanks but they used anti-tank rifles and not swords

[@emo_girlbymgk8181]

Who’s back after part IV, some 2 years later.

[@claudiavidican]

'If you're a new player, chances are you're not building enough artillery.' Yep, sounds about right, now I'm excited to use my new found knowledge in EU4.

[@Thunder103093]

I build alot of artillery & im still losing wars

[@rodguy35]

When I have 400 hrs on Eu4 and still have no idea what I'm doing

[@mlg_teletubby9391]

When I have 500 hours but feel like I have to re learn the game every expansion. I think I've actually gotten worse over time.

[@olivialambert4124]

This was incredibly useful, thank you. I'd been looking for in depth guides with mathematics and the scientific approach for a while so I fell in love with your channel immediately. I'd been looking for a proper explanation to combat and the wiki just wasn't cutting it with some areas beyond me, some below me, and lots of "get this army" with no explanation such as suggesting a tiny 10 wide army stack which really wouldn't cut it even at the very start of my game. This video brought me up to speed enough to understand the rest of the wiki and explained why giving me the skills needed to make my own armies. Again, thank you.

[@TheOnlyFeanor]

I was basically gonna make this comment. Amazing video, very clear and concise !

[@austinshires3735]

Your videos are actually so amazingly good

[@scroogietw6878]

Ive watched and read many army guides now and this one is by far the best it covers stuff completely and from the bottom up. Thank you a lot Reman! :D

[@TLedoux-px4xl]

It really makes my day seeing that you uploaded a video.

[@andrewryan2417]

One of the best in-depth guides of EU 4 I've ever seen, keep up the good work!

[@lucashampton6269]

Sound quality is amazing! Also, thank you for making this video! I have played lots of EU4 but never knew for sure how to approach it the best way.

[@alvarlindstrom2188]

Something I really REALLY can’t stress enough is your ability to make something this complicated understandable. Someone else could’ve EASILY just been rambling on with numbers for way to long and being hard to understand while you take everything one by one and slowly so that I understand very well. You’ve earned yourself a sub!

[@verloren844]

I love how much influence Reman holds, actually. After the recent video about 20 vs 40 combat width in HOI4 EVERY HOI youtuber or streamer I watch started using 40 width divisions.

[@Adamos321]

Wow, this is absolutely increcible, indept and well described guide. One of the best I've ever seen for any aspect of any game. Thank you for that Reman!

[@tailshey129]

Dear Reman, your fabulous gaming skills, insightful interrogation on the mechanics alongside the gentle and polite presenting style make me love everyone of your video. I truly appreciate all works you have done and I am always ready for your next video. I just finished the Ryukyu Q&A, and I almost felt jealous that all those commenting question gets your answer. That being said I also have several questions that I would like to ask. 1. You promised us that you would make a video on Ming-Yuan on the patch ”Third Rome”. I know it is very hard to make a video and you are busy on other more intriguing topics upon Paradox Strategical Games, but I just would like to say that I am still interested in that topic even it is already”Cradle of Civilization”: Is the Ming-Yuan still available now? Is it still powerful? And how to quickly form Yuan as the Ming blob? 2. As a Chinese player, the patch Mandate of Heaven is a light of hope and delight, but it also brings a difficult choice: conquering or tributary? Through all the Ming games I have played after the patch, this question has been an endless puzzle for me. I would like to apply for your attention on this game mechanic. Using your erudite knowledge upon Paradox Game, you can tell us that is it more beneficial to gain as much tributary states as we can, or we should just conquer all the land we can instead of making more and more Tributary States. Also, how is the benefits of tributary states differ through all states on different continents, is it better to make Asian States, European States, or even American tribes into Tributary?While dealing with “Tributary Range” Is it more efficient to just conquer small land as “Tributary Bases”, and make the country around your tributary states? Or is it better to conquer through big states such as Russia, and make a pathway from Asia to Europe, while making tributary states along the way? 3. Can you also do a video about the world conquest difference, if the religion, culture, or even capital is locked by the achievements? Is there any difference in the world conquest if your original position is not on an island, but Byzantium which is in the middle of multiple great powers, or Karaman which is surrounded by a big power like Ottoman? Is it different for World Conquest if it is a one state minor? Thank you for all your effort, and I do not want to urge you in answering ay of the question, please take your time, and keep your pace. Finally, is there anyway that I can send you patrons, I really love your work and I want to keep you around as far as I can.

[@3ipolarBear]

Thank god for your take on that, been feeling the need for someone to put an in depth definitive resolution for the optimal army composition problem since no one on the forums or reddit ever seems to agree on the same numbers

[@Perzyn]

I want to thank you for this series. As someone who always tried to learn how to play EU IV and always ended discouraged, partly due to opacity of many game systems, this video made it much easier to understand what I've been doing wrong (a lot).

[@Shaymuhs]

Your videos are amazing, the work put into them is second to none and since I subscribed over 6 months ago I've never missed a notification. Keep it up!

[@RedBaronHill1]

Glad to see you back and great new idea for a series of videos!

[@stevenjhill5448]

Another 'must-have' set of videos to have on the EU4 learning curve. Congratulations on the best strategy-gaming tutorials on YT

[@CitySwimmah]

Man you are a wolf among sheep withing eu4 tutorial youtubers. Truly eye opening stuff , Thanks

[@Yitick]

New mic sounds great! Did you make a pop filter? Also, thank you for making these videos. It breaks down a very overwhelming amount of information into great, well explained pieces.

[@SSKOverLord]

The fact that you have only 38k subscribers is beyond my understanding . Thank you and keep up the good work !

[@arshadshauib7201]

Bless you sir, I just got this game with the Dev weekend sale and this video series is goated...cheers!!

[@soaringpenguingaming8646]

Awesome look at the combat mechanics... very informative. Thanks for sharing!

[@petrusrauhala4883]

This cleared up so much! I have 300h in this game and up until now i have been a total noob. I feel like this is gonna make my campaigns atleast twice as easy. Thanks so much man! You rock!

[@barbadoskado2769]

nice video, cool explaning. also with going into the details and the formulas!

[@Robi2009]

Wow, I have read and watched many army compisition tutorials and never anyone said to drop cavalry completely... But your reasoning is sound and logical. Good to know.

[@gaiusjuliuscaesar4201]

The sound sounds great lmao, and thank you for this vid, after 1000 hours of eu4 still learn something new everyday

[@giovannicalderon4859]

Reman this video just opened my eyes. 2000 hours and I realize Im trash. Thanks man!

[@aoxc61]

An excellent and very informative video. This will definitely improve my playing of EU4!

[@dnjj1845]

Took a hiatus from this game, good refresher series Reman, well done.

[@blatt1375]

As always, a fantastic guide

[@brokenmotor2]

YES!!! I have waited for this! Thanks, reman!!

[@rydergamesnl1862]

REEEEEEEEEMAN we love you! Thanks for the enlightenment!

[@GameOver15468]

What I really like about you Chanel is that your Videos are about quality instead of quantity. And dude... the qualitiy of your vids is just insane :D

[@yourethatmantis5178]

I kinda wish Cav had some kind of use in combat, like the scouting bonus in Vicky 2 or something.

[@Videokirby]

Perhaps Cav could punish frontline Artillery even more, operating on the assumption that Artillery isn't as useful against fast-moving targets like Cavalry and that they could close the gap much faster than Infantry. They would also prioritize attacking Artillery over infantry. This would give Cavalry some staying power in main armies, and could inflict fast-damage on pure Artillery stacks.

[@user-ch9my3to6j]

that is another game, go play vic2 ...

[@enderaslan7998]

At the beginning of the game you can get full effectiveness if you send inf in groups of 2 by 2 and retreat them after enough damage to enemy infantry So cav will be in charge always Very much micro management but you dont have tooo much to do in beginnig. Especially their shock values are sky rocket for that era and you will save thousands of manpower

[@drawingdownthestars]

Incredible series. Thank you!

[@Rannos22]

Hey found one of these videos in my suggestions Really good work I would suggest throwing these into a playlist so it's easier to watch in one sitting and easier to find the other parts later

[@shinydewott]

Amazing video as always

[@konradkruk9468]

Thank you so much ! It is the last mechanic in EU IV , of which I have no clue how to conscientiously interact with .

[@ToroNero]

Oh my, thank you so much for this Reman. I wish you come back to youtube.

[@blueknight1706]

Can’t wait for you to talk more about horde combat and such, still having trouble with properly optimising my stacks so they can take on ming

[@EthanBlur]

Wow 1000 hours in and I had no idea about artillery thanks man.

[@forte5203]

I feel like I need to take notes, I've played like 200 hours of eu4 and had no clue about needing that much artillery. This really helped me

[@MikeMMKK2003]

This is the most useful guide I watched.

[@-Faris-]

Remember the day you said: We don’t need algebra in real life! Now look back at the formulas used to measure casualties in eu4 battles Yeah, we all now regret saying that

[@AlanMakbeth]

Amazing video, mate! Very useful!

[@a_doggo]

THANK YOU!!! Your mic sounds amazing.

[@pat45a]

Thank you very much for the tips about artillery! I wasn’t using them outside of sieges because of their price and they seemed useless in combat (in large numbers i mean). I didnt know theses guns would help my armies fight better !

[@gzs7483]

1200hrs pleb here 1st of Love the videos Reman rly cool also made me so happy when u described the hybrid strat because thats what I independently arrived at :D

[@stormtroopers8653]

concise and helpful as usual

[@alexanders8341]

This video is so insanely well made that I keep going back to it regularly. I wonder if Riemann is planning to do new eu4 videos?

[@neutralgoodhuman9255]

Pipless infantry is the best infantry! And I love your videos, you're doing an amazing work!

[@pakitin]

I'm amazed by the amount of data you use, it's very useful. I was a user of EU2 on its day and now in EU4 I'm like: a 40 regiment army losing to a 20 one WTF!! My brain is exploting right now hehehe. Thanks.

[@32Mormon74Guy07]

Excited to see what you say about combat ability, that is one thing that has never clicked. Also glad to hear confirmation of my army composition. I use a mix of 2 and 3. +10-20% more infantry in my main stacks, with reserves along side. As a suggestion to cover, I would be interested in seeing what a good ratio of normal infantry/merc infantry would be for your average nation, both for your main fighting force, as well as for reserve forces.

[@32Mormon74Guy07]

Well, one thing I noticed one time just messing around in the nation designer is that you can have a modifier for discipline, and also one specifically for merc discipline. So that makes me wonder if standard discipline doesn't actually apply to mercs. But, maybe it does. I only started a month ago, I've never really payed attention or looked for anything like that, and only recently started actually using mercs, though still no loans.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Appreciate you breaking down some of the combat mechanics but the cavalry composition deserves some more attention.

[@mbogucki1]

This makes me appreciate Total War: Empire army mechanics more.

[@Fruzhin5483]

LOL, i have been playing the game for a year, I restored the Roman empire as Byzantium, and yet, my army composition has usually been 4 Inf, 2 cavalry, 1 artillery, LMAOO

[@LordPelegorn]

shows how sadly little important it is in single player since the AI just doesn't know what to do... (if you know what you're doing in other parts of the game)

[@PSPbrtag]

How did you started out your game? I've been wanting to try a Byz game but it's the start that kills me.

[@verdiss7487]

Sounds like a late game AI army composition. Yeah get on fixing that next time you play, it's honestly amazing how much of a difference it makes to have a full backline of artillery.

[@salviija774]

Vali Rusev I have always been 5:1:3 in late game

[@Fruzhin5483]

Well, It is very easy actually. I start by improving relations with the Albanians, by guranting them, and Hungarians, while building ships and preparing an army. I usually destroy my forts since they wont have any use for me. When u have the alliance with the Hungarians and Albanians, try to invite some of the balkan nations like The Wallachians and Serbians and start building a spy network on Venice. Depending on the situation u can either declare war on the Venicians or wait for the Ottomans to declare war on the turkish minors. Now, your war with the ottomans! It is best to transport your army to Wallacia through Hungary, thus being able to besiege Edirne( or Adrianopol). Wait for them to go to war with one of the turkish minors or some other Asian country, so to be able to trap their army. Make sure to personly siege every county u want to take, MOST IMPORTANTLY EDIRNE!!! Try expanding into the mediterenian islands A.k attack venice, Genoa and the Knights. If u can vassalise Albania and invade Serbia and Bosnia. This is my opening. Try declaring war to the ottomans only when they are already at war

[@rcole1055]

Wow, what a great video

[@Eisenwulf666]

Thanks,this explains a lot of things

[@ProWhitaker]

Thanks for the video

[@KingofDrama1]

hooray it's reman

[@cou2707]

To make late game cavalry useful they could: 1. always allow for flanking even at maximum combat width. 2.Let cavalry grant bonuses to the rest of the army to represent scouting etc. 3.Could perhaps reduce attrition (from cavalry being useful for foraging). 4.Give large bonuses to casualties inflicted to retreating units. 5. Have a chance to cause a 'breakthrough' whereby cavalry attacks artillery in the second line, or deals massive damage to infantry in the first line (to represent being attacked in the rear by cav). Just some thoughts.

[@mohammadthaer7334]

Im a simple man, I see reman post a video I press like without seeing it 👍

[@sdauz]

Excellent vid

[@squazl]

My army composition is usually art+5%(min. +1) with equal amounts of inf to match the siege requirements for modern forts and prevent small attrition from slowing down the siege. Depending on my forcelimit and income I build multiple of those and then fill another army with 4 cav, 5 art and combat width-4 inf. Suitable for fighting in the early game, taking out capital forts, reinforcing my other stacks in combat and pre-sieging. With pre-sieging I mean progressing a forts siege progress, while your siege stack is busy, and then letting the siege stack take over and finish the siege almost immediately.

[@squazl]

With the newly added army professionalism I found it important to always be at forcelimit until you reach 100% army professionalism.

[@lequinow]

Nice video as usual. Obviously, depending on where you're playing in the world, you'll want to evaluate your stacks as the game goes on. Western Europe let's you field grand armies without much micro since the supply limit is huge. If you're in western Africa where attrition is a big deal, you'll want something that works better on most of the terrain without having to constantly split your armies. I've been using a 15/2/10 template for my troops for a very long time and it's convenient, practical and effective to accomplish most of your goals in SP from tech 13 to 23.

[@ecpgieicg]

Regarding cavalry use, have you try fighting a 40inf+30art stack with 30inf+10cav+30art stack? Depending on how late is late game, of course, the stack with 10cav can decimate the pure infantry army by taking no practically no shock damage while dishing out tons of damage in shock phase themselves. The problem is severely exasperated when the dice roll is favorable for the infantry army in shock phases but less so in fire phase. The army with 10 cav is effectively immune to disadvantageous dice roll in shock phases. I just don't see how flanking bonus is the main reason for cavalry use barring extremely early game. Can you address this pease?

[@LordPelegorn]

i don't know about his points but another reason is that fire phase comes first, where the exact opposite happens. the cavalry will get decimated first, meaning they will have less strength in the shock phase, dealing less damage

[@ecpgieicg]

+Marvin Heierli This is where the tech level comes in. You can't assume in general the 10cav regiments can result in total disparity in the combat potential of the whole armor during fire phase across all tech levels. Feel free to refresh on the pip charts of different unit groups first. There are a lengthy periods of time where infantry only has marginal amount of extra fire pips compared to cavalry. (And before those times, the two are straight up equal in fire pips.) Are the implications clear to you from this point?

[@Ascordigan]

I am far from an expert but from MIL tech 16 and onwards at least, the cav shock phase benefit is simply outclassed compared to their cost. Art can fire from the back line and at tech 16 have almost as much fire as cav has shock. Also at this point, western inf has 12 pips compared to the 10 cav pips, making them better overall. So the main cav advantages, shock damage and flanking, is diminished and negated respectively. At this point, inf and art combine to deal more fire damage than cav can deal shock damage (and the art advantage is so great you want to spend your money there) and the army size ruins flanking. Cav can still do things, sure, but it's much more expensive than simple infantry and simply not worth it on a cost-based measure anymore.

[@ecpgieicg]

MIL tech 16 is actually exactly the point I am referring to. Try what I said and see if a stack wipe from time to time justify the cost.

[@LordPelegorn]

maybe i missunderstood you but looking at the unit pips on the wiki at tech 16 the fire pips for infantry range from 2 to 4 depending of tech group while cav has 0 to 2 pips, looking at western tech infantry has 4 fire pips to only 1 fire pip for cav. this difference only grows bigger with more tech

[@johngalt8708]

THANK YOU

[@terrencesauve]

Update for 1.30 Merc system? Some nations have great bonuses and that extra manpower pool at a cheaper cost is a godsend!

[@GileadMaerlyn]

Nice! I've always built armies with 4 cav in early game, I see I was right.

[@cptnd3851]

THANK GOD

[@marcoweinhofer938]

Awesome video, really didn't know cav usefulness dropped off so hard in the late game.

[@PussInMass]

Reman is the only youtuber who makes me feel myself completely dumb)) This common mistake, that newbie mistake... And I thought, that I knew de wei this game is played!

[@GreenFitzy43]

Hi Reman, another great video thank you for all the effort. I was wondering I have read that some people suggest using Mercs for infantry and your own troops for Cav and artillery because of balancing man power. Having watched your video on army professionalism you suggested using mercs or your own trained troops. Is there any weight in on how merc vs levies effect army comp? I would assume this would depend on national ideas, income, manpower reserves, and who you're fighting but as a general rule of thumb?

[@cyro136]

Thank you!

[@lord6617]

I feel like cavalry usage really demands a more in depth discussion, as using or not using it a lot of times depends on your opponent and morale values, as well as your economic situation. Cavalry does a ton of morale damage, and most times unless your troops are prussian space marines, you don't win battles just by killing the enemy, but by crushing the enemy morale value. And the AI is highly prone to fielding not a full combat width of cannons, so the cannon's backline fire damage isnt killing your cav, and the infantry won't be shielded by the backline cannons, which adds up to a LOT of shock and morale damage. The same thing can happen to you, as well, as the AI likes cav a LOT more than players usually do. Running a stack with less than a full combat width of artillery and all infantry into an enemy stack with a heavy mix of cav and a good shock general can destroy you, especially if its a country with very high morale bonuses like france. How many artillery to field is a video all to itself as well, but until province unit support values get to late game quantities, artillery is the single greatest killer of your troops (via attrition by being over province support) so you very rarely have more than 1 stack with full width artillery, which is where the above comments come even more into play imho.

[@Slangnegativ]

You're great Reman. You should give CK2 some love too.

[@MrWepps]

Cavalry pursuits following a victory in battle often had the most devastating and damaging effect of the whole shebang. I wonder why Paradox never included that in an otherwise awesome game.

[@whooch9318]

Learn allot from these videos. Excellent presentation along with graphical representations of the subject matter being explained. Thank you Reman's. Can someone explain to me, when reinforcing an army, what is meant by over stacking the artillery. Does that mean that once the artillery is placed on the front line, because of lack of infantry and there is a reinforcement stack sent into the battle, the mechanics will continue to hold that artillery on the front line and not move it to the back?

[@brokenmotor2]

New mic sounds great. I have a question, do these army compositions apply to hordes, or should I be using more cav in hordes for the shock bonuses?

[@TheCookieRave]

Thank you for the video, I can give it to my noob friends so that I can finally play EU4 with them.

[@tonythesopranos5310]

Thank you so much for this, I've just not been able to play euiv for months because my armies constantly get their shit kicked in unless they clearly outnumber the enemy, and it makes fighting any larger country impossible, so you just spend all game at peace.

[@olegmajboroda7272]

Thanks for the video, could you cover the motivation for selecting different unit types, for example, when should one select offensive and when defensive musketeers?

[@graveeking]

I'm actually a fan of keeping the 4 extra calvary regiments around until the high-late game where the battle is more often than not decided in the first fire phase with the initial barrage of death. The extra flanking range actually comes in extremely handy as a 'win more' effect. So very rarely do you get to finish off an enemy entirely in one battle - and more often than not weaker Nations can't field a full combat width, even in the mid-late game - and there will be weaker nations with weaker stacks, colonial nations, the remaining nations in the HRE and if Ming survives a few border Asia provinces quite often. Obviously, it's a different story in multiplayer but even then they come in handy if you do win a battle. Not only is it good against smaller stacks but in the last few turns in battle calvary get in a few last kicks as the enemy's line collapses. This is especially devastating when the cannons take the front line in the last few turns of combat before they retreat - the extra hits your calvary get in costs your enemy heavily, both in terms of manpower and cost. With that said I wouldn't justify it in -every- stack I have - just the frontline ones. Backlines can remain the typical infantry/cannon core but the frontline sieges... It's worth it I find. Not to mention the calvary scale to 3 at tech 18 which is terrifying (and eventually 4). Even if the AI misplaces them they can still get in those last extra kicks onto an enemy line. Maybe I'm overvaluing those last extra kicks but I'm reasonably confident in saying that in long wars of attrition between two mega-nations those extra kicks in every battle you win can actually make a difference over time and force them into loans and mercs just that little bit sooner. But I haven't crunched the numbers personally so maybe it's not all that worth it. I'm convinced it's more manpower efficient (presuming you're at your force limit) - but I'm not entirely sure on ducats cost efficeny

[@chomes8048]

I lost as Venice last night after taking out the balkans nations, byzantium, athens, milan and annexing both of my vassals. I had an amazing trade based economy going and had force limit army ready to go in the balkans just in case the ottomans decided to attack me. The ottomans did indeed attack me and they easily defeated me twice in 2 wars that were about 10 years apart despite me having a higher military tech by 2 the first war and 3 the 2nd war. In the 2nd war i had a roughly +20 force limit too compared to the first war, but still i was wiped out easily. I realise now that i had way too much cavalry and not enough artillery. Thank you! I will make a small nation again and fight with correct composition this time and see how i go!!

[@RayzorMCO]

how'd it go

[@3420undertaker]

nice

[@phluphie]

Reman, great as always. Question re: cavalry late game. How effective would it be to build units w/ only cavalry and use it to pillage the enemy's lightly defended rear? Basically destroying the enemy's ability to make war? I did this in a US Civil War game years ago. Gave JEB Steward 1000 horses and sent him up north. Worked fantastically for keeping McClellen's army undermanned/unsupplied. Also, please include in-depth naval warfare in this series. I keep trying to make Japan the UK of the east, but not at all sure what's going on w/ naval warfare.

[@rhubarbcereal]

Things I was doing wrong: 1. 25% of army was cannon when it really should have been 45-50% 2. Building calvary late game. 3. Not combining armies before attacking. 4. Quickly clicking out of the "battle" screen whenever it came up because it was too confusing. Thanks for the tips!

[@warkito]

thanks, very interesting