Why can't I raise levies?
Levies are an important part of your army in EU5. Especially in the early game, they will comprise essentially your entire military force. Thus the inability to raise levies is really bad. Yet the game does not always make it clear why you cannot raise them. If you are a new player struggling to field the army you are supposed to be able to, here are the most common reasons why you might be unable to raise levies.
1. You are at peace
This is a bit of a silly one, but in case you are confused, you cannot raise levies while you are not in a war or rebellion. You have to start a war first, then raise the levies after. Which admittedly is not ideal for those who do not know how many troops they will be able to field, but the war declaration screen will tell you how many levies you can raise before you declare if you hover over the circle on your side showing your relative strength.
2. Your province’s levies are not replenished enough
If you have recently fought a costly war or even just had a transport fleet sink, your levies may be too depleted to raise. Levies take 25 years to fully replenish after being wiped out. You cannot raise even partial levies from a province until they are at least 50% replenished. You might just have to wait a long time.
It’s also worth noting that naval levies are destroyed when disbanded, not returned to the province like army levies, so if you have recently used your naval levies at all, you will have to wait the full 25 years to raise them all again.
3. Your estates are upset
This is a huge issue that is hard to notice if you are not paying attention. Under fuedalism, your nobles provide the levies from the peasants. Keeping the nobility happy is therefore extremely important. If your nobles are under 50% satisfaction, they will refuse to provide the levies, and you will only be able to raise a paltry number of troops. Likewise, the peasants have less power, but if they drop below 25% satisfaction, they will also refuse to fight. Ensuring you keep your estates happy enough is crucial to being able to field a strong army.
4. You lack control
Levies, like everything else in EU5, are tied to your level of control in provinces. If you have no control, you get no levies. You should always be able to maintain a good level of control over your capital province, but most of your country will just not do a lot for you until you invent and invest in better roads throughout it. If you need more troops from these places, consider splitting them off into vassals or fiefdoms that can maintain control there to raise their own armies.