In-depth Analysis of Unit Types & Combat Statistics (Error found, check my comments plz) (2024)

This is a follow-up to my previous post: In-depth Analysis of Land Combat, Unit Types, and the Viability of Cavalry

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Best Infantry
3. Best Cavalry
4. Best Artillery
5. Infantry vs Cavalry
6. Combat Stats Comparison
   a. Offensive Pips vs Defensive Pips When Attacking Into Rough Terrain
   b. Low Roll vs Medium Roll vs High Roll
   c. Morale vs Discipline
   d. Discipline vs Combat Ability
   e. Combat Ability vs Damage Dealt/Received
   f. General Pip vs Combat Ability
7. Conclusion

Introduction

Upon receiving feedback, I decided that I need a better way to represent game mechanics and need to automate some of the manual work, so I upgraded my EU4 Combat Simulator. This is how it looks.

You just have to enter military tech level and the names of the two units that you want to compare. Windows Excel will automatically load rest of the values according to the tech level and the unit names and display the outcome of the battle in the bottom chart. You can change values for other combat modifiers that are in blue if you want. Text in the battle outcome chart will show in color based on unit performance so you can easily tell which unit wins. If you want to check the daily progress of a battle you can switch to 'Combat Sequence' tab and check numbers from there. I'll attach both the simulator and test results, feel free to check them out. I don't want this thread to be too long, so I'll only post data I need for explaining things, but the rest is available in the attached files. Also, since my previous thread has gained a good number of views, I'll assume that people who read this already know the main points I've discussed in the thread. If you haven't read it already and decide to read it first, please bear in mind that some of the things I said or posted there are inaccurate and will be different in this version. However, there are still valid information as well so if you have the time I recommend you a read. Lastly, because artillery in back row continues to fight at zero morale, it's crucial that you fill up the back row with cannons ASAP. At least by tech 16, when artillery fire modifier increases to 2.4, you should have a full stack of artillery for major engagements, and since a skilled player should be more than capable of building strong enough economy to do so even before tech 16, units past tech 15 will be evaluated according to their performance with artillery on both sides. With all of that out of the way, let's get right into it.

Best Infantry

Example:

*red: morale advantage *blue: men advantage *purple: both *(a): supported by artillery *bold: stackwipe
*A-B: positive # for Unit A, negative # for Unit B
*All comparisons should be made using A-B values

I chose units that have morale advantage, i.e. units that win battles, as the best among its counterparts. This is because war is won by war score, war score is earned by sieging down forts, and sieges are completed by winning battles and buying time for siege ticks. Generally, units with more morale pips win battles but lose in terms of manpower, but the the loss in manpower can be easily compensated with tactical advantage gained by winning battles. Unlike common knowledge, the importance of morale does not diminish in the late game, because stronger cannons mean easier stackwipe. To explain this further we need to first understand how combat works in EU4, so let's take it step by step and have a look at the infantry vs infantry match up first.

These match ups are chosen to demonstrate pip priority for infantry units. Various in-game situations may change the strength disparity among different pips, but, judging by many other cases I've looked into, I doubt that the order of priority itself would ever change.

Pip Priority For Infantry Units

At tech 14, infantry fire modifier catches up with infantry shock modifier. Keep in mind that all conclusions are derived from statistical evidence. You might think that defensive fire becomes more important than offensive morale in the late game, but turns out that that is not the case. In the above chart, tech 19 Incan Guerrilla (a) has one more defensive fire pip than South American Guerrilla (a), which has one more offensive morale pip. And as you can see South American Guerrilla (a) wins. The outcome is the same at tech 30 and with Improved Artillery Range age ability, which increases artillery back row damage to 70% from the default 50%. This is equal to having 40% artillery combat ability, but offensive morale still wins. I haven't checked every single cases so there might be exceptions, but I did choose best infantry units based on battle outcome and not their pip distribution, so I'm quite confident with my picks. Tech levels with no unit choices are omitted.

Best Western Infantry

Tech 1 - Latin Medieval Infantry
Tech 5 - Men at Arms
Tech 9 - Landsknechten Infantry
Tech 12 - Tercio Infantry
Tech 15 - Maurician Infantry
Tech 19 - Reformed Tercio
Tech 23 - Line Infantry
Tech 26 - Blue Coat Infantry
Tech 28 - Square Infantry
Tech 30 - Drill Infantry​

Best Eastern Infantry

Tech 1 - Bardiche Infantry
Tech 12 - Offensive Eastern Musketeers
Tech 15 - Eastern Tercio​

Best Anatolian Infantry

Best Muslim Infantry

Tech 1 - Muslim Footsoldier​

Best Nomad Infantry

Best Indian Infantry

Tech 9 - Toofangchis
Tech 12 - South Indian Infantry
Tech 18 - North Indian Musket Infantry​

Best Chinese Infantry (Why not East Asian? Samurai Cavalry, for one, isn't Chinese)

Best African Infantry

Tech 1 - African Spearmen
Tech 5 - Central African Warrior
Tech 12 - African Forest Warriors
Tech 15 - East African Musketeers
Tech 23 - East African Guerrillas
Tech 26 - Westernized East African Infantry​

Best Mesoamerican Infantry

Tech 5 - American Plains Warriors
Tech 10 - Reformed American Plains Warriors
Tech 14 - Offensive American Musketeers
Tech 19 - Central American Guerrillas
Tech 26 - Westernized American Hill Infantry​

Best North American Infantry

Tech 1 - Native American Archer
Tech 5 - Algonkin Tomahawk Warriors
Tech 14 - Native American Arquebusier​

Best South American Infantry

Tech 1 - American Mountain Warriors
Tech 5 - Incan Axemen
Tech 10 - South American Arquebusier*
Tech 19 - South American Guerrilla
Tech 26 - Westernized South American Infantry​

Tech 10 South American infantry is an interesting one. Looking at the pip distribution, I want to pick Defensive American Musketeers, but the test results tell me South American Arquebusier just barely wins in a pure infantry vs infantry fight. Since they're tech 10, I'll go with South American Arquebusier, but both are equally viable imo.

*For Eastern, Indian, Mesoamerican, and South American infantry units, tech 26 is better than tech 30.

Best Cavalry

For cavs I had to create imaginary units because there weren't sufficient real case examples. Latin Dragoons (a) vs Latin Hussars (a) shows that defensive fire tops defensive shock at tech 23 with artillery on both sides, but bottom most example shows the opposite result at tech 7. Therefore we can conclude the following pip priorities for cavalry.

Pip Priority For Cavalry Units

*Against infantry that has weaker shock damage, Offensive Shock is likely better than Defensive Shock since the two show very little difference.

Best Western Cavalry

Tech 1 - Western Medieval Knights
Tech 23 - Latin Hussars
Tech 26 - Reformed Latin Hussars
Tech 28 - Latin Chasseur​

Best Eastern Cavalry

Tech 1 - Druzhina Cavalry
Tech 14 - Eastern Caracole
Tech 22 - Cossack Cavalry
Tech 26 - Lancers
Tech 28 - Advanced Cossack Cavalry​

Best Anatolian Cavalry

Tech 26 - Eastern Skirmisher
Tech 28 - Toprakli Dragoons​

Best Muslim Cavalry

Tech 1 - Muslim Cavalry
Tech 18 - Afsharid Reformed Cavalry
Tech 23 - Muslim Dragoon
Tech 28 - Durrani Cavalry​

Best Nomad Cavalry

Tech 1 - Eastern Steppe Cavalry​

Best Indian Cavalry

Tech 1 - Indian Cavalry
Tech 28 - Mysorean Light Cavalry​

Best Chinese Cavalry

Tech 1 - Archer Cavalry
Tech 6 - Samurai Cavalry
Tech 28 - Green Standard Cavalry​

Best African Cavalry

Tech 1 - Mandekalu Cavalry
Tech 6 - Somali Light Cavalry
Tech 10 - Mossi Horsem*n​

Best Native American Cavalry

There is no need to check for infantry match ups when evaluating cavalry, because artillery support is enough to sort out better anti-fire cav and also because if you're min-maxing and using cavalry only when they're strong, you should expect the opponent to do the same which means your cavs will be fighting enemy cavs. If you're playing a nomad or Poland, you'll need to do some more testing on your own using my combat simulator to determine when to switch to infantry based army comp.

edit: turns out you don't need to switch to infantry as Poland.

Best Artillery

*My choice of best artillery units is the only part that I have no statistics to back it up. I already knew about this when improving the combat simulator that I included artillery as tech modifiers rather than units you can choose. If you want you can still manually enter values to test different artillery units. If you find anything that goes against my analysis, please let me know.

Best Artillery

Tech 7 - Large Cast Bronze Mortar
Tech 10 - Pedrero
Tech 13 - Small Cast Iron Cannon​

Infantry vs Cavalry

In my previous post, I've explained how cavalry doesn't have to be 2.5 times better than infantry to be worth the cost, it just has to be able to win against infantry. This is even more so with the upcoming update on mercenary. Now you won't be able to buy manpower with money, which makes efficient use of your manpower more important than ever. Given that cavalry beats infantry, it's a better use of your force limit, combat width, and manpower at the expense of money, which is one resource that you can guarantee that you'll end up with more than you can spend (granted, until that point money is still a limiting factor). Only thing we have to check, then, is whether cavalry actually beats infantry. One thing I've noticed while testing is that even when dice rolls on both sides are identical, cavalry performs better against infantry when in low rolls and vice versa. I figured beating infantry under the same condition is the least you could expect from a unit 2.5 times the cost, so I decided to see if cavalry can beat infantry with 9 average dice roll, artillery on both sides starting tech 16, and Improved Artillery Range starting tech 24 (fastest you can unlock the ability). I'll post a chart for western units as an example, for other tech groups please see 'EU4 Combat Test Results 1' attached to this thread.

What's noticeable is how often cavalry beats infantry. This is because cavalry usually have more morale pips than infantry even when they're behind in pip totals. This is yet another example of how strong morale is compared to fire and shock. Another notable phenomenon is that due to the morale advantage cavalry usually has over infantry, they often stack-wipe the enemy entirely. Of-course, high roll and other factors I've mentioned also contribute to the frequent stack-wipes we observe, but in my opinion this indicates that cavalry is totally viable and perhaps even optimal, since it could be the difference between stack-wiping a, say, 50k army and just barely missing the opportunity.

Cavalry > Infantry Tech Levels

Western: 3~5, 10~13, 17~20, 23~32

Eastern: 4~5, 10~27, 30~32

Anatolian: 3~4, 8, 10~13, 15, 17~29

Muslim: 3~5, 8, 10~13, 15, 17~29

Nomad: 3~5, 8~25 (shock damage 25% applied)

Indian: 4~5, 8, 10~13, 15, 17~19, 22~26, 30

Chinese: 3~4, 8~32 (their infantry is garbage)

African: 4, 10~20, 23~27

Native Americans: not tested

Western, Eastern, and Chinese have cavalry viable until the end game. Tech 28 western cavalry has whopping 5/5 morale pips, the best in the game. Tech 28 Eastern cavalry has 5/4, the second best, and also receive strong bonuses to cavalry from national ideas, estates, etc. Chinese end game infantry is utter trash with only 3/3 morale, worst in the game along with South American infantry. For them, cavalry is the lesser evil.

Best army comp: When infantry is stronger than cavalry, 100% infantry with back row filled with cannons. When cavalry is stronger than infantry, mix in as many cavs as you can without exceeding cavalry to infantry ratio. Make sure to leave some room for infantry casualties during battles. If you don't bother to care just get twice the rounded down number of you current flanking range, e.g. 4 cavs at 2.5 flanking range.

Edit: Now that I review it, tech 31 and 32 western cavs do lose heavily in manpower. I wouldn't disagree if anyone were to argue that western cav loses viability past tech 30.

Combat Statistics

Offensive Pips vs Defensive Pips When Attacking Into Rough Terrain

There's been a counter-argument about how offensive oriented units could be better for attacking into terrain penalty because of the way casualties calculation works. While that is true, as you can see in the above chart, the difference is minuscule. Moreover, even a tech 7 artillery flips the advantage back to defensive oriented units, making the argument mostly negligible.

Low Roll vs Medium Roll vs High Roll

Rolls hardly make a difference in same unit type match ups, but in infantry vs cavalry it does have quite an impact. High roll mostly favors infantry but there are some exceptions. These irregularities occur because there are two counteracting factors at play. The main factor is the advantage of fire over shock. Higher rolls means higher fire phase casualties which weakens cavalry significantly by the time it enters shock phase. However, cavalry does benefit more per dice pip due to having higher total modifier value, but not so much as to change the overall tendency. This means cavalry is systematically less likely to perform since it needs two consecutive favorable rolls unlike infantry that only needs one. This is why I tested infantry vs cavalry with dice roll 9 in order to be on the safe side.

Morale vs Discipline

Discipline vs Combat Ability

Not much to talk about. Discipline is slightly better because it multiplies tactics. Combat ability includes both infantry CA and artillery CA.

Combat Ability vs Fire/Shock Damage Dealt/Received

All four fire/shock damage dealt/received modifiers included. Combat ability also affects morale while damage modifiers only affect fire and shock. It shows how weak individual damage bonuses are. Fire damage dealt 10% national ideas are weak.

General Pip vs Combat Ability

Each general fire pip advantage has roughly the same effect as 8% infantry and artillery combat abilities. General shock pip a bit less than that. This is by no means an accurate measure, but it at least gives you a rough understanding of the effects of a leader pip.

Conclusion

• Morale is king
• Defensive stats > offensive stats for front-line units
• Cavalry is generally viable
• Morale > Discipline > Combat Ability > Fire/shock damage dealt/received
  (not enough data on general pip to make direct comparison, better than CA at least)

Limitations:

1. The way unit targeting works in the game may lead to different results.
2. Accounting for all variables is impossible. You'll have to constantly re-evaluate values based on this thread and your in-game settings
3. Wonky cav deployment may work against cav heavy armies.
4. RNG is not taken into account.
5. Because of the obvious limitations, I'm only able to compare 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 if you count the artillery, but actual combat consists of multiple units that flank and switch targets and so on. However, in a full combat width battle each unit typically targets units right in front of them so 1 vs 1 tests can still serve as a hint at predicting those battles.