Which Difficulty?

[smitty]

Hey guys I started a campaign as England about two weeks ago. First of all I want to mention how much I love this game! Age of Empires really lost its spirit, thankfully Medieval was there to take up their spot! Right now I am about 90 turns into a medieval campaign. I own England, Norway, all of northern France (almost done pushing the French into Southern France), most of Southern Germany and various parts of Northern Italy. The game is very entertaining, but sometimes I think its just too easy. Right now I have 2 full armies heading to the middle-east for the crusades and another 2 full armies parading around France/Italy wiping out civilizations. My question is if medium difficulty is just too easy? I have about 25 regions conquered, but another 10 are the remains of broken empires I weakened early on. Should my next game be Hard difficulty? And if so, is it still reasonable to win a campaign?

[Vachyr]

Well if my experience can be of any help....

I'am a vet of Rome, beat the campagin with several factions on VH/VH; Started MEDII as England on Hard and was able to win by turn 100, didint really find it that difficult. If your finding MED too easy i'd def give at least Hard a try, if anything it will sharpen your skills.

[Marku]

what does VH do for campaign exactly?

lately ive been doing H/VH and i used to do M/M

[Vachyr]

I started a VH/VH campaign as the Moors last night, big difference over my last one as England.

Much less $$$ to work with, as well as turn 3 invasion by Sicily by boat. I didint have anyone even come close to attacking me for some time as England on H/H from what i remember.

Basically VH would = harder economy and more threats to your kindgom I think.

[lapo]

try with small factions like danish, sicilian or scottish at H/H...

[smitty]

Forgive my noobishness, but what is H/H and VH/VH? Also, thanks for the replies so far!

[Attila_16]

It's hard/hard and very hard/very hard. For the campaign difficulty and battle difficulty.
the game is a little easy indeed, but still I enjoy it even if it's possible to win at very hard in 58 turn...

[Vachyr]

Wow! Victory on VH/VH in 58 turns? Nice WORK! which faction did you use?

As the Moors i'm slowly but surely gaining ground but this is only at around turn 50 on VH/VH. As with ROME though I found that the first few turns are the hardest to make headway, if you can survive the inital onslaughts with troops to spare your golden.

[robban19]

It's hard/hard and very hard/very hard. For the campaign difficulty and battle difficulty.
the game is a little easy indeed, but still I enjoy it even if it's possible to win at very hard in 58 turn...

I gather it was a short campaign?

[Veritas]

With a properly done blitz you can win pretty quickly. As the Moors for example you can expect the Italian nations to attack right away so expect it and possibly even launch a counter before they reach your shores. Sack the bejesus out of their cities and you'll be cool to expand as you please.

[MarkPharaoh]

M/M is nothing with such an easy faction as England. Try VH/VH with a small starting nation for a decent challenge, and then move on to mods that focus on AI playing strength when vanilla get's a little too boring and easy for you.

[Zhou]

VH/VH is the way to go if you're looking for a bit of a challenge. England is known as one of the more "easy" factions to play as, so if you really want to jump in, try one of the "hard" factions such as the Russians or the Turks. Personally, I had tad of difficulty before finally getting off a good Venetian campaign.

[smitty]

Ok, I'm probably going to beat the English M/M Campaign in about a week, so do I dare make the jump up to VH/VH? As the English I've only ever lost one conquered citadel, and that was because I didn't sack (foolish not to sack IMO) and the city rebelled as my troops moved on. I seem to have a good mind for proper field strategy but will I be swept away in the wind if I go from M/M to VH/VH? Also, I want to try an Italian nation so I can really dominate navally and make early wars with the Islam Nations. Would that be over my head or should I test the waters anyway? Also, how do I activate the other factions again? Something in a .txt file ya? Finally, do you guys prefer short or grand campaigns? I like the grand campaigns because of the roleplaying feel (England conquers Jerusalem, etc.) but they seem a bit excessive.