Q&A : Strategies & The Game Mechanics That Make Them Work

If you used mainly colonial troops you have much more power, because you can produced more troops.
The regular troops from era I to IV are for waste, because you can not update this troops to era VIII.
And this depends not on economy, terrain and neighbors.
Only in the time from era I to III it make sense to used the light regular infantry. then you can research the colonial troops level 2 and you can changed your troops from regular to colonial.

Another way is it to use the mercenary troops.

Beccause of the cap is no more for the first time i am exploring the use of mercenaries not beccause they are better or beccause they have reserch that will be better in the future but beccause they use very little manpower to recruit .

Not sure how good they will work out but i will try it in my curent game .

they are good for gaining quick advantage but you cannot maintain merc for longer time as this will kill you treasury so you finished up in killing them and replacing casualties with colonial/regular troops

example how to sue mercs

1. Offense: when you see opportunity you spam mercs at a border with your enemy: 1 unit every 2-3 hours and you are ready to attack after half a day
2. Deffence: catch your enemy in defensive battle in fort and start spamming mercs in surrounding provinces so you can reinforce your garrison quickly.

I like to use Regs for my mainland, colonials for colonies, and mercs for additional forces during major wars. I find that a mix is superior to only one type.

well - look at that
1 colonial art+ 1 colonial inf + 1 colonial cav = 3 cap points and how powerfull they are plus they are building faster and cheaper than regular units and are much more powerfull than mercs

I might have to try that. I could put a get on each of my isolated island colonies.

The colonial troops are overpowered here. The regular troops are for waste.
The mercanary troops are a good support, because they are very fast to recruit and they have not so many researches.

you have too do a lot of research to get to "modern regular" troops. The best stand-alone anti-infantry weapon would be the modern regular artilery "Napoleonic Field Gun", but it isn't really worth the trouble: two colonial "grasshopper cannon" are better, take up the same "unit cap space" - and support cost aren't an issue in late-game.

Mixing some regular troops in between the colonials can however help to distribute the damage better, so in battle you might get 2 damaged units instead of one dead.

Yes, only the modern regular troops are a useful. But you can research this troops, without research the regular troops before. So the regular troops before are for waste.
My suggestion: the light regular infantry, the light regular cvalry and the light regular artillery only 8 hours research time and the heavy regular troops only 12 hours. So you can research this troops more faster than the colonial troops.


Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was an officer in the prussian army and later he trained the first army of the USA in the independence war. And he needs more time to trained the american (colonial) army than for an regular army for the same results. And the quality of the colonial army was not very high, only the motivation was high.

Actually, i've already played games where i had only researched light regular infantry and cavalry to about lvl 3 and wanted to research modern troops, and the tech requirement where not fulfiled - i had to research heavy regular level 1 of each branch to unlock the respective modern type. So, e.g. to unlock modern artilery, you do have to research both light and heavy regular artillery, but both only to level 1. You never have to actually build heavy regular artillery, however.

I am just starting to figure this out, so thank you for pointing it out. I think this is crucial for an effective strategy. Having multiple types of units to absorb the damage will minimize troop loss. Let's say I send in an army of 10 unique units against a force of 5 units. The ratio is only 2:1, but they may all survive and then begin to recuperate at day change. On the other hand if I send in 10 units of 1 type light colonial infantry, I will likely lose at least 1, but likely more. While 10 unique units may not be possible, 3 or 4 different units certainly is.