English Mission: Levy the Troops

[owen8964]

Hi folks :)

Well, I'm slowly learning the basics and have spent time with the manual, the wiki, old threads and utube but I cannot find how to tell what my Manpower Level is. I have (I think) reached my Max Force Limit, I even have a general available though not currently deployed if that's still necessary, but I cannot find out what my Manpower Level is, other than that it isn't what is needed. I have the base game purchased in the recent sale and no dlc or mods other than what came with the last update.

I think that's part of the problem - everything I DO find is out of date.

So, if anyone can tell me where I can in the current game without dlc or mods, find out what my Manpower Level is, preferably as a percentage, I'd be most grateful.

I might even stop beating my head on the desk. Y'never know...;)

edit: Sorting out where I had confused myself...

[Azunai]

your manpower counter is in the info bar on the top left side of the screen, next to the money counter. when you mouse over the manpower, you can also see the your maximum manpower in the tooltip.

i'm not familiar with the specific mission, but if the manpower level is given as a percentage then it's just the ratio of your current manpower vs. max manpower. don't know if that percentage is displayed somewhere in the UI, but when you know the max value it's not rocket science to figure out what 50% or 90%(or whatever other percentage of it) is

[owen8964]

Originally posted by Azunai:

your manpower counter is in the info bar on the top left side of the screen, next to the money counter. when you mouse over the manpower, you can also see the your maximum manpower in the tooltip.

i'm not familiar with the specific mission, but if the manpower level is given as a percentage then it's just the ratio of your current manpower vs. max manpower. don't know if that percentage is displayed somewhere in the UI, but when you know the max value it's not rocket science to figure out what 50% or 90%(or whatever other percentage of it) is

Well, thanks for the try :)

I've got to my Force Limit: 38 units. My manpower pool is full. 0 reinforcements needed, couple of hundred (iirc) available - dam well should be since I have done no fighting and suffered no attrition!

But for whatever reason, I'm being told my Manpower Level isn't at the necessary %. 60, iirc but it might be 75. Either way, I can find no information about it and wondered if anyone could help.

I'm no Maths genius but if it were just a matter of working out a % myself I could probably just about cope - if I take my shoes and socks off ;) But if it's a % of my total available manpower in terms of potential reinforcements I'm at 100%. Makes no sense. :(

[bri]

That's not what the manpower pool is, that's your current army size. Reinforcements needed/not is completely irrelevant for the mission in question, you could have 38 units with 1 man in them (assuming a force limit of 38) and fulfill that aspect. Manpower pool is the total available men in your nation to reinforce or add more units. It's towards the left of the top bar, to the right of the country shield. If you mouse over the number it will generate a pop-up that gives the current monthly gain, the current maximum value, and list the information on reinforcements needed and that will arrive the current month if applicable.

[Admod, the Equivocal]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668385999

If you look at the tool tip, you can see the manpower and the 'max' manpower you can have as england. Currenlty it says I have 8k manpower but maximum is 28k.

[Azunai]

Originally posted by owen8964:

...
I've got to my Force Limit: 38 units. My manpower pool is full. 0 reinforcements needed,

...

ok i looked it up. you misunderstand the manpower pool. england starts with 29 regiments and about 8k manpower and needs to build up to forcelimit (37) and have 60% manpower. when you recruit 8 more units, your manpower is empty, not full.

max manpower reserves for england at the 1444 bookmark is ~28k so you have to wait until you've regenerated to about 17k

[owen8964]

Originally posted by Azunai:

Originally posted by owen8964:

...
I've got to my Force Limit: 38 units. My manpower pool is full. 0 reinforcements needed,

...

ok i looked it up. you misunderstand the manpower pool. england starts with 29 regiments and about 8k manpower and needs to build up to forcelimit (37) and have 60% manpower. when you recruit 8 more units, your manpower is empty, not full.

max manpower reserves for england at the 1444 bookmark is ~28k so you have to wait until you've regenerated to about 17k

Christ on a crutch.

Thanks for the help.

[[ λ³ ] nob]

FYI, the easiest way to meet this criteria is to use mercenaries to reach forcelimit so you don't have to spend manpower to recruit. You could slacken recruiting standards (do this before hiring mercs) to gain manpower too. You could grant increased levies to the nobility for more max manpower (and thus manpower recovery) and then revoke it to reduce your manpower cap while you got to benefit for a while from increased recovery.

[owen8964]

Originally posted by λ³ nob:

FYI, the easiest way to meet this criteria is to use mercenaries to reach forcelimit so you don't have to spend manpower to recruit. You could slacken recruiting standards (do this before hiring mercs) to gain manpower too. You could grant increased levies to the nobility for more max manpower (and thus manpower recovery) and then revoke it to reduce your manpower cap while you got to benefit for a while from increased recovery.

Well, I've got to the point where I mostly know what you're talking about but slackening the recruiting standards is a new one :) I'll look into it.

I'm struggling with money, too, early on but that's just an expected part of the learning curve. As is missing the bleeding obvious because you're taking in so much new stuff.

Azunai: Hope my previous didn't come across as ungrateful. It was just frustrated. Genuinely, thanks for the help.

[Azunai]

Originally posted by owen8964:

...


Well, I've got to the point where I mostly know what you're talking about but slackening the recruiting standards is a new one :) I'll look into it.

I'm struggling with money, too, early on but that's just an expected part of the learning curve. As is missing the bleeding obvious because you're taking in so much new stuff.

Azunai: Hope my previous didn't come across as ungrateful. It was just frustrated. Genuinely, thanks for the help.

no problem :) i can understand the frustration. i think i was also somewhat confused by the manpower mechanic when i first started.

i found it a bit counter intuitive that the displayed number is only the reserve that is required to hire new regiments and to replace losses from combat or attrition. the manpower pool does not include the soldiers in active regiments on the map. also, it's a bit weird that disbanding units doesn't return the soldiers to the pool (except when you reach 60% professionalism and unlock the associated perk - but that's DLC content)

[Xander Tyrann]

I feel i should add, England doesn't actually have an easy start either. You have to contend with an truly awful ruler, Civil unrest and a potential civil war, and the end of the 100 years war with france which is really difficult to win for an inexperienced player. (when the game was first released, you would actually be at war with France and heavily outmatched, but they changed that and you start in a pause and can choose to get out of it by giving up maine)

My advice is try to not let everything overwhelm you. And don't let setbacks bother you too much. Try to focus on learning one thing at a time and see yourself improve. Its a long game.

Real England in this period lost its territory in France, ended up in financial ruin and at war with itself.

if you can do better then you're off to a good start :)

Also don't feel you have to do the missions. some give you a nice bonus, and the levy the troops reward is nice early on. But you have to decide yourself if it is a path you want to follow. Its a sandbox game.

[owen8964]

Originally posted by Xander Tyrann:

I feel i should add, England doesn't actually have an easy start either. You have to contend with an truly awful ruler, Civil unrest and a potential civil war, and the end of the 100 years war with france which is really difficult to win for an inexperienced player. (when the game was first released, you would actually be at war with France and heavily outmatched, but they changed that and you start in a pause and can choose to get out of it by giving up maine)

My advice is try to not let everything overwhelm you. And don't let setbacks bother you too much. Try to focus on learning one thing at a time and see yourself improve. Its a long game.

Real England in this period lost its territory in France, ended up in financial ruin and at war with itself.

if you can do better then you're off to a good start :)

Also don't feel you have to do the missions. some give you a nice bonus, and the levy the troops reward is nice early on. But you have to decide yourself if it is a path you want to follow. Its a sandbox game.

When I realised quite how tough the game is to learn - not so much a learning curve as a learning cliff - I had a look at Portugal as a recommended start. But I realised that I faced the same issues which were more about learning mechanics than anything else and at least in England I knew what was going on after repeated starts...;)

So I've run away from France and beat up Scotland. Haven't got them to surrender despite conquering the whole place and destroying their army but at least I got The Isles and Armagnac from it as vassals and annexed Roxburgh. Now have to work out what States are in this context and if I should do that thing...

[Kapika96]

Originally posted by Azunai:

also, it's a bit weird that disbanding units doesn't return the soldiers to the pool (except when you reach 60% professionalism and unlock the associated perk - but that's DLC content)

Think of it like this, at low professionalism the soldiers are basically levies, forced into the army. Like...
Recruiter: Oi, you! You're in the army now!
Random guy: :(
6 years later
General: Yeah, we don't need your unit anymore
Random guy: WOOOOOO, freedom!

While at high professionalism they're professional soldiers. That's their chosen career so it's more like

General: We don't need your unit anymore
Random guy : Yes sir! I'll report to the barracks to await reassignment. Long live the King!

[RCMidas]

I resolved the "English sub-zero tier ruler" issue by making him a general and sending 1-man units against the French until he died in battle. Better than waiting for the disaster to fire and is less injurious to the nation as a whole.