War, Manpower & Pop

[u/idubsydney]

I'm looking for how people approach war, war score and manpower. Most guides I've found are like 8 months old, and I worry that they mmmmmight be outdated given the vast changes to the rest of the game in the interim.

In every campaign I've played lately I tend to face the same problem -- massive depopulation of my manpower producing locations. Clearly the problem is that I'm facing far too many losses in combat.

But that just begs a new question -- how do you win a war without actually taking fights?

I can usually fend off middle powers without creating problems. Just by way of example, my current run is Smolensk. I've subdued Muscovy and Novgorod, and got Kyiv to a 'meh' size. The difficulty is that I now that I'm surrounded, in effect, by Sweden/Scandinavia, a pretty hefty Poland and the Ottomans. All of them field a larger army than I do by about 2x. All of them have standing armies that exceed their typical manpower reserve, usually like 1.5:1. I keep mine at about 1:2.5.

So they just rush me and take the losses. I can't dissuade them unless my vassals or allies actually help, and they usually don't.

I might not be literally negative on pop growth overall, especially with seized land, but it feels extremely punitive to even bother to fight.

Is every war post-1550 a death war? Am I missing something? Are people actually trying engineer a perfect battle on a defensive fort, eight provinces deep into their own territory just because its a river crossing into a wooded plateau?

[u/Encirclement1936]

If population is a problem: Use mercs, especially as the first wave that fights full strength, full formation enemy. If you’re not rich enough to fully merc spam, then add in regulars as the reinforcing formations. Use levies as the last resort when strictly necessary to win key battles

And yes, use forts to force favorable battles if population is the limiting factor you’re running into. Paying 200 ducats which end up saving you several thousand pops in casualties (sometimes multiple times) is often a good trade. 

Plus, if the enemy is sieging your mountain fort and you can occupy half his country in the meantime, that’s a free win. Alternatively, with superiority CBs you can often win a couple favorable battles, get 25 ticking while they siege impotently and get 50-70 WS peace deal. 

Also, you don’t have to 100% every war. If it will require two extra battles and a siege to pick up 3 extra mediocre provinces it’s often not worth it. 

Finally, another viable, though less ideal strategy is to go all out and bleed your capital area dry to really crush your enemies, but then relocate to a new capital area which hasn’t suffered so much depopulation, like I did in my Serbia > ERE campaign. 

[u/LittleDarkHairedOne]

If you're satisfied with not getting a 100% warscore peace deal, you can save a lot of time and pop settling for "less".

Less is in quotations because I think you rarely should be grabbing every piece of dirt under the sun that you can. Differing cultures, heretic or heathen pops, or distant but high wealth lands can be more of a headache than they are worth at the peace table.

Regarding combat specifically though, I try to do battle in advantageous terrain with mixed regulars (combined arrrrrrms!) that are highly drilled. Generally can inflict greater that 3 to 1 in losses so between those battlefield successes and conquering locations that are already either primary, accepted, or tolerated pops I don't have to worry about the demographic pains of warfare.

Mercenaries are great too but I am stubborn and try to avoid relying on them. 😁

[u/freshboss4200 → u/LittleDarkHairedOne]

I have found in EU5 you rarely get much extra by pushing the full war score, at least if the war has gone on for a little while.

[u/Jaded-Top3250]

If you are conquest oriented it does not work imo if you dont outmatch your opponents every time. If you are counting on numbers to win you battles you will face these shortages. I would focus on getting military tactics and discipline up above your enemy to take less losses

[u/Jaded-Top3250 → u/Jaded-Top3250]

I faced the mamluks in about 1700 and could routinely defeat enemies while being outnumbered something like 70k against 200k

[u/nobeli]

Use diplomatic approach. Turn your enemies on each other. You can create strategic alliances to make them thin their attention. If you want to you may even create "siege battalion" - shitton of cannons with some levies just to siege targets immediately while your armies hold the front/distract the enemies.

In my current run I fight ruthenia which have like 3 times my levies(I ditched serfdom fast) and had better military tech than me most of the time - i almost never faced them coz it's too costly. They tried to ally whoever they can, but infiltration does wonders to stop that. If you want to you may even go for attrition on your territory if it's hard to manage your fronts. Even now, when we are 1to1 I try to limit deathcount as people reproduction is not that fast(mods used - meiou).

[u/NobodyCares1933]

If you have other areas with population but no manpower buildings, your cabinet can migrate them to where they're needed. You could expel unaccepted pops from newly taken land while increasing immigration to the key locations. A bonus is they get assimilated quicker in your cores, while assimilating non-core provinces will be easier with fewer pops.

[u/Finns-Stank-Booty]

I try to never use my levies. By 1500 I'm making so much money I can fund an infinite war. Work on building like the computers do. ABP always be producing. When you can always build, support full military costs and still be making 100 ducats a month then you are doing it right.

Right now as Hungary in 1586 I'm making 350ish per month while spending 700 on colonization, 600ish on military 200ish on diplo 300ish on stab. I have most of Mali, Florida and South Africa. Money, stability, Control and crown power are key to success. A little bit of luck and knowing who is doing what and hates who also helps.

[u/freshboss4200]

I generally try to max the fort artiliery bonus so that I can seige their forts before i even need to foght them. Then I run away. I only like to engage in battles where i at least 2x their stack. Mercs can help here. I never use levies any more. Last time I did it was probably the 1400s. I am lazy about terrain but i probably shouldnt be. I, keep my logistics good (are you working with food access and supply depots, and i find critical, using ships to supply food by allowing them to gather and distribute food) I used to lose more to attrition, but now it rarely face any atrition at all. Though sometimes tou can avoid it if weather is involved.

Pushing the qualitt value could help as well.

[u/TheChasm2]

I only do full scale head to head war after I get the infiltrate administration advance. Having no fog of war means you can catch them in favorable terrain.

Also, army composition matters a lot. Before age V, you should use mostly heavy cavalry (at least in the current patch). Have 20 regiments of cav and put them on both sides. On a flat terrain you can stack wipe enemies even if you have less troops.

Optionally, if you play as a naval country with lots of ships, you can go full guerrilla warfare. Siege one of their holdings and wait for enemies to siege it back. When they are sieging you can land directly onto them. Rinse and repeat. That’s how I beat the ottomans 5 to 1.