Land warfare
- This page deals with combat mechanics. For information on the recruitment and maintenance of armies see army. For the individual unit types see land units.
Land warfare is the deployment and maneuvering of military assets against an enemy, in most cases this results in combat between opposing armies. In EUIV most combat is land-based and, while the naval aspect of war holds importance, losing the land war is usually the main cause of defeat. The art of land warfare is therefore of significant importance, and its complexities are discussed here as fully as possible.
Contents
Combat interface[edit]
Combat is not only determined by mere numbers such as modifiers and dice-rolls, but through a complex simulation in which units deployed into two rows of positions for each side, allowing units to fight the enemy units in front of them, the enemies at their flanks if possible (with high enough flanking range), and move between different positions if needed. All the while, the system retreats destroyed or low-morale units and deploys reinforcements and reserves as well.
The combat system, while not being entirely obvious or intuitive, can be seen through the combat interface which allows the player to see which regiment is fighting which, and which is moving where.
Terrain[edit]
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Terrain for each province is shown in both the terrain and simple terrain mapmodes. Terrain shows a natural-looking map, while simple terrain color-codes each province by its terrain type; both have tooltips showing terrain type, fort level, and the current winter, if any. Some terrain imposes a movement speed penalty to armies traveling in the province in addition to a negative rough terrain modifier to the attacking army, with different types of terrain having different modifiers.
Here is a list of the types of terrain and the modifiers which they grant.
Crossing penalties[edit]
A crossing penalty that reduces all dice rolls is applied to the attacker under the following circumstances:
- Crossing a river: −1 to all rolls.
The presence of a river in between a province and its neighbors is indicated in the province window, through a small river icon. Mousing over this icon will show which neighboring provinces require a river to be crossed in order for an army to reach the province.
- Crossing a strait: −2 to all rolls. See straits for a list.
- Amphibious landing: −2 to all rolls. This includes an attack from sea or a landing directly with ships at port.
For attackers that originate from multiple provinces, they will all receive the crossing penalty if any one of them would normally receive it alone. All crossing penalties are removed if the attacking leader has a higher maneuver rating than the defending leader. The check on leader maneuver rating is performed daily, so a high maneuver leader can still swing the tide of battle even if he joins an engagement late.
Battles in a province under siege[edit]
Normally, the "attacker" is defined as whichever side moves into a given province last, while the "defender" is whichever one was already occupying the area. However, if a given army is besieging a province that contains a fort and is attacked by troops owned by or allied with whoever currently controls the fort, the roles are switched: the siege army is treated as the "attackers," and those attempting to break the siege are the "defenders." Attacker penalties from terrain are applied to the siege army, while attacker penalties from river/strait crossings are nullified regardless of any leaders' Maneuver pips.
The player can take this into account when building forts, as well as when choosing which provinces to siege and which besieged provinces to prioritize sending their troops to. Also note that this only applies to provinces with forts.
If a sieging army wins a battle on a province where they're sieging, an immediate bonus siege tick is triggered. This does not reset the ticking down for the next siege tick.
Deployment[edit]
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Army composition[edit]
- Main article: Army#Composition
To maximize the effectiveness of an army, a proper mixture of troops is important.
Combat width[edit]
Combat width determines how many units can actively participate in a battle at one time. For every 1 combat width, 1 additional regiment can be placed in the front and back rows, if sufficient troops are available. The base combat width is 15.[1] As military technology advances, a country's combat width increases, allowing them to use more soldiers effectively at once. All countries other than Native Americans start with tech level 2 or 3, so their starting combat width will be 20. The combat width used in a battle will be that of the highest value among the participants. Here is a table of combat width by military technology level.
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0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 |
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15 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 25 | 27 | 29 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 |
Unit deployment[edit]
The game uses an undocumented algorithm to automatically deploy land units on the battlefield for each side of the battle. Through observation and controlled experiments, the community has suggested a theory that the game seems to follow, dependent on the rough size and composition of each army.
For the smaller army[edit]
- If there is not enough infantry to fill the entire first row, the game will prioritize to:
- Deploy all infantry in the first row.
- Deploy as much cavalry as possible to the sides of the first row.
- Deploy all artillery in the second row. If there are more units in the second row than the first, then it will redeploy artillery to the first row until both rows are even.
- If there is still space remaining in the second row, deploy all remaining cavalry onto the second row, beginning from the edge of the first row then inwards.
- If there is enough infantry to fill the entire first row, the game will prioritize to:
- Deploy all infantry in first row, except for X[Unknown value] positions to each side.
- Deploy X units of cavalry on each side of the first row.
- Deploy all artillery on the second row.
- If space is left on the second row, deploy all remaining infantry in the second row next to the artillery, except for Y[Unknown value] positions to each side.
- Deploy all remaining cavalry in the second row, beginning from the edge and going inwards.
For the bigger army[edit]
For an army bigger than the combat width, the game will prioritize to:
- Deploy all infantry in the first row that can be positioned to attack enemy units in the first row, except for X[Unknown value] positions to each side.
- Deploy all cavalry in the first row that can be positioned to attack the enemy units in the first row.
- Deploy all artillery in the second row.
- If space is left in the second row, deploy as much infantry in the second row besides the artillery as there are positions available behind the infantry in the first row.
- If space is left in the second row, deploy as much cavalry in the second row besides the infantry as there are positions available behind the cavalry in the first row.
The deployment of allied regiments within a multinational army is similarly undocumented. It can be observed that units belonging to the combat leader (e.g. the country who arrived first, or to whom other nations have attached regiments) will have priority in placement, with allied regiments only added the edge of the lines of battle if combat width is left over. This is an example of a wider tendency to place the first units present in the battle at the front and center, with reinforcements placed to the fringes.
Combat sequence[edit]
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When two hostile armies meet in a province a battle will commence. A battle will last until one side is routed or annihilated.
Phases[edit]
Combat is divided into a series of 3-day phases. Phases alternate between Fire and Shock, with the Fire phase happening first.
Target selection[edit]
Units in the front row can attack any enemy unit within their horizontal flanking range. Normally they will only engage enemies that are directly ahead of themselves, but they can sometimes execute flanking attack regardless if it will be more effective at reducing the enemy's combat ability. This typically occurs if the unit is facing an enemy artillery regiment or a particularly outdated unit; in this case the unit may choose to attack the flanks of a stronger enemy unit nearby. Artillery are the only units that can attack from the back row, but they will only deal 50% damage from that position.
Pre-1.30 defender's advantage[edit]
Ingame tests have demonstrated that, before patch 1.30, the defender had an advantage caused by the targeting mechanics. This occurred when a frontline, or regiments therein, are replaced by reserve troops. The attacker's casualties are dealt to the retreating defending regiments, whereas the defender targets the reinforcing attacking regiments. In practice, the defender's advantage means that every reserve frontline of the defender allows the previous frontline to absorb an extra day of kill/morale casualties. This was fixed in 1.30, but will be present if the player rolls back to a previous version.
Dice roll[edit]
At the beginning of each phase, each side rolls a die. The result is used to determine the morale damage and casualties inflicted to the opponents each day in the three-day-phase.
The result is computed as following:
- Dice roll ( ): Is a random number between 0–9, rolled for each entire side at the beginning of each phase (not each day).
- Leader skill (
- Note that the leader skill bracket cannot be negative. For example: if your opponent's general has 3 fire pips & your general 6 fire pips, ceteris paribus, your general nets you 15 base casualties in the fire phase, whereas your opponent's general nets him 0, but not -15, base casualties during the fire phase.
): The leader skill for that phase (Fire or Shock Pips).
- Attacking unit attack pips ( ): The attack pips for the attacking unit for the current phase, or Morale pips if computing morale damage. Note all units attack during every phase---here "attack" does not refer to which army is attacking.
- Defending unit defense pips: The corresponding defense pips for the defending unit.
- Terrain modifiers ( ): Harsh terrain may give a penalty to the attacks of the attacking army (in this case "attack" refers to the attacking side).
Kill casualties[edit]
Each day, two casualties computations occur, one for actual casualties using units' fire or shock pips (depending on the day's phase) and a second for "morale casualties" (the casualties value used in the morale damage formula) using units' morale pips:
- Base casualties ( ): Base casualties are determined by the dice result according to the following formula:
- Attacking unit strength ( ): If the attacking unit has less than its maximum of 1000 men, damage will be reduced proportionally.
- Attacking unit modifier (Technology#Cumulative mil tech effects to army. ): Determined by unit type and military technology level and. See
- Attacking unit phase modifier ( ): the fire or shock damage dealt modifiers. Note that these modifiers only impact the kill casualties but not the morale casualties.
- Attacking unit Combat Ability ( ): Any Combat Ability bonuses the attacking unit has.
- Attacking unit Discipline ( ): The Discipline of the attacking unit. Note that Discipline does also increase Military Tactics, so it increases defense indirectly.
- Defending unit Tactics ( ): The Tactics of the defending unit.
- War length damage modifier ( ): The casualties are increased by 1% per day the battle rages, starts at 1% extra casualties on day 1.
- Defending unit phase modifiers ( ): Fire and shock damage reduction modifiers. Note that these modifiers only impact the kill casualties but not the morale casualties.
There are several unique national ideas which modify the amount of damage inflicted and received in both the fire and shock phases.
Ideas and conditions that increase fire damage dealt:
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Conditions |
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+20% | with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
+10% |
|
0 − +10% |
|
Ideas and conditions that increase shock damage dealt:
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Conditions |
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+10% | |
+5% | after assimilating Celtic culture group as ![]() |
0 − +10% |
|
Ideas and conditions that reduce fire damage taken:
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Conditions |
---|---|
−20% | with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
−10% | for Janissary regiments (only recruitable by ![]() ![]() |
0 − −25% | depending on regiment drill |
Ideas and conditions that reduce shock damage taken:
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Conditions |
---|---|
−30% | with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
−10% | |
0 − −25% | depending on regiment drill |
'Zombie' regiments[edit]
In principle, units on the frontline retreat and are replaced by reserve units when they reach either 0 morale or 0 regiment strength. However, this mechanic does not function when regiment strength reaches 0 before morale reaches 0 during the first 12 days of a battle. When this occurs, the 0-strength regiment stays on the frontline until the first 12 days pass. This remains true even when the 0 strength regiment reaches 0 morale during the first 12 days.
Morale casualties[edit]
- Ingame tests have demonstrated that the morale casualties equation previously found on the wiki was incorrect. The current formula is the result of developer input and further experiments.
- The mentioned "casualties" are not to be confused with the kill casualties. They differ in that the casualties in the morale casualties equation are calculated with the morale pips of the respective units & without the fire/shock damage dealt & fire/shock damage received modifiers.
- All units present in a battle, including reserve troops, take 0.03 base morale casualties per day on top of the calculated morale casualties. This is lowered by the reserves_organisation modifier, such as 50% from having 80 professionalism.
- Units on the backline take full morale casualties, thus frontline units deployed on the backline are essentially neutralised.
Lack of overkill[edit]
When a regiment deals morale or kill casualties to a target that has less morale or regiment strength remaining, the excess morale or kill casualties are not distributed to other units. Thus a regiment that has 0.01 morale left after a phase will absorb an entire other day of kill & morale casualties.
Combat statistics[edit]
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Military tactics[edit]
Military tactics reduces the amount of damage a country's troops take in combat. Military tactics is increased by military technology. It is also multiplied by discipline.
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0 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 30 | 32 |
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0.5 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.25 | 1.5 | 1.75 | 2.0 | 2.25 | 2.5 | 2.75 | 3.0 | 3.25 | 3.5 |
Pips[edit]
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Each military unit has offensive and defensive stats in three categories: fire, shock, and morale. Offensive stats are represented by yellow pips, and defensive stats by green pips. During each combat phase, each unit will use its offensive pips to increase casualties dealt, its defensive pips to mitigate casualties received, and its morale pips to increase and mitigate, respectively, morale damage.[2]
The respective effect of pips depends on the shock and fire modifiers of military technology and ideas.
From military tech 7 onwards, defensive pips are to be prioritized over offensive pips for infantry and cavalry because artillery becomes available, which deals damage from the back row. Thus the defensive pips of the frontline regiments impact the kill casualty equation of two enemy regiments, while the offensive pips only affect a single regiment.
Top priority is to be given to morale defensive pips, because morale pips affect both fire and shock phases. Secondary priority is to be given to the defensive fire or shock pips depending on the military technology, then to offensive morale, then to offensive fire or shock pips depending on the military technology.
Early game fire damage should not be underestimated, as theoretically fire damage could be equivalent to shock damage from military technology 7 onwards. Fire damage becomes the undisputed main source of damage once players reach military technology 13.
Pips prioritization for cannons differs in that offensive shock modifiers are marginal at best and defensive pips are only given effect by multiples of two. The latter is caused by the defensive pips of cannons being divided by two, then rounded down and ultimately added to the frontline’s defensive pips.
Later technologies are limited to one cannon type.
Flanking range[edit]
Flanking range determines the horizontal range in which a unit may make a flanking attack. The base flanking range is 1 for infantry, and 2 for cavalry and artillery. There are military technologies which increase the flanking range of units as the game progresses. Below is a table with said military technology levels and how much they increase flanking range.
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0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
10 | +25% | 1 | 2 | 2 |
18 | +50% | 1 | 3 | 3 |
23 | +100% | 2 | 4 | 4 |
28 | +125% | 2 | 4 | 4 |
30 | +150% | 2 | 5 | 5 |
A unit that has 75% or more of its troop strength left will fight at 100% flanking range. If they are in between 50 and 75% of their strength, they will fight at 75% flanking range. When between 25 and 50% strength they will fight at 50% of their flanking range.
Unit strength | Flanking range |
---|---|
1000–750 | 100% |
749–500 | −25% |
499–250 | −50% |
249–0 | −75% |
The final range is always rounded down to the nearest integer.
Several ideas give increased cavalry flanking range:
- +20% Assimilating Evenki culture group as
Mughals
Morale[edit]
Morale is an important factor in fighting battles. Each day of combat a unit will take a morale hit of 0.03 regardless of damage taken from an enemy regiment. If it is taking casualties from an enemy, additional morale damage will be inflicted. Once an army's overall morale value has been reduced to zero the army will attempt to retreat. Retreat cannot happen until both two fire and two shock phases have completed, and army that has its morale reduced to 0 and is outnumbered 2:1 before that point will be destroyed. This destruction is known as a stackwipe. Contrary to popular belief, reducing the enemy army to 0 morale before they can retreat is not sufficient to stackwipe.
A unit that has its morale drop below 0.50 is flagged as disorganized, which is indicated by a small flame next to its morale bar on the map and interface. A disorganized army is unable to start moving until its morale has recovered above 0.50. Newly trained regiments at low land unit maintenance will often fall below this threshold.
If an army loses a battle while having low enough morale to be disorganized, they will be forced to retreat to a controlled province (owned, allied in war, or occupied by player or allies). This province can be very far away from where the battle took place. They will prioritize to retreat to a province with high development, a fort, and no adjacent enemies. While retreating, it cannot be engaged in combat or controlled until it reaches the safer province (or in extreme circumstances if it recovers to 100% morale before reaching the destination). The army also moves slightly faster, and will recover morale at a normal rate during the retreat. If there are no available controlled provinces to retreat to within a large range, the army will shattered retreat to one province away. The army can then be immediately re-engaged, often with very low to even no morale, if a monthly tick has not yet completed. This can be devastating as an offensive tactic, but may also affect the player as well.
A controlled retreat is manually ordering an army to retreat from battle after the initial fire and shock phases, and while it still has greater than 0.50 average morale. This allows the player to control the destination of the shattered retreat. If the morale of an army is less than 0.50 the player can not control the destination. If multiple armies have converged into a battle, it is possible that some armies will have enough morale for a controlled retreat, while others may not (often the initial stack in the battle).
Winning a battle gives the winning armies 50% of their maximum morale and retreating from a battle will reduce the other allied armies' morale relative to the portion of troops leaving the engagement).
After a battle is fought, an army must spend some time without fighting for its morale to recover. The normal morale recovery on the 1st of every month cannot occur while in combat.
- A shattered army will get an extra morale bonus once it stops retreating.
- Morale is not gained while forced marching.
Modifiers[edit]
The following modifiers contribute to the maximum morale of a nation's army:
- Army maintenance: Ranging from 0.51 at minimum maintenance to the defined maximum at maximum maintenance.
- Ideas and policies:
- Researching military technology:
- Military technology (0): +2.0
- Military technology (3): +0.5 (cumulative +2.5)
- Military technology (4): +0.5 (cumulative +3.0)
- Military technology (15): +1.0 (cumulative +4.0)
- Military technology (26): +1.0 (cumulative +5.0)
- Military technology (30): +1.0 (cumulative +6.0)
Various national bonuses:
- Prestige: +10% at 100 prestige, -10% at -100 prestige
- Power projection: +10% at 100 power projection
- Army reformer advisor: +10%
- Army tradition: +25% at 100 tradition
- Being the Defender of the Faith: +5%
- Piety (Muslim only): +10% at 100 mysticism
Religion:
- Shia: +5%
- Protestant church aspect ‘Saints Accept Prayers’: +5%
- Reformed "War" focus (requires
Wealth of Nations DLC) +10%
- Vajrayana: +5%
- Shinto: +10%
- Sikh: +10%
- Inti with ‘Yana Lords’ reform: +10%
- Nahuatl: +10%
- Tengri with either Shia, Nahuatl or Sikh as syncretic faiths: +5%
Government:
- Noble Republic: +10%
- Revolutionary Empire: +10%
- Daimyo: +10%
- Merchant Republic with "Aristocrats" Faction in power: +5%
- Republican Dictatorship: +10%
- Revolutionary Republic: +10%
- Ambrosian Republic: +5%
- Peasants Republic: +5%
- Assimilating Japanese culture group as
Mughals: +10%
Morale recovery[edit]
Every month, a regiment recovers 15% of its maximum morale. The following contributes to a nation's morale recovery speed.
- Regiment is in home territory: +5%
- Army tradition: +10% at 100 tradition
- When commanded by a leader with the Inspirational Leader personality trait: +10%
- Various events, decisions, and modifiers
- Armies that win battles will gain a significant boost to morale, to prevent situations where an army is stack wiped due to winning a narrowly fought battle and then immediately being attacked. The amount of morale regained depends on the strength of the enemy army defeated relative to their own strength.
- Certain ideas and policies as follows
Cavalry to infantry ratio[edit]
Armies exceeding their nation's ratio of cavalry to infantry receive the "insufficient support" penalty which applies a −25% military tactics to those armies until their ratio has been restored to normal. This ratio threshold is checked daily even during battles, and is based on the actual headcount of individual soldiers instead of regiments. Since infantry tends to take more casualties than cavalry, it is advisable to take at least a bit more infantry than the ratio would suggest.
The base cavalry to infantry ratio is 50%. This is further modified by the following:
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Traditions | Ideas | Bonuses | Policies |
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+10% | — |
|
— | — |
- +25% Has a
Steppe Horde government
- +25% Has a
Tribal Federation government
- +25% Is
Tengri (with no syncretic faith)
- +20% Has
Cavalry Armies ability (an
Age of Discovery only ability)
- +20% Has the Sich Rada government reform (available to Zaporozhie)
- +10% Is
Sunni
- +10% A loyal
Cossacks estate (max value)
Forts[edit]
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.24. |
Forts are used to protect a nation from invading armies.
Fort level and garrison[edit]
The following modifiers affect fort level:
- Capital province:
+1 fort level for the
capital province
- Fort buildings:
+2 fort level per building level.
Each fort level increases the garrison of the province by 1000 and gives a −1 modifier to siege rolls. Maximum garrison size is also influenced by the following ideas and policies:
Unless the province is besieged, the garrison recovers monthly at a base rate of 5% plus:
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Conditions |
---|---|
+1% | per base manpower |
+25% | for producing ![]() |
The rate is also increased by the following national ideas and policies:
Fort maintenance[edit]
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.28. |
Each building level of fort costs 1 ducat per month. Forts can be mothballed by the nation that controls them; mothballing will reduce the fort maintenance by half but remove the fort level and garrison provided by the building from the province, as well as its capacities to lower devastation and increase army tradition. A fort cannot be mothballed or de-mothballed while the province is under siege. The garrison will recover at a normal rate after mothballing is cancelled. Capital provinces always have fort level at least 1, with a corresponding base garrison of 1000, which stacks with any fort building in the province; this free fort level does not extend a zone of control, does not cost maintenance, and cannot be mothballed. A fort building in a capital province can be mothballed as normal, but the free fort will remain.
Mothballed or not, fort maintenance can be reduced by following modifiers:
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Conditions |
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−20% | with ‘Monastic Order’ government reform. |
−10% |
|
−10% − +10% | with ![]() |
+1% | for each percentage point of inflation. |
On borders towards rivals there are additional modifiers:
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Conditions |
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−100% | with ‘Protecting Forts’ ability in the ![]() |
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Traditions | Ideas | Bonuses | Policies |
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−50% | — |
|
— |
|
−25% | — |
|
— | — |
Zone of control[edit]
- Main article: Zone of control
Active fort buildings (not counting the free fort level in the capital) provide a zone of control. A zone of control restricts the movement of enemy armies through the province with the fort, and provinces immediately adjacent to it. When an army enters a zone of control from a province not affected by a hostile zone of control the province it entered from is set as the 'return province'. In general the army can then only move to another province that has no more than one province that is not affected by a hostile zone of control between itself and the return province. The main exception to this rule is that the army can always move to a hostile fort. Please see the main article for full details as there are a number of exceptions and the behaviour is not intuitive.
Sieges[edit]
When hostile troops enter a province and stop moving, a siege/occupation will begin. To progress, the attacker requires a minimum of 3000 men per 1000 garrison. If the province has no garrison (whether because it has no fort or the fort's garrison is empty), 1000 men is enough and occupation is guaranteed within a month. Any unit types can be used for sieging, but for sieging a fortified province, only infantry will be used in an assault, and artillery speeds the siege up. Progress in a siege will never decrease as long as attackers are continuously present; however, if all attackers leave the province, you will lose 1 siege status progress per day the province is unsieged.
Besieging armies will always take at least 1% base attrition, even if the province is unfortified. This rule only applies to enemy-owned provinces, however - when besieging friendly provinces to retake them from the enemy, this rule is ignored.
Army besieging a fort always count as the attacker if a battle takes place and will receive the attacker penalty.
Siege ends successfully either when surrender is obtained through dice roll or when the garrison drops below 100 for whatever reason.
Sortie[edit]
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Available only with the Art of War DLC enabled. |
The garrison can be ordered to make a sortie to fight the hostile army, at the cost of 10 military power. (The
‘Sortie from siege’ button is shown on the siege screen.) If the garrison army, which consists only of infantry, loses the fight, the province and fort will become occupied. Since sortie-ing troops fight together with friendly stacks if there are ones this can be used to win a battle in which both sides are evenly matched. Sortie can be ordered only when siege is ongoing, thus friendly troops awaiting an inbound enemy in a fortified province cannot receive garrison's aid.
Note that garrison will refuse to make a sortie if the besieging army is much stronger than the garrison.
Siege ability[edit]
Siege ability is influenced by the following ideas and policies:
Various modifiers:
War exhaustion: −1% per point
Army Tradition: +5% at 100
Spy network: +20% at 100 (Requires
Mare Nostrum)
Tengri with
Coptic syncretic faith: +10% (Requires
The Cossacks)
Hindu with
Shakti as divinity: +5% (Requires
Wealth of Nations)
Army professionalism: +20% at 100 (Requires
Cradle of Civilization)
- Improve inland routes trade policy: +10%
- General with Siege Specialist personality: +15%
The Guns of Urban Age of Discovery Ability: +33% (available only to
Ottomans) (Requires
Mandate of Heaven)
Fort defense[edit]
Fort defense is influenced by the following ideas and policies:
Various Modifiers:
Hindu with
Vishnu as divinity: +20% (Requires
Wealth of Nations)
Norse with
Tor as divinity: +10% (Requires
El Dorado or a save converted from Crusader Kings II)
Mysticism as a Muslim: +20% at 100 Mysticism
Coptic: +10%
- Power Projection: +10% at 100 Power Projection
- Defence Edict: +33%
- Military Engineer advisor: +20%
- Lucky nation (AI only): +10%
- Certain events can temporarily increase siege ability or fort defense.
Phases[edit]
A siege progresses in phases. Each phase has a base length of 30 days and is modified by:
- Fort defense: +1% per defender's 1%
fort defense and
province defensiveness (produces salt: 15%, hills or highlands terrain: 10%, mountain terrain: 25%)
- Siege ability: −1% per attacker's 1%
Siege Ability
- Tactics difference: 6.25% per 0.25
military tactics difference to both sides. E.G. If the player's tactics is 0.5 higher than the enemy, the player's siege will be 12.5% faster and the enemy's siege will be 12.5% slower. Only the base tactics value counts, bonuses from discipline have no effect on phase time.
A siege dice roll is also triggered if the sieging army wins a battle on the besieged province.
The mean number of phases to finish a siege for a particular starting bonus is as follows:
Starting bonus | −9 | −8 | −7 | −6 | −5 | −4 | −3 | −2 | −1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | No fort |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Starting success % | −100.00% | −92.86% | −85.71% | −78.57% | −71.43% | −64.29% | −57.14% | −50.00% | −42.86% | −35.71% | −28.57% | −21.43% | −14.29% | −7.14% | 0.00% | 7.14% | 14.29% | 21.43% | 28.57% | 35.71% | 100% |
Mean phases | 43.18 | 30.51 | 25.24 | 21.44 | 17.42 | 14.75 | 12.65 | 10.87 | 9.41 | 8.20 | 7.24 | 6.48 | 5.78 | 5.13 | 4.52 | 3.86 | 3.27 | 2.82 | 2.46 | 2.17 | 1 |
Sieges per year | 0.28 | 0.40 | 0.48 | 0.57 | 0.70 | 0.82 | 0.96 | 1.12 | 1.29 | 1.48 | 1.68 | 1.88 | 2.10 | 2.37 | 2.69 | 3.15 | 3.72 | 4.32 | 4.95 | 5.60 | 12 |
"Sieges per year" is computed at the default phase length of 30 days.
Dice roll[edit]
At the end of each siege phase, a die (1 to 14) is rolled. The following modifiers are then applied:
- Siege status. The most important modifier. As the siege goes on, this bonus will increase from its starting value of 0 depending on previous dice rolls. The maximum starts at 12 for a Castle or capital fort and is increased by 1 for each building level above a Castle, up to a maximum of 15 for a Fortress.
- Leader siege. If the attacking army has a leader, the leader's siege skill (+0–6) is added as a bonus.
- Artillery. Adding artillery to a siege will add a +1 to +5 bonus.
- The
Age of Revolutions splendor ability
‘Napoleonic Warfare’ gives a further
+3 Artillery bonus vs fort. (Requires
Mandate of Heaven); hence instead of the cap of +5, additional artillery will grant a bonus up to +8
- The bonus is equal to the total number of artillery regiments divided by (fort building level + 1), with a minimum of 2, as listed in the table below
- A single regiment of artillery will always give at least a +1 bonus, regardless of fort level.
- Each 1000 artillery soldiers count as 1 artillery. e.g. having 10 regiments with 100 artillery each is the same as 1 regiment with 1000.
- The
Fort building level +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 Capital without fort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Castle (Fort level 2) 1 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Bastion (Fort level 4) 1 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 Star fort (Fort level 6) 1 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 Fortress (Fort level 8) 1 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
- Blockade. If the province is coastal and not completely blockaded, a −2 penalty is applied, or −1 if the attacker is the rightful owner of the province. Partial blockades (anything less than 100% for the province in question) have no effect on sieges. Note that the blockading fleet doesn't have to be owned by the same nation as the sieging army, or even a part of the same war to help in a siege.
- Fort Level. The defender's fort level is applied as a penalty.
- Obsolete Fort: If the attacker's technology allows the building of more advanced forts, they gain a bonus +1 per fort level difference to siegeing old forts. e. g. If attacker can build Star Forts (building level 3) and is sieging a Castle (building level 1), they gain a +2 bonus to dice rolls.
- Insufficient Garrison: Having less than half of the maximum garrison gives the attacker a +1 bonus. If the fort has no garrison whatsoever (i.e., if the fort has been mothballed during this month and is not a capital), then the province is treated as unfortified and the siege will automatically succeed.
- Walls Breached. Each time the walls are breached, the breach status value will increase by 1, to a maximum of +3. If this value is at least +1, then the fort can also be assaulted (see below).
The highest possible starting bonus is +17: a capital fort (−1), obsolete by 3 fort levels (+3), with an insufficient garrison (+1), with a 6-siege general (+6) and at least 8 regiments of artillery (+8). The worst possible starting bonus is −11, for a level 8 fort in a capital (−9) with no blockade (−2).
Effects[edit]
The die roll may result in an increase of the siege status, which improves the results of future siege stages. Maximum siege status values goes up with the attacker's maximum fort building level. (12/13/14/15 for fort building level 1/2/3/4). Maximum breach status is always 3.
- If the unmodified roll is 1, a Disease Outbreak happens—the attacking army loses 5% of its troops, and the siege does not progress (a surrender takes priority over a Disease Outbreak).
- If a breach occurs, ignore all results on the table below except for "Surrender". If the fort does not surrender, add 1 to the breach status and 2 to the siege status. A breach occurs if:
Or an artillery barrage or a naval barrage is used (see below)
- Then look up the modified die roll on the table below.
Roll | Result | Effect | Garrison losses |
---|---|---|---|
4 or less | Status Quo | – | – |
5 – 11 | Supplies Shortage | +1 siege status | −1% garrison |
12 – 13 | Food Shortage | +2 siege status | −3% garrison |
14 – 15 | Water Shortage | +3 siege status | −5% garrison |
16 – 19 | Defenders Desert | +2 siege status | −10% garrison |
20 or more | Surrender | Siege successful | – |
The attacker needs at least a net +6 bonus to have a chance of ending the siege.
To be noted that the success rate shown on the screen only reflects the probability of getting the modified die roll ≥ 20, and when the garrison is very low the modified die roll 5-19 might immediately end siege due to loss of garrison.
Artillery barrage[edit]
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Available only with the Mandate of Heaven DLC enabled. |
The option to conduct an artillery barrage becomes available when a siege has at least one full artillery regiment per fort level. This costs 50 military power and creates 3 breaches in the walls. In total, these add +3 permanent siege status. Rolling a natural breach is still possible and will affect the siege status but will not add another breach.
[edit]
![]() |
Available only with the Golden Century DLC enabled. |
Same as artillery barrage, but only available if the number of cannons on ships adjacent to the fort divided by 100 equals the fort level. The base cost is 50 military power which can be further modified by Portuguese naval doctrine and flagship modification. With both perks on, the cost can be reduced down to
10 military power.
Assault[edit]
The attacker may choose to assault the garrison with their infantry if the walls have been breached at least once. This can result in a speedy conclusion of the siege at the cost of 5 military power, and usually costs lots of lives. The attacker loses roughly 5 times as many troops as defender do and assaults on fully-manned forts are highly discouraged. Only infantry can assault. If all infantry units of the attacker are killed before the defenders are defeated, the remaining cavalry and artillery will continue the siege normally. Only men can be part of an assault per day.
Mechanics of an army[edit]
- Main article: Army
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.24. |
Exile[edit]
An exiled army can be identified by a black flag attached to its unit icon. It can't fight, siege provinces or explore, and it won't lift fog of war even in the province it's in. However, it can traverse any territory (other than wasteland) without needing military access. It still suffers attrition and its regiments can still move between armies, though regiments can't be mixed between exiled and non-exiled armies.
An army will become exiled under the following circumstances:
- When a war ends, any army still in territory it doesn't have peacetime access to is exiled. This prevents it from being permanently stuck in a place it can't get out of, as well as preventing several exploits.
- When a war begins, any army in a neutral or hostile province that it only had access to through a military access agreement is exiled. This prevents troops from being placed outside their country's territory in preparation for war. An army in uncolonized land or the territory of a subject or ally won't be exiled, even if the ally isn't called into the war.
- When a native tribe migrates, any armies that happen to be in the province it migrated to at the time and don't otherwise have access are exiled.
It will stop being exiled when it either:
- enters a province that the army's country or one of their subjects control or own
- This includes home provinces occupied by an enemy
- boards a transport ship that moves into a sea zone or is currently in one.
If an army is in combat when it gets exiled, the battle will end only if all of its enemies are no longer hostile. For example, if an army is fighting rebels in enemy territory when peace is signed, they will continue fighting despite being exiled.
Looting[edit]
Every province has a loot bar. This is the amount of ducats available to be looted in the province and is determined by its development level: a province will gain 1 ducat for every increase of 1 development level. The player can loot provinces they occupy or those which they are besieging, but troops must be present to do so. The amount of loot taken depends on the number and type of troops in the province. A full strength infantry/cavalry/artillery regiment loots 0.1/0.3/0.05 ducats per months.[3] When a province's loot bar is empty no more loot can be taken from that province. A province will only begin to recover two years after the last successful looting, at a rate of 10% each month.
Looting is the main cause of devastation, which greatly reduces the owner's production income and manpower, as well as decreasing movement speed, supply limits and institution spread. Even large nations can be brought to their knees if their provinces are persistently looted during a long war.
Various ideas increase looting speed; this bonus increases the amount of
ducats looted each month by the stated amount (and thus decreases the time taken to fully loot a province).
- +50% Assimilating Great Lakes culture group as
Mughals
Attach to army[edit]
This action attaches the player's army to a friendly army, causing their army to travel and fight alongside the friendly unit without further input from the player. The army can be detached at any time except in battle. An attached army cannot board transports. Attaching units to an AI army will change its behavior, making it bolder and more willing to actively engage enemies.
Attack natives[edit]
- See also: Colonization#Natives
The native population of a colony or uncolonized province can be eliminated using the attack natives military action. A native army equal in size to the local native population (rounded to the nearest thousand) will spawn immediately and must be defeated in battle to clear out the native population. This action costs military power proportional to the native population,
aggressiveness, and
ferocity, and will permanently reduce the potential value of the province from the native assimilation bonus. The elimination of all natives in a province will prevent any future raids on the local colony or any passing armies.
Scorched earth[edit]
An army in an owned and controlled province may scorch the earth for 5 military power, as long as it has not already been scorched. This increases
devastation in the province by 5 and gives the province modifier “Scorched Earth”, lasting for 60 months with the following effects:[4]
![]() |
−50% | Local hostile movement speed |
The devastation itself has the following effects (scaled to these figures at 100 devastation), decaying as devastation decays as usual:
Scorching the earth can be useful when the player's army is too weak to fend off attackers and their provinces are likely to be occupied. It increases attrition (hurting the enemy's manpower), and makes the provinces less valuable to the attacker while they're occupying them. The player will lose income in the meantime, but if they were going to lose control of them anyway it could be a good idea to make them less valuable for the enemy.
Rebel suppression[edit]
Stationing an army in an allied province provides a “Friendly Troops” negative modifier to unrest in that province, to the value of −0.25 per regiment, to a maximum of −5 at 20 regiments. This value scales linearly with the army maintenance slider.
Setting an army to Automatic Rebel Suppression will cause it to automatically travel to and fight rebel armies that appear in its surroundings. It will not attack rebel armies it thinks it cannot beat. The army will return to its previous position after the rebels are dispatched. Armies that are ordered to move will stop suppressing rebels. An army cannot drill while doing this.
Units set to auto suppression reduce unrest by a greater amount than normal, to be exact they suppress unrest at 500% effectiveness. But the cap of unrest reduction through rebel suppression still stays 5.
With the Dharma expansion, automatic rebel suppression is localized to the area they are in and up to two other contiguous areas (chosen by clicking on the map). The army then reduces unrest in all of those provinces via the "Friendly Troops" modifier, as though they were stationed in each individual province. This is more effective than simply stationing troops for a single area, but less effective (but usually still more efficient in manpower) across multiple areas.
Forced march[edit]
Forced march makes an army move 50% faster, but costs 2
military power[5] for each province the army marches through. Forced march is available at administrative technology 15. Armies that are forced marching do not recover morale. During Age of Revolutions it is possible to enable Improved Force March ability, which reduces
military power cost to 0 (requires
Mandate of Heaven).
References[edit]
- ↑ See in /Europa Universalis IV/common/defines.lua: BASE_COMBAT_WIDTH = 15.0
- ↑ http://steamcommunity.com/app/236850/discussions/0/864976115458051703/
- ↑ See in /Europa Universalis IV/common/defines.lua under
INF_LOOT
,CAV_LOOT
andART_LOOT
. - ↑ See in /Europa Universalis IV/common/static_modifiers/00_static_modifiers.txt (Static modifiers#Scorched Earth).
- ↑ this cost is affected by modifiers to
all power costs and if the discount is at least −0.1%, the game rounds down the cost to 1
. The cost is specified as PS_FORCE_MARCH = 2 in /Europa Universalis IV/common/defines.lua.
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