Army composition: what is best? (2024)

Hi there.

I wanted to ask what army composition is best in EUIV. I've been doing 8 infantry 4 cavalry since EU3 but i don't know if that is ideal for EUIV. I want to 50% bonus from having less infantry than cavalry. However, i've also heard that artillery is good as well.

Should i change it to something like 6 infantry 4 artillery 2 cavalry? Or something else? i like 12k stacks since they tend not to take attrition and i can always just stack them together for larger battles.

Thanks.

I'd like to know too if artillery is worth it in a fighting army.

Currently I run more inf and than cav, trying to keep it on a 3:2 ratio so as not to have more cav than inf.

videonfan said:

Don't forget that certain numbers of artillery give you bonuses during sieges.I think 4 artillery gives you +2.

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See Also

Ottomans best army compositionWhat will be the general best army composition ?

the recuired artillery for the Bonus depends on the fort Level in think.

tormos said:

arctus makes 2 valid points. I'm no expert but I am experimenting with a front line of 2:1 cav and then a rear line of the same width of artillery-more useful if your leader has high Fire (and you have spare gold for artillery)

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i try to use 1 more inf than cav because inf falls quickly and then you get that -25 % malus for to much cav. filling all the back lines with artillery is expansive but should make huge Impact especially with a high fire leader, but wothout huge shoc leader your infantry maybe gets down to fast and you ari gets in first line

Lessing said:

Is this confirmed? Artillery can shoot from the 2nd row, whereas all other troops cannot?

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i dont now it but it was the case in Victoria 2 and it would make sense

arctus said:

i dont now it but it was the case in Victoria 2 and it would make sense

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yeah artillery was really useful in vicky 2 but im not sure how good they are in eu iv.

tormos said:

arctus makes 2 valid points. I'm no expert but I am experimenting with a front line of 2:1 cav and then a rear line of the same width of artillery-more useful if your leader has high Fire (and you have spare gold for artillery)

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Interesting - didn't even know we could decide what is in which line - how do you do it?

Lessing said:

Is this confirmed? Artillery can shoot from the 2nd row, whereas all other troops cannot?

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I just loaded the "League of Cambrai" start as france, and yes, this is the way it works.

With a combat width of 9 and a composition of 24:2:7 Inf:Cav:Art ,
my frontline consisted of the Cav at left and right flank, and 6 Inf in the middle, so a 8-regiment line.
In the second line, 7 Art were firing at the enemies first line, while 1 Inf in the second line did nothing.

Due to the Art having fire and shock values, it fired through both phases. Also it seems artillery is automatically placed in second line if sufficient support troops are available.

So, the optimal army composition (with 50% Cav bonus) should be:

cavallery: X
infantry: X + a few, because mobile infantries job is dying
artillery: combat width - 1

for example: 13:10:8 Inf:Cav:Art for a CW of 9

EDIT: Turns out combat with is dependent on your terrain.
Base width is 15. On plain terrain you get Base + Technology level, so you should aim for that amount I guess.

trcanberra said:

Interesting - didn't even know we could decide what is in which line - how do you do it?

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Same here!! I have no clue what they are talking about... could someone enlighten us please?

Yes, ART attacks with 1/2 if its combat power from the second row and bestows its defensive pipes on the unit in front of it. That is the reason why ART is mandatory past land tech level 7.
In fact it was SO powerful in EU3, that it got seriously nerfed in EU4: You can only use 1/2 of the squares behind your frontline units and ART takes double damage when fighting in the first row (not sure if that is documented anywhere, though).

The ideal army composition is 2 CAV (for the flanks) + 50% ART + 50% INF.
My early game stacks consist of 8 INF + 2 CAV + 10 ART, midgame I either combine them or switch to 18 INF + 2 CAV + 20 ART, late game stacks consist of 36 INF + 4 CAV + 40 ART.

Laurynaslt said:

every 2 units of altitery gives you 1 point bonus in sieges.

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No. You need [fortlevel * ART] for each point of bonus siege. The first point, however, does only require a single ART unit, no matter the fort level.
So a fortlevel 2 province needs: 1/4/6/8/10 ART, while a fortlevel 4 province needs 1/8/12/16/20 ART.

[EDIT 30.11.2013] This post has been edited to fix a previous mistake in ART % calculation.[/EDIT]

Olligarchy said:

I tend to field armies of 20k with 10k infantry, 5k cavalry and 5k artillery.

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That is my favorite stack as well. It can be a real killer.