Facebook
Reddit
Email
Master army composition, terrain usage, and troop formations in Europa Universalis 5 to win battles across every era.
Europa Universalis 5 features complex combat mechanics and damage calculation systems that make mastering its warfare a significant challenge. However, understanding core army formation and composition strategy can help you win more battles with any nation, regardless of troop specialization. This guide will walk you through the ideal army composition in various scenarios and explain how troop formations can help you win uphill battles.
Also Read: Europa Universalis 5: Top 5 Beginner Tips and Tricks
Europa Universalis 5: Army Composition and Formation Guide
Your army can consist of infantry, archers, artillery, and cavalry. Regardless of its composition, the army is divided into three fronts and reserves during battle. The reserves join the battle when there is available frontage. Each flank’s maximum frontage is determined by terrain, vegetation, and the general’s administrative ability. Reducing the number of troops in a flank will decrease its frontage.
Beginners should click the Balance Unit button on an army to equally divide the troops among the center, two flanks, and reserves. This ensures that none of your flanks will be easily compromised and that each unit in the formation can fight efficiently according to the available frontage.
Also Read: Europa Universalis 5 Start and End Date Explained
Open Battles
When fighting on an open battlefield like plains, you ideally want a mix of cavalry and professional infantry troops. Concentrate cavalry and other high-Initiative troops in one or two flanks to engage the enemy quickly and deal flanking damage.
Siege Battles
For siege battles, an ideal army composition includes artillery and professional infantry. The importance of cavalry is reduced during such battles. To win without massive casualties, rely on attrition rather than a direct assault unless the enemy garrison is very small.
Early Game
At the start of the game, professional units have only 100 men. This scales their damage down to 10% of its potential. Using levies in the early game is recommended since each unit has a base size of 1,000 men. Therefore, they outclass professional soldiers on a unit-to-unit basis. When professional troops scale to 3,000 soldiers per regiment, they will deal triple the damage dealt by levies while boasting higher base stats.
Also Read: How To Make Money Easily in Europa Universalis 5
Europa Universalis 5: Army Tactics Tips and Tricks
- With a smaller army, you will want as little frontage as possible. Therefore, fighting in hilly, forested, and mountainous terrain is ideal. Larger armies will want to fight on open plains to maximize frontage and bring the full weight of their numbers to bear against the enemy.
- Cavalry gets a bonus to Flanking Damage. Therefore, concentrate cavalry units on one or two flanks to engage quickly because of their high initiative, defeat the opposing flank, and deal heavy flanking damage to the center without taking damage themselves.
- Armies can hide in forests and in the cover of geographical features like mountains, allowing them to launch ambush attacks on enemies.
- Only enter battles that you are likely to win, especially when fighting outside your territory. This is because, to replenish the numbers of levies and professional troops, the army must return to friendly territory. Once on home soil, levies must be re-raised, while professional troops can reinforce by drawing on the manpower pool.
- During campaigns into enemy territory, build supply depots to establish supply routes to keep your army fed.
- Moving continuously lowers army morale. Stop in a province for a few ticks to recover morale.
- Head to the Automation tab and enable Replace Generals and Replace Admirals options. This will allow your armies to automatically recruit generals to lead them. The feature is particularly important once your empire grows and you have several armies to manage.
We provide the latest news and create guides for Europa Universalis 5. Meanwhile, you can check out the following articles or catch us playing games on YouTube:
