Spain is super human!

[General Lee]

I just got the newest patch, and as britain I am at war with spain over Portugal. I send a grand army there, 140 thousand men, and beat them whenever I go into detailed battle. The problem is that a force of 60,000 spaniards whipped my 140,000 men in a quick battle despite my troops being much better trained. Then, having recovered from that defeat I'm able to catch them beseiging Gib and move in for the kill, however again I do a quick battle and am beaten, which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that they all of a sudden appeared behind me as if I were the one trapped at Gib. So my entire army surrenders. But to top it all off, I move a fleet over to the southern spanish coast and am beaten badly by a much smaller, untrained fleet. Is Spain a superpower all of a sudden? Is there something I'm missing?

[Grand_Armee]

Hey, General Lee,
The keys to quick battle are: More upgrades, Higher morale (which I'm sure your troops have), and at least cavalry parity if not superiority. And I know for Britain horses are never plentiful enough.
Since Spain builds lots of cavalry divisions, this makes them difficult to beat. Oddly enough, every book I've read about the Napoleonic wars said Spain had crappy cavalry, crappy horses (ruined by extensive mule breeding), and not much of it.
Then again, Prussia starts 1792 with one cavalry division at a time when they had many cavalry regiments and one of the largest armies in Europe.

[malthaussen]

I never do a quick battle if I can avoid it. The results are too often worthless or counter-intuitive. (Much the same can be said about the detailed battles, but at least I can cause a few casualties there, even if the enemy turns and runs on the first turn)

As a general strategic point, never, never, never advance without securing your base first. The computer is amazingly proficient at cutting you off -- as you discovered. It's almost as though they know exactly what move you are going to do before they make theirs... but I'm sure the devs wouldn't do something like that. Naw.

-- Mal

[1LTRambo]

I hate quick battles with a passion and would prefer not to use them at all. There is way to much randomness to it. I as France with 2 artillery, 4 cavalry, and 8 infantry was defeated[X(] by the British with only 2 cavalry and 3 infantry. Give me a break!![:@] I had not lost a battle up to this point through my use of combined arms and manuver, only to have the computer play my army as idiots. Blah!
Eric should change the setting to allow detailed battles to be an option given everytime battle is offered.[:-]
Or, if that is too radical, can someone let me know how to mod the game to allow detailed battles all the time?[&:]

[Treefrog]

Matthew,
I concur that some quick battle results are scandalous. [X(] I reconcile them to my sense of history by thinking of them as a Bailen or one of the 1813-1814 surprising debacles that befell the French.

[Grand_Armee]

ORIGINAL: 1LTRambo

I hate quick battles with a passion and would prefer not to use them at all. There is way to much randomness to it. I as France with 2 artillery, 4 cavalry, and 8 infantry was defeated[X(] by the British with only 2 cavalry and 3 infantry. Give me a break!![:@] I had not lost a battle up to this point through my use of combined arms and manuver, only to have the computer play my army as idiots. Blah!
Eric should change the setting to allow detailed battles to be an option given everytime battle is offered.[:-]
Or, if that is too radical, can someone let me know how to mod the game to allow detailed battles all the time?[&:]

Size doesn't always win out. Upgrades and Morale are very important. I know British regulars have very high morale. Did you do a comparison of those attributes?

[1LTRambo]

I had a detailed battle against Britian where I was outnumbered almost 3 to 1 by a combined force of Britian and Prussia. Through the use of controlling ground and calvary counter attacks, I was able to hammer their forces and force them off of the field of battle. It was a long and difficult battle as I suffered serious casualties, but I was still the victor. Thus my point of only wanting to conduct detailed battles.