This mod is impossible to play!

[Brynjolfr]

You read the title right; this mod is impossible to play. Tested this mod for the first time today... thought it looked nice on the screenshots, not to mention the good feedback it had gotten.
I played with Easy/Easy difficulty as the Picts (the only faction that was flagged as "easy"). To my surprise, most of my towns had terrible public order, economy and defences. I moved some of my troops to the most "angry" cities, and succeeded in making them "happy", but I stilll had angry cities that was out of reach from my troops. In these towns I built religious buildings. It could have solved the problem, if not for the 3 turn build time; after 2 turns, the towns rebelled and overthrew my holding on them. Then, in the 4th turn or so, one of my towns was attacked by another faction. My poor town had extremely bad defences, so I didn't even bother to try and defend it; I resigned!
This mod is in need of a major nerf! Otherwise, casual Total War-gamers like me will be unable to play it (which is sad, because I love this mod's setting).

[Ardruire Iacób]

It's not impossible, everyone else seems to be able to play... It sounds a lot like you just gave up without trying.

[Brynjolfr]

everyone else seems to be able to play

I know... they're called hardcore players. They can win a campaign on Very hard/Very hard in 5 minutes with their hands tied behind their backs and their eyes blindfolded. I'm sadly not of their divine state; I'm a casual player, and this mod favours hardcore players... I mean, just read the "Playing Instructions - Very important!" sticky thread:

"It's also strongly advised to play campaign on Very Hard/Very Hard or at least on Hard. or at least on Hard. This is way better to feel the violent climate of Dark Ages, continous wars, alliances broken, but also our trade system and unit system have been built on this basis."

I'd get a mental breakdown if I tried playing on Very Hard/Very Hard; my brain-cells would explode! I tried the best I could, and it wasn't enough, 'cause I'm not skilled enough!
Why can't this mod be easy when playing Easy/Easy?

[Lord Dakier]

Lol... your complaining about the fact its too hard and I cant even play the darn mod cause its on BI, even though want to *Hint Hint*. Ive Heard way too many people complain about things like this. Although I have never played the mod Im sure that it cannot be too bad... especially considering I can survive on RTR-EXRM where militia troops cost 3x what they usually do.

[Dansk viking]

Maybe you shouldn't start as the Picts as these are a bit special.

I play on H/H. - VH/VH is generally considered too hard (I have tried it, and it's not impossible. The problem with the difficulties of the mod is that there's little difference between a hard game and an easy game.).

Good luck!

[Brynjolfr]

Maybe you shouldn't start as the Picts as these are a bit special.

I tried Dál Riada, and an Irish faction (can't remember the name... something gaelic at least), but they too felt like a nightmare.

The problem with the difficulties of the mod is that there's little difference between a hard game and an easy game

That's exactly what I think should change: easy should really be easy, not just another shade of hard!

[Lord Dakier]

Maybe the mods just intented for true warriors and challengers

[Brynjolfr]

Maybe the mods just intented for true warriors and challengers

yes, unfortunately...

[Antagonist]

Admittedly, ATW could probably do with some kind of "easy script" which disables some of the more punishing economics aspects of the campaign...

FWIW, ATW is the way it is not because it's "hardcore" or created deliberately in order to be as difficult as possible, it's because that's the only way to simulate the era to a satisfactory degree. It probably falls short of this task in some ways, but balancing to the level the team wanted is so intricate a process that it's never going to be perfect.

Population is a good example, things like farming, climates, money, and even unit size have to be very carefully balanced in order to make things "realistic": in this case, by reflecting the fact that we are depicting a society in which populations are overall very low. It's simply not possible to raise 1000 fighting men per year in the average settlement of the society being depicted. The whole recruitment model is based around this: an army of 2 or 3 thousand men (a full stack of troops on Huge unit sizes) is a truly great host, something even the largest kingdoms could only maintain 2 or 3 of, and the loss of which could be a devastating blow. The interplay of unit sizes, upkeep, recruitment and the economy isn't perfect (it would be very difficult to make it so) but it does make for a challenging and reasonably realistic experience, admittedly at the cost of being very hard for casual players.

Personally I would've liked an optional "arcade mode" script which would set the economy and population to more forgiving settings, but this would be quite difficult to right. In the meantime I'd suggest checking out this forum for advice, there's quite a bit of it (the gist is basically to minimize troops to the minimum necessary at first, trade with everyone, focus on building roads and farms, and don't adopt loads of family members) Also (unofficially) I personally have no problem with players using cheats like add_money or add_population if it were literally driving them off of playing at all (the script I described would be more or less doing that anyway) if you can restrain yourself from overusing it.

Antagonist

[Brynjolfr]

In the meantime...

Does that mean that an "easy script" is being worked on??

[legio_XX]

HEY ALL! if you want a good play in campian try the H/H eburc! all you have to do is (1)kill your brothers faction, attack first the capital (!!must be done on your first turn or it will take for ever!!!)and unify the kingdom(I know its under hand but it rtw they will do worse to you) (2)build up your econ and send out the diplos for trade and friends aslo sell your map info (3)when your making a good amount of cash start uniting the brits then finally the saxons.I would do a helper AAR but im realy lazy and dumb when it comes to posting pics and typing (as you can see) but i beat it as them a while back took along time and cant recall most of it but ask and i will try to answer just tryin to help laters

[persianfan247]

You really did give up to soon, I download this the other day and started playing as the Picts and now I have conquered the two factions to the South of me and conquered half of Dal Riada's Territory. This is on N/N difficulty and I lay no claim to being the best player either, prehaps all you need is a little more patience with the campaign.

[Draugdur]

I'd also say you quit too soon. Losing few cities to rebels isn't such a big deal - heck, think of WRE campaign in BI, there you'd lose half of your cities within a turn Also, being attacked by a faction is, especially when Picts are concerned, even less of a problem, as they're surrounded only by mediocre factions. However, you're right that this mod is a bit...peculiar It's very different from vanilla...and every other mod I've played too. Still, I'm not sure why you had problems with disorder (I haven't played Picts before). Did you drop taxes to low? How many units per city you had? Oh, and make sure that settlement religion is the same as religion of the majority in the settlement (NOT neccessarily the official state religion - you'll worry about that later) to avoid unneccessary revolts.
That said, I'd also recommend you try another faction. I can't speak from experience, since I ussualy pick the hardest faction possible; based on general observation, I'd recommend Rheged or Ebrauc (especially the first, they seem to me as the most powerful faction altogether), or a Germanic faction, due to their awesome infantry (preferrably Jutes, as they also have solid cavalry and seem most powerful anyway). Oh, and despite being labeled as easy, I'd NOT try Letau.

[Antagonist]

Does that mean that an "easy script" is being worked on??

Nothing is being worked on at the moment, I fear. I meant that I thought it a good idea, perhaps it might be possible if work resumes.

I'd also say you quit too soon. Losing few cities to rebels isn't such a big deal - heck, think of WRE campaign in BI, there you'd lose half of your cities within a turn Also, being attacked by a faction is, especially when Picts are concerned, even less of a problem, as they're surrounded only by mediocre factions. However, you're right that this mod is a bit...peculiar It's very different from vanilla...and every other mod I've played too. Still, I'm not sure why you had problems with disorder (I haven't played Picts before). Did you drop taxes to low? How many units per city you had? Oh, and make sure that settlement religion is the same as religion of the majority in the settlement (NOT neccessarily the official state religion - you'll worry about that later) to avoid unneccessary revolts. That said, I'd also recommend you try another faction. I can't speak from experience, since I ussualy pick the hardest faction possible; based on general observation, I'd recommend Rheged or Ebrauc (especially the first, they seem to me as the most powerful faction altogether), or a Germanic faction, due to their awesome infantry (preferrably Jutes, as they also have solid cavalry and seem most powerful anyway). Oh, and despite being labeled as easy, I'd NOT try Letau.

It is true that the Picts are quite a challenging faction for a novice player, especially at the start.They have the largest number of provinces for a starting player, sure, but these are generally very poorly developed, not wealthy and have quite a lot of religious difference (the northern provinces are pagan, the southern generally Christian, which creates a lot of problems) The Germanic factions are also not a good choice for the new player as they are under a lot of economic pressure at the start and you need to get on the offensive quickly without spending money. I'd follow Draugdur in recommending some of the more Northern British factions (Rheged and Ynis Manaw are good choices) as an easier start.

Antagonist

[Draugdur]

Yes, Manaw would be a good idea because of its wonderful strategic position. I didn't mention them since Brynjolfr said he had trouble with Dal Riada, who have similar position...
Are the Germanic factions really under so much economic pressure? 'Cause, based on my campaigns so far, this applies to most factions. I personally managed to get from 20k to -20k with Dyfneint within 2 turns

[Feste]

I'm on my second go with Seaxna. Both times I have played very difficult/very difficult. The first go the picts dominated the whole Island taking out everyone. Game over by 520.

On my second go and it's 513. The Picts are again dominating and slowly taking everyone out. My treasury is currenty -500,000. Cerdic is my best general and he is in charge of the only army I have left which is constantly besieged by aggressive neighbors (Gwent and Angles). His army is slowly being depleted and once that's gone I can't build any more units, no money. Reinforcements from the continent are drying up.

Has anyone completed it on VD/VD with the Seaxna? If so, what was your strategy? I need it...

[Aliksander]

Try Ynis Manaw as they probably have the best economy at the start and few provinces to worry about losing. You have to remember that religion plays a big role in public order in this mod, particularly what your PEOPLE follow (look in settlement details for %), as opposed to the settlements official religion which is dictated solely by which religious building have the most pull (% conversion). As others stated this is especially a problem for picts, who are half pagan, half catholic christian, and have a few CELTIC cristian neighbors to conquer (meaning you will be dealing with balancing 3 religions).

The best thing to do about economy is conquering ASAP. Also, try to get high QUALITY troops as opposed to high QUANITY troops as they are more economical since they survive more, meaning less money and population wasted on restocking units. If you take about 3 towns without building many more troops than you start with as nearly any faction, your economy should go into the green. One exception to this I know of is Dyfed, which has alot of elite troops at the start that need to be killed off as you take the coastal towns in Wales while building ports, but once the entire coast of Wales s yours with ports you should be sitting o easy street with them.

[ZiegenPeter]

Maybe all the towns were rioting, because you hdn't enough soldiers in it? I don't know how the engine works here, but did you put the unit size on huge, as it is recommended?

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

For the conversation, I offer this:

This is the one mod whose mad upkeep rates drove me to liberal use of the "add_money" cheat.

And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

[AqD]

hmmm... Well I tested it last night, the briton faction with horse archers. I captured one enemy settlement, annihilated their army, and slaughtered the king all in the first turn. It doesn't seem to be difficult at all...