how to stop enemy at your border?

[cato13]

if i have divs in garrisons does this stop the enemy from entering the region or passing through or must i have them outside the garrison?

[YohanTM2]

They will run right by them

[cato13]

so i must have them ungarrisoned then to stop them?
if so is the only benefit in having troops garrisoned for supply issues?

[ian77]

Not really, no.

Troops in city garrisons eat crops, and cannot forage. But upkeep cost are reduced.

But more importantly, if a city has no garrison, and there are no other troops defending your province, should enemy troops move in to your province, they will capture it without a siege. If you have defenders in the province and they loose in battle they will withdraw from the province, if these were to have been your city garrison then you will have lost your province.

So when war starts make sure you have at least one unit as garrison in your cities.

Ian

[cato13]

ok so to sum up if i was to have troops in garrision defending my province an enemy army has to fight my garrison to win? it cant just bypass the garrison?

[Ralegh]

No.

a) Forces outside of cities must be fought or avoided - forces in garrison can always be bypassed - forces who end their movement in an area will try to engage in a seige at the start of the next turn. When I say fought or avoided, I am talking about the "seek battle" option on armies/corps. Note that enemy armies may overrun your force (that is, defeat them in battle and keep going).

There is NOTHING you can do to "force" enemy units to stay on their side of the line - if they set to avoid battle, they have at least a decent chance of getting past you, and cossacks are masters of whipping past your lines.

[This is not the warfare of 1915 with clear battle lines on a strategic map. It is a warfare of confusion, with fragile supply lines. When one of Napoleon's generals drew up plans for defending France, Napoleon asked him (sarcastically) if he was trying to defend from smugglers!]

b) While the manual says that having forces in garrison reduces upkeep, the real effect is that it costs lots of food and a little money to have forces in garrison. At the start of the game I now put all my garrisons into the field. I only put em back into cities when there is risk of enemy forces (especially those darn cossacks) getting to the province.

[KarlXII]

I was quite surprised by the fact that the enemy could reach almost any province in my realm anytime. I falsely garrissoned my border provinces heavily in the beginning and watched the enemy main army just move directly to siege my capital. I thought that a little bit strange, but that´s how the system design is like.

Shouldn´t garrisoned troops have a large chance of destroying enemy depots in provinces they bypass without troops ? Perhaps they do, but I don´t remember. If they don´t I think its strange because every army is dependent on having the supply route undisturbed and that was why it was not always good to bypass strong enemy fortifications in enemy territory since they could harass the supply routes.

[carnifex]

Only Armies, Corps, and Fleets are set as "blockers" by the game code. All other units will allow movement through.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: carnifex

Only Armies, Corps, and Fleets are set as "blockers" by the game code. All other units will allow movement through.

This is changed a bit as ungarrisoned divisions can block movement.

A rule to allow garrisons to disrupt depots might work well, but significant amounts of AI code would need to be rewritten to make it work. Perhaps with a sufficient level of "guns and walls" a province should be able to disrupt depots...

[Hard Sarge]

Hmmm a early model of the maggot line/westwall, that could work

[ian77]

If the AI builds a depot in one of your provinces, and doesnt leave a beseiging or covering force, can you not just order a garrison unit to move out of and then back into the city, thus disrupting the enemy supply depot?

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

Hmmm a early model of the maggot line/westwall, that could work

Sounds like a coarse fishing technique being used at the sea side... "yes, I caught it with a maggot line from the westwall.."[;)]

Ian

[KarlXII]

A rule to allow garrisons to disrupt depots might work well, but significant amounts of AI code would need to be rewritten to make it work. Perhaps with a sufficient level of "guns and walls" a province should be able to disrupt depots...

The least difficult is to say use the strength of guns and walls. At least that would give a meaning to strongly build up the defence in border provinces or narrow provinces that acts like a gate way to ones realm. I understand that the other alternative requires reprogramming of the AI-routines to coupe with the fact that they must leave units to guard the supply lines if they want to bypass the garrison. Better to have the first alternative than risk that the AI is not suited for the task I think. But either way it would add another strategical element to the game that now is lacking. All in all this is of course a great game and manages to successfully bring the right kind of atmosphere one seeks for in a strategy game.

/Karl XII