Best Difficulty Level with Alexander.exe?

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 02, 2008, 08:22 AM

Okay, I suppose we are all informed about the advantages of using the Alex.exe with RS. I have been playing for some time now on the standard diff for me - Hard/Hard, and it's been a pain to play. The AI is real good, money is tight, auto-calc trashes my armies, so I've got a question - what difficulty level do you guys playing with ALX use and recommend? I think Hard battle level gives the AI certain morale bonuses, am I correct? Does Hard campaign map level give bonuses to the AI or just makes it more aggressive?

**Nellup** · April 02, 2008, 08:59 AM

You are correct that the AI gets battlemap bonuses on H and VH, and so by extension I assume that they also get campaign map advantages. And certainly in RTW and BI the AI is more aggressive at higher levels.

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 02, 2008, 09:23 AM

So I suppose I should start a campaign on Hard campaign, Medium battles. Thanks

**Caius Antonius** · April 02, 2008, 10:30 AM

Yes, that is the most realistic difficulty. VH battles are not realistic at all, for example the phalanx won't rout if charged from behind by cavalry. Also, the elephants will definitely run amok after a few fire arrows thrown upon them.

**lesterthenerd** · April 02, 2008, 10:46 AM

H/H

**Jingles** · April 02, 2008, 04:19 PM

a note of warning, though you probably already knew this, there's a bug with ALX that means 'hard' campaign setting is actually more difficult than 'very hard'.

**lesterthenerd** · April 02, 2008, 05:23 PM

didnt know that. is it for both campaign and battle map?

**Caius Antonius** · April 02, 2008, 05:26 PM

Just campaign, apparently at VH you get some bonuses that the AI doesn't (or something like that

)

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 02, 2008, 05:27 PM

That expains why I'm having such headaches! But it's quite a challenge..

**Roman_Man#3** · April 02, 2008, 06:07 PM

Alex has the same difficulty settings as RTW and BI, but the AI is better so it seems harder. AI on campaign map for H/VH get a monetary and I believe happiness bonus. And from what I've heard, H is harder than VH because you get bonuses as well as the AI, compared to H where only AI gets bonuses. Same thing happens in RTW and BI IIRC.

**Nellup** · April 03, 2008, 02:16 AM

Yep, it's the same for RTW and BI as well as ALEX.

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 03, 2008, 03:16 AM

That's what I was assuming. I have to say that H/H is very hard to me, even in battles the AI uses every advantage it can, and it's almost impossible to break them. I use a lot of skirmishers now, to counter this. Maybe I'll try M/M on the next campaign, but this one is too good to be left in the history books.

It's 500 AUC and I've got all of Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Dyrrachium, Sardinia and soon Corsica. I had problems with Carthage in Sicily but it's over now. I'm switching to Caesarian Legionaries now and plan my next steps. I'll be peaceful and quite for some time, I suppose...

**maksimus** · April 03, 2008, 09:50 AM

I just want to add that ALX.exe is one excellent addition to the RS world

It will make you play RS for a very long time

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 03, 2008, 10:32 AM

Indeed.

**ptg** · April 03, 2008, 10:58 AM

My tuppence is that I nearly always play M battles, H campaign. Anything more on the battle setting starts modding the stats in EDU, thus distoring them and in my view; making them somewhat different from whatever the modder originally intended.

As for campaign, I didn't know that about H/VH! As stated, I usually try H and with ALX the AI is pretty agressive. In my last campaign as Romans, I was attacked by the Gauls, then Germania, then Dacia. Then, Dacia and Germania abecame allies! No chance of setting them on each other then. My whole Northern hemishpere was a horde of united and angry 'Barbarians' intent on the same thing - the destruction of Rome! Not long after, Macedon got a bit feisty, so I was fighting pretty much 270 degrees of the compass...! Fortunately, a few turns later in uniting with the Greek Cities to leverage against Macedon, their allies - Gaul, made peace. A bit of a break.

**snuggans** · April 04, 2008, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by ptg

My tuppence is that I nearly always play M battles, H campaign. Anything more on the battle setting starts modding the stats in EDU, thus distoring them and in my view; making them somewhat different from whatever the modder originally intended.

my thoughts exactly. after years of playing RTW, Hard campaign and Medium battle difficulty is just right. it doesnt make sense seeing a unit easily killing another unit of equal stats and terrain position. reduces the stat page that appears when you right click on a unit card into nothing but a lie because you're not able to go by it anymore. its a shame that CA could only accentuate a harder difficulty by giving secret combat bonuses to enemy units instead of brilliant moves.

**Nellup** · April 04, 2008, 03:33 PM

The TW AI is notoriously bad - and never seems to get better between games - I can't see the difference between the AI in MTW and in M2TW.

**ErgoProxy** · April 04, 2008, 05:18 PM

Well I`ve only recently installed the Alex Mod and used it with RS and I must say that I have not experienced significant differences between ALX.exe and BI.exe in terms of Battles...BUT I think that somehow - as far as I have obsereved it the AI Factons are much more agressive. i.e. factions like Pontus, the Getae, Iberia really survived very long into the campaigns and actually conquered several provinces, wich i have not seen before (using the rtw.exe or bi.exe). but maybe this is just circumstance?

Hi guys, I`m new to this Forum, but Ive read somewhere (don`t really know in what threat) that the setting vh in campaign level is somehow bugged. Is that also true for ALX.EXE? Or just for RTW.exe and BI.exe?

btw: RS ROCKS

Great Job Guys! I´ve never had this much fun playing Total War before... A big Thank you to the whole RS Team..

**Octavius-Augustus** · April 05, 2008, 05:47 AM

how can we watch a campaign between ai factions only? i thought i saw there was a command to do this or something.

There should be, a modder might help you with that.

Well I`ve only recently installed the Alex Mod and used it with RS and I must say that I have not experienced significant differences between ALX.exe and BI.exe in terms of Battles...BUT I think that somehow - as far as I have obsereved it the AI Factons are much more agressive. i.e. factions like Pontus, the Getae, Iberia really survived very long into the campaigns and actually conquered several provinces, wich i have not seen before (using the rtw.exe or bi.exe). but maybe this is just circumstance?

If you have read my previous posts, ErgoProxy, my own experience with Alx is the significant change in the campaign AI. The battle AI, at least for me, is not harder - but smarter - in most situations it doesn't do stupid stuff. It takes all the advantage the terrain offers. It outflanks me and protects it's own flanks (to a degree). It's always looking for a fault in my line. RTW to BI was a small difference, but BI to Alex for me is a much bigger difference.

Only one thing to add. As much as smarter the AI seems, it behaves quite inadequately as Carthage (once again). I've tried many RTW versions, mods and expansions and on every single one Carthage wasn't the opponent I was looking for. The main problem with Alex is that Carth often has several stacks taking a stroll in the desert, while I'm blitzing their Sicillian, Corsican and Sardinian territories. Once I hit Spain, Carthage retaliates as it should be, but in many ways, this faction performs pretty much weaker than any other I have faced, EVEN the Free Peoples! (Not including the vast casualties from these irritating Caetrati Inf.) So is it Carthage as a whole, or the positioning of their lands, their economy or RTW AI?