ideal army template

[monicaida25]

What is the ideal composition of the army? In Victory 2, the ideal was to have a cavalry division and as much artillery as infantry, but trying to do this in Victory 3, I only made my army so expensive that each war basically ruined me, so I wonder how much artillery and cavalry is recommended for each infantry division

[Alex]

Depends on what you are trying to achieve or whom you're up against. That said, you can't have more special troops (cavalry and artillery together) than infantry.

Defense? Infantry and even more infantry with some artillery, cavalry is optional.
Offense against an advanced opponent? More artillery and some cavalry.
Civilizing the savages? More cavalry, artillery is optional.

Infantry: cannon fodder and defense.
Artillery: offense and kill ratio improvement.
Cavalry: offense and occupation speed increase.

For example:
A homeland defense army could have x infantry, up to x/4 artillery, maybe x/8 cavalry and 2x infantry conscripts.

A front-buster army should have x infantry, up to x/2 artillery and up to x/4 cavalry, then x infantry conscripts.

A colonial force intended to chase irregular troops may have x infantry, up to x/2 cavalry and maybe one or two cannons, about twenty battalions in total, at max.

The conscript/professional ratio is of course dependent on your army organization laws.

[Dcethe]

just do 30 inf 10 cav 10 arty.
You wipe out those with garbage tech instantly + can beat European armies. If your struggling later on add 5 cav 5 arty - as long as half your troops are infantry you don't get any debuffs.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Dcethe:

just do 30 inf 10 cav 10 arty.
You wipe out those with garbage tech instantly + can beat European armies. If your struggling later on add 5 cav 5 arty - as long as half your troops are infantry you don't get any debuffs.

Against savages, this is overkill.

[monicaida25]

I understand the problem of limits and disadvantages, but in my last game I had 4 armies, each with 70 inf, 30 art and 10 cav, and each of those armies ended up costing me 400k when they were mobilized... and obviously that War is a ruin, so I wonder about the cost/benefit ratio.

On the other hand, is it really important to have all that cavalry? I remember that in Victoria 2, for practical purposes 1 or 10 cavalry was worth the same, it is not a good attack or defense unit, its main function was to accelerate sieges, and I see that in Victoria 3 it is more or less the same.

You must also consider attrition, in Victory 3, you can have 10k casualties per battle and 60k per attrition, even having the best field hospital...

Another question, if I have 2 armies of 50 soldiers attacking, do they share the units? I mean, the AI of the great powers usually have one or two armies of more than 100 units, which makes me think that having 2 armies of 50 units could be counterproductive against them, since they would attack or defend separately, right?

[Dcethe]

Originally posted by monicaida25:

I understand the problem of limits and disadvantages, but in my last game I had 4 armies, each with 70 inf, 30 art and 10 cav, and each of those armies ended up costing me 400k when they were mobilized... and obviously that War is a ruin, so I wonder about the cost/benefit ratio.

On the other hand, is it really important to have all that cavalry? I remember that in Victoria 2, for practical purposes 1 or 10 cavalry was worth the same, it is not a good attack or defense unit, its main function was to accelerate sieges, and I see that in Victoria 3 it is more or less the same.

You must also consider attrition, in Victory 3, you can have 10k casualties per battle and 60k per attrition, even having the best field hospital...

Another question, if I have 2 armies of 50 soldiers attacking, do they share the units? I mean, the AI of the great powers usually have one or two armies of more than 100 units, which makes me think that having 2 armies of 50 units could be counterproductive against them, since they would attack or defend separately, right?

There is more to army cost than their total units. You must have had army incentives active ( Field hospitals, Chocolate, extra supplies etc. )
The incentives are great but if you don't have a strong economy they will bankrupt you, the Field hospitals alone will cost like 300k.
The only way to try to mitigate the cost is to flood the market and make sure all the goods the army needs is bellow standard market price, but even then you will pay a lot for a modern army.
The only real benefit is that you are not losing a ♥♥♥♥ load of your pops in every single war, which can lead to you having no one to work in your factories for awhile.
Just try to slightly outnumber any A.I country and use incentives to give you an extra edge. A.I do use them as well unless its unprofitable ( they will not pay 400k for a single army like you )

Cav Is important if you want to try to resolve wars quickly, you will slow down massively without them. Its OK if you want to bleed the enemy, not ok if your both suffering from a stalemate.

Your last question, they do share but its generally split among the generals then the army.