Why dont my armies defend my fronts?

[Nuggs]

So i just had my first war ever in this game. i was playing as sweden and prussia called me into a war with denmark. I set the only general i could employ in my army on the battle front denmark had set on the border of my state of scania or whatever its called.

At first the battles there were going well. Prussia had some armies there helping me defend but the numbers game wound up losing on that front.

My problem came after denmark pushed in and took my first state. The front line moved to the border of my second state, where it looked like we were supposed to fight a battle. Instead the blue bar above denmarks army filled up and instantly took teritory in that state and then continued to do this taking 3 more teritories before my armies and theirs decided to actually fight eachother

i dont understand why denmark was just able to move and take my land 3 times in a row while not initiating a battle with my troops just gaining ground for free with no battles even though my army was there set to defend the front. They only fought again after taking the first 3 spots for free. I thought if i had my army set to defense and it wasnt wiped that every time an army pushed a front theyd have to stop and fight me so i dont understand why in this case they pushed 3 times gaining land with no battles.

[Cayden Black]

Well, without seeing the war unfold I can only speculate a few possibilities.
1. Your army was not yet deployed, and so was technically not there to defend them in that time of their advance.
2. you were on the border, but your morale was very low, meaning your army will automatically flee.
3. you lacked equipment. This one sounds unlikely considering what you've said happened, so I would be more leaning to one or two.
4. another front opened that was undefended in your states. This is one of the most common issues people have, as it is an immediate exposed area the A.I. will jump on if on the offensive.

Again, without seeing what happened first hand, I can only speculate. There is still the glitch where the generals just go home, but you said he was on the line and not needing to be reassigned?

[Dray Prescot]

In the original battle against Denmark, whose General, yours or Prussia's lead the first battle. Also you should have had a general from Norway, with Battalions from Norway involved in those battles.

Separately how could a battle involving a Prussian General have a small enough force from Prussia, that the Danes could defeat it? I suspect that the Prussians were involved in Battles against Holstein or Schleswig-Holstein rather on the Scania versus Zealand Front.

Normally it should be Sweden that is attacking and conquering Denmark, i.e. you should have started that Diplomatic Play, how did you end up in a situation where Denmark was stronger than you?

[Nuggs]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

In the original battle against Denmark, whose General, yours or Prussia's lead the first battle. Also you should have had a general from Norway, with Battalions from Norway involved in those battles.

Separately how could a battle involving a Prussian General have a small enough force from Prussia, that the Danes could defeat it? I suspect that the Prussians were involved in Battles against Holstein or Schleswig-Holstein rather on the Scania versus Zealand Front.

Normally it should be Sweden that is attacking and conquering Denmark, i.e. you should have started that Diplomatic Play, how did you end up in a situation where Denmark was stronger than you?

it was a war a bit later in the game. think it was like 1873 or something around there. this is or was my first playthrough so i planned on trying to play passively with out starting wars. I think i had an alliance i accepted with prussia at some point. Then some time later prussia declared war on denmark that i was forced to join.

At this point i had gone the whole game ignoring my military mostly. I think the whole time i built 1 extra barracks to simply see what it does. By the time the war started i had only one general and one admiral and my general could only lead 30 out of the 35 batallions or whatever that i had. Prussia was fighting on their borders with most of their army and sent only a relatively small force to the fight denmark was preparing on my front. On my front denmark had two hundred and twenty some odd troop size and with me and prussia on that line we only had about 150 or so.

So in the battles at first prussia was winning then over time denmark killed off most of prussias troops on my scania border leaving just my army. My army wound up winning 2 battles there then on the third battle they took scania or most of it. And then proceeded to somehow take 3 to 4 more territories with out having to battle my remaining armies some how before then fighting a final battle with my forces at my capitol where my remaining forces were decimated.

I then had an overwhelming issue with turmoil because of radicals and i just death spiraled from there.

Thats pretty much the story lol

[Dray Prescot]

Sweden wants/NEEDS to Form Scandinavia and to do that you need control of all of Denmark. It is a lot easier to do it early in the game when their military is a smaller than yours.

Forming Scandinavia will give you a lot more States and population to work with, as well as research, and resources.

If you are going to play as Sweden, plan/play towards getting control of Denmark and forming Scandinavia.

You can/should get Scandinavia formed by the mid 1850s or earlier, ( it hard to do much before 1850 because you need to research Nationalism and Pan Nationalism to Form a new country.)

Either conquer Denmark one province at a time, followed by a 5 year truce to the next conquest, etc. or build about 10 to 20 additional barracks/battalions and Puppet Denmark in one longer War. I have done it and had Denmark as a Puppet by the early 1840s, and got 20% of their income, i.e. 5k+ per week added to your(my) Balance, until you can form Scandinavia. You will get control of their colonies in Togo and West Indies, as well as Iceland and Greenland, in addition to mainland Denmark, when you form Scandinavia. You also finally get control of the 3 States in Norway, which is in a Personal Union with Sweden after forming Scandinavia, but can NOT do anything with while they are in the PU.

Your only problem is another country like France, Great Britain, Prussia, or even Netherlands supporting Denmark against your invasion. So Improve relations with them first.