Playing VH campaign with autoresolve - even possible?

[schmal]

Hey folks,
I`m playing TATW for some weeks now and finished Dwarfs and HE on med/med, doing quite well with autoresolve. Looking for a new challange I`d like to skip the campaing on VH. Do you see any chance to play on VH campaign mode while only autoresolving the battles? The reason I´m asking is that I have to travel a lot and play mostly on my 10 hour bus rides via mousepad, so micromanagement is just impossible while your shaken around...

I´ve played Vanilla so far but just installed MOS and started a VH/VH campaign as OotMM. But it seems I won´t stand a chance as I´m losing all battles against Lothlorien armys, even when the preview suggests me a big advantage. So, my main questions are:
1) Is autoresolve difficulty affected by campaign- or battledifficulty, or by both?
2) Are OotMM units just so bad campared to Lot that even in giant numbers I can´t win autoresolving? Should I just try another faction?
3) Is autoresolve in MOS just harder?
4) What can I do?

I like TATW a lot for its macromanagement and the great lore feeling, so I would be very happy about any help, hints and suggestions. Thank you guys!

[DrDragun]

I believe Joseignacio was saying he plays with autoresolve frequently on VH/VH in the other Dwarf campaign thread. He may have some insights.

I know heavy infantry are favored... so generally orc and dwarf factions do a bit better in auto-resolve. Try to compose your stack of counter-units to the enemy. If you see cavalry in their force then get some spearmen (Hillmen mercenaries or heavy halberd). Snaga skirmishers will do horribly in auto resolve.

[Steward Denethor II]

Also in MOS the elves are (almost?) ridiculously powerful, and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains are very weak, you will need 2 or 3 good armies for each Elven army you fight.

[Joseignacio]

I believe Joseignacio was saying he plays with autoresolve frequently on VH/VH in the other Dwarf campaign thread. He may have some insights.

I know heavy infantry are favored... so generally orc and dwarf factions do a bit better in auto-resolve. Try to compose your stack of counter-units to the enemy. If you see cavalry in their force then get some spearmen (Hillmen mercenaries or heavy halberd). Snaga skirmishers will do horribly in auto resolve.

True enough.

However: I am not using any mods, and I don't only use autoresolve with dwarfs but all factions.

I am no expert, I mean I have played for a long time but I don't make deep analisys like others I have seen here (and am thankful that somebody did, like "flaming arrows versus normal arrows") and I have not won yet with all factions.

However, I have observed that:

1 and most important, when you have (let's say) like a 10 to 30% of force over your enemy, the result will be disaster. 40% to 70% more than their forces should be safe but costly, but if your strength is like 3, 4, 5 times the enemy's there is no big difference with resolving by yourself in number of losses.

2 Of course this can be affected by the quality of the enemy troops, if you fight an army with several trolls and orc leaders or even worse if you face late game Rhun infantry and Cavalry, you may have twice or thrice as many and still be defeated.

3 Land affects too. Like in your personal resolution of the battle, a bridge will result in a serious advantage on your part (or the enemy if you are attacking), castles and cities have a smaller effect, although it can be serious if you have not built enough siege artifacts, it seems the autoresolve takes into account how many entrances it has to defend. I would say it sometimes resolves the assaults more favorably than I'd do by hand.

Mountains are by far not counted as useful for defending purposes as they are with a personal resolve, which is good when you attack but not so much when you defend, so you should resolve these manually many times.

4 Of course, if you have a crushing advantage (the combat bar is like 6,7,8 times my colour more than theirs), which is when I use Autoresolve, you'd better leave your best units out of the battle, since all of them will get a percentage of losses evenly, so cavalry and elite units don't take part, easily replaceable units do, provided the balance is still hugely on your side.

That's why I remarked "number" of losses, if you don't autoresolve you may have as many losses but may saveguard your elite units or use them only in the key moments, so that there are less losses in them. All the same you normally wouldn't use cavalry in assaults, but the autoresolve will, so better use sh*-tty archers and pikemen...


5 As I think most players do, there is no point, too, to fight a single battle (the enemy should not be in position to force a second one later) when only one or more of your leaders are involved. They most probably won't die, and the losses are replaced automatically, and while you are defeated, this sometimes allows you to retreat to safety but you get some enemy's deaths in exchange maybe for some more experience for them.

All I can think of now, very basic but...

[schmal]

Thanks for all your help! Think I´m trying Dwarfs again on VH/VH and than switch to a new faction...

[Joseignacio]

I used these tactics these holidays (when I was not travelling) and worked pretty well with Gondor and Dale too (VH/VH).

I just ended both campaigns... Gondor had a surprise that made me curse.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It doesn't end when they tell you, there is a nasty surprise...