When do you start using artillery for combat

[Bill (t.tv/thebillbo)]

At what point in time does it become as useful as infantry/cavalry in battles?

Knowing the unit as opposed to the century might be useful, help/advice appreciated.

[slatingsangan]

they shoot from behind your front line so they are always useful the only limit is cash and supply

[Erik_Rex]

Mil tech 16 is when canons start to become good and when you really want to get as many as possible. though having them bofore is not bad eather, espacilay for sieges

[Xray]

I always try and keep them for sieges.

Sieges take forever.

[brian_va]

as soon as you have spare forcelimit and cash to pay for them. a little extra is better than nothing. you are gonna want them for a siege stack, might as well have them be useful in combat as well.

[Notion Seller]

does anybody here have links to updated troop compositions? trying to find a nice balance and most guides are a few years old.

I understand ideas and tech makes a difference. But, is there like a golden ratio of sorts?
For example, i usually use 12 inf 5 cav and 3 siege for a 20 army. I seen a video a while back that explained combat width and how to compose your armies. So i guess thats what im looking for. Having trouble finding it

[Xray]

Originally posted by Dizzyy:

does anybody here have links to updated troop compositions? trying to find a nice balance and most guides are a few years old.

I understand ideas and tech makes a difference. But, is there like a golden ratio of sorts?
For example, i usually use 12 inf 5 cav and 3 siege for a 20 army. I seen a video a while back that explained combat width and how to compose your armies. So i guess thats what im looking for. Having trouble finding it

I go 16/4/20 by end game.

For 20 stack I'd go simply 8/2/10.

At 30 stack I'd go, shocker, halfway between the two, 12/3/15.

As a general rule, you want a little under half your frontline units (Inf and cav) to be cav. and some cannons for siege. Start to replace your cavalry with cannons at mil tech 16 until about a quarter of your frontline is cav and your arty is equal to your front line.

Also, if you can afford it you want your armies to be large enough that your frontline units are equal to your combat width to avoid allowing your enemy to gain flanking bonuses, and make it more likely you will.

[Notion Seller]

Thank you, that is very helpful and ill give it a try here shortly

[Xray]

Originally posted by Dizzyy:

Thank you, that is very helpful and ill give it a try here shortly

I'm sorry, I think I screwed up on what I said for the infantry-cavalry ratio.

You do not want a little under half your frontline units to be cav. That's bad. Rather, and this is what I should have said, what you want is of your frontline units, your cavalry should equal a little under half your infantry.

So if you have, for example, 20 infantry, you want 7-9 cavalry instead of 10 or, as my advice originally was, 17-19. This is because cav is a support unit, and so it needs infantry. Most countries start off with a cavalry-infantry ratio of 1:2, hence why your cavalry should equal half your infantry. However, due to infantry dying in battle, the ratio could become something like 1.75:2, thus giving you a malus towards the effectiveness of your cavalry. So that's why you want your cavalry units to be equal to slightly less than half your infantry.

[Notion Seller]

Yea it was clear to me what you meant after the numbers were given.
Thanks mate. Having a nice milan run through right now so im going to try this

[Erik_Rex]

cav is really not that good late game, and in moast cases (if you are not a nation with alot of cav bonuses) you are better off not having much to no cav in your armies


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63oZQpKt_g&t=520s
this is a video I really like to explain alot of army comosition questions and more

[Notion Seller]

dude thats the exact video i was talking about thank you.

[Bill (t.tv/thebillbo)]

Thanks for sharing that video Rexxar.

[Xray]

I'd recommend subscribing to Reman's Paradox.

He covers most, if not all, of PDX's RTS games and updates when necessary.

[Bill (t.tv/thebillbo)]

Originally posted by POSH Xray:

I'd recommend subscribing to Reman's Paradox.

He covers most, if not all, of PDX's RTS games and updates when necessary.

Already done. :D

[Fellini_Fiend]

When initially unlocked and through tech 15 you only need a minimum of 5 to 10 artillery to get full bonuses (5 for capital forts, 10 for regular forts) and it also depends on you force limit and economy, you should certainly aim for at least 5 of them to get the full bonus to capitals like I said. Once tech 16 comes around is when fire modifiers really get important especially for artillery. That’s when you want to pay attention to what the combat width currently is.

For example when the combat width is maxed out at 40 I will have two stacks of 24 inf and 20 artillery with a couple of cavalry just for a bit of flanking for gold measure. So it ends up being 48 4 40 composition fighting initially. I have more than 40 infantry involved because I’m not gonna risk my artillery in the back taking any damage from lack of support and I keep another army or two nearby to fully reinforce when the number of infantry involved start dropping.