I showed them! Or did i just shoot myself in the foot?

[Dayve]

Playing as France, 1704, my American holdings are being savaged by native American tribes, have lost 3 territories in the Americas, am struggling to fight an enemy whose basic units outrange and outdamage my mid-range units, and whose cavalry brushes my best cavalry aside like the wind brushes aside leaves.

So when the UP declared war on me and took French Guyann i thought... AH HA! An enemy i know i can defeat. Being enraged at having to fight battle after battle against an enemy i simply can't defeat, even when i outnumber them, i jumped at the chance of a victory, and went straight in for the UP's capital city. Took it at a loss of about 3% of the total army sent to take it, which was 14 units of this and that, but good god you should see the happiness of the city.

Even with tax exemption upper class is -28 in the red and lower class -30 in the red. There's no way I'm going to be able to hold this. When it rebels back to the UP will they regain their overseas territories, provided they are still in rebel hands?

[Fisherking]

No, I don't think so. They will all still be rebel...and chances are you will hold the city. Even at those levels you will likely defeat the rebel efforts.

[Marquis of Roland]

Did you repair the government building?

[FactionHeir]

Destroy the university and don't worry about riots. In ETW they can't damage your army and the rebel army is usually quite weak.

[Megas Methuselah]

Playing as France, 1704, my American holdings are being savaged by native American tribes, have lost 3 territories in the Americas, am struggling to fight an enemy whose basic units outrange and outdamage my mid-range units, and whose cavalry brushes my best cavalry aside like the wind brushes aside leaves.

So when the UP declared war on me and took French Guyann i thought... AH HA! An enemy i know i can defeat. Being enraged at having to fight battle after battle against an enemy i simply can't defeat, even when i outnumber them, i jumped at the chance of a victory, and went straight in for the UP's capital city. Took it at a loss of about 3% of the total army sent to take it, which was 14 units of this and that, but good god you should see the happiness of the city.

Even with tax exemption upper class is -28 in the red and lower class -30 in the red. There's no way I'm going to be able to hold this. When it rebels back to the UP will they regain their overseas territories, provided they are still in rebel hands?

The Tribes are quite easy to beat, especially since they usually go heavy in melee. If you're unable beat a melee army with muskets, then... Well, I don't know what to say. There's a good reason muskets brought melee armies into obseletion.

Destroy the university and don't worry about riots. In ETW they can't damage your army and the rebel army is usually quite weak.

Yeah, I became something of an expert in holding capital cities by now. Keep a garrison there, about 10 units strong. Keep the tax rate up. Destroy the universities, replace them with churches/pleasure gardens (although the riots will constantly damage them).

Then just wait 20-30 turns until those "resisting foreign invasion" points go down. You will have to crush the rebels every 3 turns, but it's rather quite easy, albeit time-consuming.

[Megas Methuselah]

Delete.

[FactionHeir]

Don't keep tax rate up, it just costs you town watch. While they are rioting it doesn't produce anything anything.

[Servius]

Also, the order bonus of your garisoning army never exceeds 15, which I think can be achieved with about 8 Dragoon units. It's probably the most cost-effective way of getting those 15 points.

[Phog_of_War]

At 1704 Dragoons are out of the question.

I just took Warsaw in my Austrian game. The happiness of the Polish people was piss poor after I took over, complaining about their freedom, or some such thing. I had to deal with 3 rebellions in the area, one right after another.

I just kept the army and General that I took the city over with; in the city, repaired the goverment buildings, barracks, and any happiness buildings. Then I sat back and read the letters of complaint I recieved from the wealthy people. I laughed when the peasents decided to go on strike, after they fixed all the buildings. I then moved a smaller army into the area and wated for the rebels to appear.

I have found that crushing rebels is the best way to get a population inline. Military Crackdown is really usefull, especially if you have Dragoons. Sometimes I will just leave a few units in the city and let the rebellions just happen in order to get a military crackdown and get the city under control a little quicker.

Just make sure you win.

[Dayve]

Cheers everyone. Oh and Megas, the natives might be melee heavy in your game, good for you, but in mine they recruit archers like there's no tomorrow.

[Fisherking]

Also, the order bonus of your garisoning army never exceeds 15, which I think can be achieved with about 8 Dragoon units. It's probably the most cost-effective way of getting those 15 points.

He is playing as France. They never get dragoons in Europe. They only get them in the far off regions.

[Phog_of_War]

Really? I have never played a campaign as France, I didnt know that. Wow.

[Didz]

Cheers everyone. Oh and Megas, the natives might be melee heavy in your game, good for you, but in mine they recruit archers like there's no tomorrow.

Exactly, the problem with native american's is not so much their melee units but their missile units.

Both their bowmen and musketmen outrange standard european line infantry and the AI does actually use this range advantage, either to decimate your battle line, or in some cases to pick off your general standing behind it.

The only practical solution I've found it to fight fire with fire and recruit my own native american missile auxilaries as soon as I can. If you do find yourself under missile fire and unable to respond the only real option you have is to advance preferably with 'bayonets' and drive them off. Either that or sacrifice a cavalry unit in the hope of routing them.

[Megas Methuselah]

Why are we not allowed to recruit light infantry from the start? It was 1780 before I finally got the light infantry doctrine in my Knights of St John campaign.