Army Replacements and the F10 Standings Screen

[jscott991]

I have a few questions that have resulted in my first 1.04 game (I was playing 1.03 before the last two patches).

I'm playing as France and I'm in 1856.

1. On the F10 standing screen, it shows that Britain has a navy score of 300+ and an army score of 120. The United States has a navy score of 140 and Russia has an army score higher than me.

This simply is impossible. I have 13 squadrons of ships of the line, with 9 more under construction, plus an assortment of frigates and corvettes. I have 14 army corps (up from 7 in 1850), plus all the other units that you usually have. My conscripts have consistently been at 0 and I've been building the maximum number of ships I can. There simply is no way that the United Kingdom has a larger army or the United States has 40% more combat power in ships.

Is this screen bugged?

What's interesting is that I keep getting messages saying I'm on target to be Europe's largest army and the second largest navy in the world despite trailing the UK in army (plus Russia, who doesn't count for this mission) and the USA in navy. What's also interesting is that I play with fog of war OFF, so I can see every unit in the world, and there simply aren't that many USA squadrons or UK army corps.

2. Twice in my current game my units have suddenly accumulated hundreds of hits, requiring me to build replacements at such a rate that I quickly ran out of conscripts.

The first time made sense. I had just developed a new military technology (I forget what the first rifle technology is called) and I remembered from my first playthrough that this required heavy investment to modernize my troops (though why it requires new conscripts is something the developers should really explain; giving a soldier a new rifle doesn't mean that soldier is mustered out, men can be separately from their guns).

The second time (~ March 1856) doesn't make sense. I just suddenly need to build dozens of artillery, ship, and infantry replacements.

What is going on here?

And if it is working as intended, then the developers really need to explain the difference between a "hit" that is simply modernization of existing units and a hit that actually is the result of combat losses.

Plus, conscripts are recruited way too slowly if you need to use hundreds of them every few years to modernize an army's guns.

Thanks!

[James D Burns]

1st question a dev would need to address. My guess would be units under construction are not counted, but I don't know for sure.

2nd question sounds like you were unable to pay upkeep in conscripts for a turn. I've seen lack of upkeep devastate my forces like this and the cost was so severe it caused me to go back a few turns. The irony is the text message that informs you of such a devastating turn of events is rather innocuous and can easy be missed. It should be bolded and red in color to catch a player’s eye so he can deal with it at the time it occurs since after another three turns it’s too late to go back. The game only keeps 3 turns backed up.

Jim

[vaalen]

1st question a dev would need to address. My guess would be units under construction are not counted, but I don't know for sure.

2nd question sounds like you were unable to pay upkeep in conscripts for a turn. I've seen lack of upkeep devastate my forces like this and the cost was so severe it caused me to go back a few turns. The irony is the text message that informs you of such a devastating turn of events is rather innocuous and can easy be missed. It should be bolded and red in color to catch a player’s eye so he can deal with it at the time it occurs since after another three turns it’s too late to go back. The game only keeps 3 turns backed up.

Jim

The situation Jim described above can happen if you build so many uints in one turn that yo do not have enough conscripts left to maintain your forces.

I know, because i have done it.
When I build units, I always check to make sure that I have enough conscripts left in the pool to maintain the other units, and I like to leave a cushion as well.

[czert2]

jup, when building large armys ALLWAYS keep looking at your conscipts/officers reserves - since total recutment pools slowly goes up over time and when you double your army strenght you pay double recruits/offs upkeep so it is very posible to run even into sutuatin taht you will even klose some consrips/offs to just maintain that big force.
so i can only recoment you that you get as many colonies as you can -- for extra recuits - and dont forget to disband all native units since they only eat resources for no combat power.

[James D Burns]

Natives do not use up your replacement pool chits, thus I doubt you are charged upkeep for them. But even if you are, in my opinion they are worth it. They will auto-repair damage over time (though they don't ever replace full elements) and they usually get movement bonus' in difficult terrain, so they are a huge asset as special force troops that can quickly hunt down difficult to catch rebellion units or raiders. I never disband them. Also some of the large native units usually named 'banner' units can have a dozen or more elements attached. You usually gain these units with many elements missing, so merge a brigade or two of your best combat troops to them and you now have a very large unit that can be commanded with minimal CP cost and can absorb a tremendous amount of damage.

Jim

[driggsd]

James, I agree whole heartedly about the usefulness of native troops. I just wish there was a mechanism to upgrade or reinforce them into colonial troops.

[Pocus]

The perceived value of units are in ratio to their cohesion, so all units under construction are worth 0 in the current system.

[vaalen]

James, I agree whole heartedly about the usefulness of native troops. I just wish there was a mechanism to upgrade or reinforce them into colonial troops.

In my latest game as France, I have a acquired a lot of native troops. Some of them do upgrade, though not all of them. They do not upgrade into colonial troops, but they get better defensive and offensive firepower. When they upgrade, I get a message that they have finished their training.I am using the latest patch.

[jscott991]

The perceived value of units are in ratio to their cohesion, so all units under construction are worth 0 in the current system.

The standings still make no sense, even with this in mind.

In December 1856, I have 13 army corps as France in play (none under construction), plus all the other units you usually have. The United Kingdom doesn't have anywhere near this in army (and I don't know how they could have afforded to build it even if they did). I can see their whole army because Fog of War is off. Yet they are still reported as 120% of the French army.

I have 15 squadrons of ships of the line in play (more under construction), plus assorted lighter ships. The United States Navy doesn't seem to have anywhere near this (and again, I don't see they could have built them), but they are reported as 147% of the French navy.

I won't even get into the fact that the United Kingdom's navy fluctuates from 300% to 180%.

I think this screen is bugged.

[Pocus]

If this is with latest public beta patch, then post your saved game.