Managing militancy

[seathom]

I must be doing something wrong. I understand that there are scripted events for the US regarding militancy, but when I was trying to increase loyalty in border states, I started sending cavalry brigades and a few MP's down south. This did have the effect of increasing loyalty (in my hopes that these border states will stay with the union when Civil War occurs. However, I have just started getting massive increases in militancy (I went from 9% nationally to 13% in 2 turns and areas that have troops individually have 30-40% militancy). The contentment of my nation has been hovering between 90-92% while the areas that have troops have so far been maintaining contentment of 60-70% and I'm fine with that because demonstrations and strikes haven't occurred since early 1850 (I'm now in early 1854).

The manual says that moving troops and MP's into areas are supposed to decrease militancy, but it seems to have increased loyalty (as intended) but also increased militancy. I just started moving those troops out of the south to see if that will lower militancy and replace them closer to 1860 to see if I can sway those border states over to my side without having to worry about revolts breaking out before the CW. I'm not sure if contentment will plummet, but it hasn't been a problem since the first year (except in the Mississippi Delta where it was 50% so I sent a brigade down there and it quickly jumped to 54%).

Should I leave those troops in the border states and maintain higher loyalty and just accept the higher militancy as being scripted as so far my contentment is fine so no chance for demonstrations and strikes or is the manual wrong about troops lowering militancy?

Everything else is going well, still hoping that Indian Uprisings will occur soon (historically around 1855 I believe) or should I just declare war or sneak attack them (since it doesn't affect international relations as much) on a tribe and take over militarily their remaining lands now (before the CW starts). I haven't done a thing with the natives diplomatically thinking I will need to have war with them to fully take over the lands they control militarily and to stop their pillaging through peace treaties. Am I wrong here?

[loki100]

From comments of others - be careful about too early an expansion westward. The sort of war that will result will need a lot of troops as its a classic regular vs irregular conflict. Its not whether you have the most powerful army its whether you have the units to hold your gains and protect your supply lines. Pinning down hard to detect fast moving units is one of the challenges that makes PoN such a good simulation, but it makes that sort of war an exercise in slow frustration unless you really have overwhelming force

[seathom]

Thanks Loki. It seems that removing those troops from high militancy areas slowed down the militancy rate considerably (although I'm at 15% in early 1855 but my highest area of Louisville has only gone up 1 in the last 6-8 months). Removing those troops did INCREASE both loyalty (significantly) and contentment (to lesser degree). Not what the manual says, and not exactly what happened to valaan (sp??) with his recent French militancy solution, but hey it's working for me right now.

It seems a better strategy is to move troops into those low contentment areas until things improve but remove them after awhile because long-term military occupation in the cities will have a major militancy issue later on and their removal is appreciated by the population. Either that or it was something else I missed!

[seathom]

As for westward expansion, I seemed to have gotten ahead of myself. I am at the stage where I should be able to create states, however my research is not up to par yet so I'll have to wait with my colonies. Britain has created a dominion, but obviously is ahead of me technologically.

[James D Burns]

States are handled via event. Once you colonize just wait and they'll start to become national territory eventually. I think I've had 3 or so join so far in my game.

Jim

[seathom]

I think you're right. Puget Sound lost its colonial status (along with their buildings) once CP hit 101% (but I think I need to add a collection point there because it's non-national territory or something like that. Oregon and Minnesota are close too. Since you've been trying to be diplomatic with the natives, have you been able to delve into the military side before the Civil War? My clicking finger is starting to itch for a fight!

[James D Burns]

Nope sorry my entire first 10 years was focused on making the south as strong as possible. I didn’t want to get sidetracked with playing whack-a-mole putting down native rebellions so I spent what political points I got on signing commerce agreements followed by defensive agreements if they ever went above +40 in relations. You fail 95%-99% of the time it seems, but eventually you can get them all signed. I still get an occasional Indian tribal rebellion unit spawning but at this point it’s probably less than 1 appearing every 3 years.

I’ve gotten a lot of victory locations for Spanish territory assigned to me over the years, so you might want to look at building a casus belli against them if you’re itching for a fight. Just realize the US isn’t really a strong contender for military operations early game due to very tiny conscript incomes. Chances are Spain will have a much stronger army than you.

Post Civil War you will have lots of large military formations that stay around as part of your standing army. You will also have a decent conscription income by then as well. That’s really the time to explore fights with other military powers I’d say.

Jim

[seathom]

I was too worried about fighting Spain early because of my relative weakness so I ignored those chances (probably a mistake, a crisis here and there would have spiced things up a bit). It's late 1855, so I'll just keep waiting for the Civil War. I've been tempted to start wars with the natives, since economically I'm doing pretty good, but have not done it yet. Thanks for replying!