Big difference between Normal vs Hard CAI

[Giantsfan24]

I am playing the Tokagawa(sp?) and having a pretty easy go of it so far. Course it is only turn 12 or 13 but I rebelled against Imagawa, took their main city, the vasalized them since they had no army left, then, since they were allied with Hojo, took their gold producing city and then vasalized them. They looked more developed but also seamed to be fueding with a few clans to the north west of them so they didn't have too many units.

Question is, this was all done pretty easily. Will it get harder on normal? I already see a near full, possible full stack of Takeda but I have those two vasal buffering myself and them, plus I allied early with the Saito to the South, who still have their orig. land and the Oda province. Just wondering if I should start over on hard.

[-iceblade^]

keep fighting, and wait till realm divide

[Slanderbot]

I find that I have already taken over half of Japan and have at least one powerful ally who won't leave me by realm divide rolls around, this is on normal of course. This is my first TW game so I don't think I can call myself very experienced in this genre, however I have played several RTS's, as well as Warhammer if those count for anything, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

If you are playing the easy or normal clans I prefer hard difficulty, whereas normal with the Hard clans is somewhat more challenging, but still to easy imo. If you haven't beat a single campaign yet I would say running through once on normal is very fun as you get to learn all of the game mechanics in that go around. It also allows you to explore different army comps, city layouts, and the special agents without jeopardizing your chances for completing the final objectives.

So all in all I'm saying I think normal is to easy in the major scheme of things, but its nice the first time around, so keep with it!

[ManSh00ter]

Play on Legendary with the "no AI stack spawn mod" (beta download link is a few posts down the thread) - its quite hard and you actually do get a sense of accomplishment each time the ragged remnants of your armies manage to take an enemy province after lots of hard fighting. Unlike previous TW games I actually have to think to win, especially on Campaign level. Playing with Uesugi right now, and having a blast. Sometimes its almost like playing chess.

Actually, having tasted Legendary I don't think I can bring myself to play on a lower difficulty level anymore.

[xxoverlordxx]

I would play on some level like legendary or very hard, but I never found them fun at all. The AI doesn't improve it's strategy at higher levels (unless if you consider army spam a strategy). The game becomes monotonous after the player fends off army after army. This is my experience at least. However you may like Hard or Very Hard for the Tokugawa if you really want a reasonable challenge.

[ManSh00ter]

I have to agree that the "cheating" AI does on Legendary vanilla is annoying. That's why I don't recommend playing at that level without mods, the most important one being the one I linked above. Financial and other bonuses AI gets are fine, since its not really *that* smart - AI needs help against a human player.
The main challenge is actually the inability to save/reload your way out of mistakes. That means you have to think hard whether you want to, for example, bolster your attacking army with extra units or use those to keep your own provinces safe - if you do not "know your enemy" or decide wrong, there is no easy way out and you have to live with the consequences. I find that quite refreshing.
Of course, you can always just decide not save/reload, but its just not the same as not not being able to.

There is also another little modification which, in my opinion, solves the sometimes wonky morale system and makes battles both more engaging and more difficult to win (as it is more difficult to mass rout an enemy army).