Russia the worst nation so far

[Cortez]

No economy, terrible military, and if you want to get men in the field you gonna go in deficit. To get good eco you have to spend mana so you will get behind ideas and tech. In the end you get colonized by Ming or any Western power. GG.

[bri]

Originally posted by Medicles:

You want to fight unfair wars you are sure to win, much like the AI only attacks when it reckons to win depending on the numbers of the current situation.

Very much this. Fight wars by parking enough men around that their armies won't engage as you occupy their stuff...

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by Kuma:

I just realized this but how do you fight major powers with no mil ideas? Even the most centralized nation in india could potentially be a strong enemy for you with no ideas. Most majors usually get 110 or 115 discipline with decent manpower. How do you counter that?

Originally posted by Marquoz:

Never. My first three ideas as Russia are always Admin, Diplo, and Influence. They're called the Big Three for good reason. Every other idea group is inferior to them in single player. If you're an early colonizer, you'll probably start with Exploration and Expansion, but even then you should take the Big Three next.

Be a bully. Pick on armies much smaller than yours until you've built a large enough economy to have the hugest army around. That plus a military advisor and maybe high professionalism and drill, and whatever military national ideas you have, will let you defeat even high-powered armies like Commonwealth or Prussia. Especially if you micromanage your battles- e.g. steadily feeding in fresh troops in waves.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Kuma:

I assume your second idea is Trade? I never liked games where you push trade because that basically requires you to sacrifice idea group, I rather go Prussia style warfare or Russian style for RP reasons.

Trade Ideas are actually one of the most irrelevant non-military Idea Groups in the game if you're playing with a "push trade" mindset. The three extra Merchants are redundant when you already get more than enough Merchants from your Trade Companies, and the rest are basically just "win harder" bonuses to make more money off of what is already the most lucrative money-making strategy in the game. They basically become pointless after you start making hundreds of ducats a month from trade.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Kuma:

I just realized this but how do you fight major powers with no mil ideas?

Easily. I can play entire campaigns without losing a battle. And the reason is that I don't take military ideas. Nine+ years ago, I was one the first EU4 players--maybe the very first--to realize that taking military idea groups makes you weaker in single player, not stronger. Consider what happens if you don't take them:

1) You spend military points on tech--you get and keep a permanent tech lead. Being two or three techs ahead of the rest of the world can have an enormous impact on your military. You unlock new unit types first. You often have more combat width. You often have more morale, more discipline, and more tactics. Etc.
2) You spend military points rolling lots and lots of generals. Your siege armies are always led by generals with siege pips, so they beat forts fast. Your combat armies are always led by generals with high fire and shock values, so they kill effectively.
3) Buying lots of generals also increases your army professionalism fast, which has many useful effects.
4) And finally, you buy a different idea group that opens up far more important capabilities for your nation.

The combination of a permanent tech lead + great generals + high professionalism + the powers you gain from another idea group is much stronger than any military group. I literally don't care if an AI nation has individual soldiers that are better than mine 1 on 1. My tech/generals/professionalism combined with the fact that I will massively outnumber the enemy means that they're doomed. And it's the idea groups that I choose--those that enable me to blob far faster than the AI--that ensure I massively outnumber the enemy.

[MasterYi]

Originally posted by Kuma:

I just realized this but how do you fight major powers with no mil ideas? Even the most centralized nation in india could potentially be a strong enemy for you with no ideas. Most majors usually get 110 or 115 discipline with decent manpower. How do you counter that?

To add on what others have said:

As the player you should be dev pushing institutions (if you are not near Italy for the Renaissance or one of the colonisers for Colonialism), this should always give you a tech advantage against your enemies unless you decide to Knowledge Share to gain a few ducats per month.

If we’re talking about Russia you can recruit Streltsy which give +10% land fire damage, a very minor buff though, most players don’t play long enough for Fire Damage to become relevant.

The Icon of St Nicholas gives +5% Discipline

You can drill your armies to gain professionalism, but again they are minor buffs that are lost very quickly after a few battles.

High army tradition gives better generals, you should have more army tradition than the AI since you should he expanding more than them.

Try to win via morale feeding, reinforce your army that’s in battle with another army, split the reinforcing army into smaller stacks and send them in a few days apart, to hold the frontline and boost morale. Do not overstack, since the overstocked troops will sit in reserve taking morale damage but don’t actually contribute to the fight.

Some Merc Companies may have better generals and special buffs like Discipline or Mercenary Combat Ability, like the Swiss Guard. You can also combo that with the Age of Reformation bonus.

If you can afford it have 4k cav per deathstack, for flanking. Have a full backrow of artillery that fills your combat width.

Lastly, build forts on defensive terrain, bait enemies into attacking you on defensive terrain with a small army but have a bigger army ready to reinforce nearby, scorch earth for 5mil points to out manoeuvre enemies picking off smaller stacks and juggling for a terrain advantage.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by MasterYi:

High army tradition gives better generals, you should have more army tradition than the AI since you should he expanding more than them.

I should point out that the player expanding more does NOT necessarily mean that you will consistently have higher Army Tradition than the AI, as the AI gets vastly more Army Tradition per battle than the player does. This is one of the documented "mechanic handicaps" listed on the wiki. If you take a look at the results screen after a battle you'll often see that this "significant" increase is nothing to sneeze at - the AI will often get 10 to 20 Army Tradition for the accomplishment of getting stackwiped, while the player gets less than 1 Army Tradition for doing the stackwiping. Even long and bloody battles that you barely win can often result in the AI getting 5 to 15 times as much Army Tradition as you do.

There's a certain point around the 16 or 1700's where, in my experience, the player seems to shoot up to 100 Army Tradition very rapidly and stay there for a while, before winding down again in the later game. Haven't studied it enough to have more details than that or an explanation as to why, but it's a definite pattern that I've noticed in my games.

[ChaffyExpert]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Originally posted by MasterYi:

High army tradition gives better generals, you should have more army tradition than the AI since you should he expanding more than them.

I should point out that the player expanding more does NOT necessarily mean that you will consistently have higher Army Tradition than the AI, as the AI gets vastly more Army Tradition per battle than the player does. This is one of the documented "mechanic handicaps" listed on the wiki. If you take a look at the results screen after a battle you'll often see that this "significant" increase is nothing to sneeze at - the AI will often get 10 to 20 Army Tradition for the accomplishment of getting stackwiped, while the player gets less than 1 Army Tradition for doing the stackwiping. Even long and bloody battles that you barely win can often result in the AI getting 5 to 15 times as much Army Tradition as you do.

There's a certain point around the 16 or 1700's where, in my experience, the player seems to shoot up to 100 Army Tradition very rapidly and stay there for a while, before winding down again in the later game. Haven't studied it enough to have more details than that or an explanation as to why, but it's a definite pattern that I've noticed in my games.

AI's army tradition doesn't matter tho because if they fight the player, they die.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Emperor Palpatinate:

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

I should point out that the player expanding more does NOT necessarily mean that you will consistently have higher Army Tradition than the AI, as the AI gets vastly more Army Tradition per battle than the player does. This is one of the documented "mechanic handicaps" listed on the wiki. If you take a look at the results screen after a battle you'll often see that this "significant" increase is nothing to sneeze at - the AI will often get 10 to 20 Army Tradition for the accomplishment of getting stackwiped, while the player gets less than 1 Army Tradition for doing the stackwiping. Even long and bloody battles that you barely win can often result in the AI getting 5 to 15 times as much Army Tradition as you do.

There's a certain point around the 16 or 1700's where, in my experience, the player seems to shoot up to 100 Army Tradition very rapidly and stay there for a while, before winding down again in the later game. Haven't studied it enough to have more details than that or an explanation as to why, but it's a definite pattern that I've noticed in my games.

AI's army tradition doesn't matter tho because if they fight the player, they die.

True, but it's just an annoying discrepancy to look at. "I keep getting crappy general rolls because my AT decayed, let me just go beat this big boi up... Oh. He got 20 AT for losing his entire army while I got like .5 for killing it all. Great."

[Marquoz]

It's based on the well-known military maxim that armies learn more from defeat than they do from victory. But I agree that Paradox went a bit overboard applying said maxim.

[Cortez]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

It's based on the well-known military maxim that armies learn more from defeat than they do from victory. But I agree that Paradox went a bit overboard applying said maxim.

Russia irl slowly becoming prussia?

[Cortez]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

Originally posted by Kuma:

I just realized this but how do you fight major powers with no mil ideas?

Easily. I can play entire campaigns without losing a battle. And the reason is that I don't take military ideas. Nine+ years ago, I was one the first EU4 players--maybe the very first--to realize that taking military idea groups makes you weaker in single player, not stronger. Consider what happens if you don't take them:

1) You spend military points on tech--you get and keep a permanent tech lead. Being two or three techs ahead of the rest of the world can have an enormous impact on your military. You unlock new unit types first. You often have more combat width. You often have more morale, more discipline, and more tactics. Etc.
2) You spend military points rolling lots and lots of generals. Your siege armies are always led by generals with siege pips, so they beat forts fast. Your combat armies are always led by generals with high fire and shock values, so they kill effectively.
3) Buying lots of generals also increases your army professionalism fast, which has many useful effects.
4) And finally, you buy a different idea group that opens up far more important capabilities for your nation.

The combination of a permanent tech lead + great generals + high professionalism + the powers you gain from another idea group is much stronger than any military group. I literally don't care if an AI nation has individual soldiers that are better than mine 1 on 1. My tech/generals/professionalism combined with the fact that I will massively outnumber the enemy means that they're doomed. And it's the idea groups that I choose--those that enable me to blob far faster than the AI--that ensure I massively outnumber the enemy.

Im not sure if I stand by your opinion lol in theory it seems so bad because france could beat you easily, they have the eco, the manpower, the technology(they dont go behind ever), decent ideas with their national ideas being even more than powerful. France can have massive morale and discipline with decent supply of manpower and mercs

[Cortez]

Originally posted by MasterYi:

Originally posted by Kuma:

I just realized this but how do you fight major powers with no mil ideas? Even the most centralized nation in india could potentially be a strong enemy for you with no ideas. Most majors usually get 110 or 115 discipline with decent manpower. How do you counter that?

To add on what others have said:

As the player you should be dev pushing institutions (if you are not near Italy for the Renaissance or one of the colonisers for Colonialism), this should always give you a tech advantage against your enemies unless you decide to Knowledge Share to gain a few ducats per month.

If we’re talking about Russia you can recruit Streltsy which give +10% land fire damage, a very minor buff though, most players don’t play long enough for Fire Damage to become relevant.

The Icon of St Nicholas gives +5% Discipline

You can drill your armies to gain professionalism, but again they are minor buffs that are lost very quickly after a few battles.

High army tradition gives better generals, you should have more army tradition than the AI since you should he expanding more than them.

Try to win via morale feeding, reinforce your army that’s in battle with another army, split the reinforcing army into smaller stacks and send them in a few days apart, to hold the frontline and boost morale. Do not overstack, since the overstocked troops will sit in reserve taking morale damage but don’t actually contribute to the fight.

Some Merc Companies may have better generals and special buffs like Discipline or Mercenary Combat Ability, like the Swiss Guard. You can also combo that with the Age of Reformation bonus.

If you can afford it have 4k cav per deathstack, for flanking. Have a full backrow of artillery that fills your combat width.

Lastly, build forts on defensive terrain, bait enemies into attacking you on defensive terrain with a small army but have a bigger army ready to reinforce nearby, scorch earth for 5mil points to out manoeuvre enemies picking off smaller stacks and juggling for a terrain advantage.

Legit advices, thx!

Why only 4 cav per deathstacks? Won't they die off quick?

[MasterYi]

Originally posted by Kuma:

Legit advices, thx!

Why only 4 cav per deathstacks? Won't they die off quick?

What you mean? The 4k Cav are mixed in with your Infantry.

As a nation without Cavalry buffs like Hordes or Poland, you only need 4k because cavalry can only flank up to 2 units on either flank of the enemy army, so 2 x 2 = 4.

Flanking only works when the enemy cannot field a full front line and you outnumber them.

If you outnumber them in the first place you should already be winning with a full infantry army anyways, but if you have 4k Cav, it will allow you to win even harder and potentially let you stackwipe armies that would have survived if you only had full infantry.

If you are rich enough and lack army quality you can field more than 4k Cav to gain an advantage over the enemy in the early game when Cavalry is better than Infantry. Just make sure the Cavalry doesn’t make up more than 50% of your army in battle, otherwise it will get the “Insufficient Support” modifier.

A good example that comes to mind is Venice, they don’t have any army military buffs and can’t get any from their Catholic religion either, but they are extremely rich being in an End Node, being a Republic, having a high Naval Force Limit for more Light Ships, and leading a Trade League. So it isn’t unusual to see Venice with 10k Cav, and for you to struggle to defeat them.

[Dante_Deepdarkness]

Originally posted by Kuma:

Im not sure if I stand by your opinion lol in theory it seems so bad because france could beat you easily, they have the eco, the manpower, the technology(they dont go behind ever), decent ideas with their national ideas being even more than powerful. France can have massive morale and discipline with decent supply of manpower and mercs

My thoughts were those, until the Timurids->Mughals run, the one than let me acomplish a 1 Tag 1 Faith. I didn't pick any mil ideas, and yes, my troops were weaker than the Commonwealth, but even with that I just lost a couple of battles against them, ahead of tech + higher numbers of army size and manpower + better generals made me win most of the battles, and they were the ones engagin almost all the battles not me.

It doesn't matter how you feel before it, facts are there: To blob a lot you need the "trinity" and you also need religious ideas for a 1 Faith run or when using a small/weak religion. As others said, only colonizers need a different approach, but in the end, if you are looking for big conquers as a colonizer, you will end picking Adm, Diplo and Influence after the mandatory Exploration + Expansion.

2 runs ago I achieved 'The Three Mountains', and I didn't pick a single military idea and I made it the "old way" that is to say: Conquer and Colonize, no daymio swarm or any other "exploit". Yestedary I ended my Kongo run, and I went a bit far because I wanted to delete any non-European nation that had a single province in Africa in any moment, and I ended the game in 1641 after deleting Ottomans from the map, and yet again, without any military idea.
You will understand it, once you are not a newbe, before that moment you will think like I did (and most players) that it is false or just for superexperienced players. But I am not a superexperienced player, neither a great player, despite I am not a bad one.

edited a lot later because TTM was 3 runs ago not 2. One shouldn't write when sick :P

[Cortez]

Okey, but why diplo? I can't see anything good about despite just 20% province less cost