Coloured Coats, Military Tech 26

[robert.steven.marshall]

Playing as the Hansa and about to reach Military Tech Level 26. Four choices of Infantry when I do (Whitecoat, Bluecoat, Redcoat and, the odd one out, Frederickian). Struggling to choose, any help would be great.

I'm leaning towards Bluecoats but can't make my mind up. I currently have the most soldiers (high trade income meaning I can have a standing army double my force limit and still make a healthy profit) so will mostly be attacking but may have to have some defensive capabilitiy should France send a large army and I wish to draw it into a trap and pile in troops after and to deal with endless coalition troops.

I'm as interested in how people made their choices as which choice they would make.
Cheers

[SnowiiFrog]

Remember at bth Defensive and Offensive pips will both be used even if you attack. So if you are ok with loosing troops go for Offensive if you would rather "save" on the manpower then pick Defensive.

I know this is a VERY simplified way of saying it since all you ideas and bonuses also check in.

[Kagemin]

I'd go for either Bluecoats or Redcoats, as these two have slightly higher pips than the other two (44 each compared to 42 Frederickian and 41 Whitecoats).

Bluecoats will generally deal more damage, while Redcoats will take less casualties.
I usually try to emphasize on strengths, so if you already get bonus discipline from national idea/traditions, and/or advisors I'd get the Bluecoats to maximize the damage you can dish out, possibly stackwiping more enemy armies.

If you get morale boni Redcoats will be better, since they take less damage and stay longer in combat, allowing you to outlast the enemy.
If you need to preserve some manpower Redcoats will help at least a little with that too.

If you get more or less equal boni for both morale and discipline it's up to your personal preference. From my experience dealing more damage has the biggest effect if you're fighting enemies that are weaker than you, since the damage dealt quickly spirals out of control up to stackwiping whole armies.
The better defense of the Redcoats on the other hand will be felt more in closer battles and wars, since you can simply outlast the enemy in drawn out fights.

[Tibbles]

Later in game Fire becomes important, Cav only get perhaps 1 x multiplier of fire compared to perhaps 4 x of infantry. Vice versa for Shock.
So you want to choose infantry that has high firepower value.

[Dan]

Blue Coat is offensive (attack that army), Red is defensive (hold this position). White Coat has less pips total in firepower, but resist the shock phase of battle much better than the other two.

[robert.steven.marshall]

Cheers for the input, I'll probably go for Blue Coats. It had really been between them and Red Coats because of the pip total in my mind but I didn't want to influence the discussion too much in case I was missing something. Manpower is no problem at all (high to begin with and recovers really quick too), I have equal bonuses for disclipline and morale and will probably be fighting weaker opponents. As soon as Ironman starts working again my borders shall extend again! Thanks again

[A-Kai]

Whatever has the most balanced pips.Offensive/defensive has nothing to do with beeing defender/attacker.