Still too easy ?

[LeoDowner]

ExRM is definitely more challenging than RTR : PE but it still seems that any war I get into is only going to end in me winning. I'm currently playing as Rome on H/H and I'm still able to 'steamroll' whole empires with armies of mercenaries, I just did it to Macedonia who were 3rd strongest in the game while I was only 5th or 6th. The Gauls are next and they're always piss weak so it's won before I even start.

Of course I am the human player and the AI can never be as smart as me but I don't know. I'll start another campaign on VH/VH as a barbarian faction and see what happens then.

Loving ExRM by the way

[Jamey]

Sadly, nothing really makes the AI hard. I'm not generally a fan of VH battles for most barbarian factions. They tend to rely on making enemies route, and VH battles combined with a decent or good general can make that extremely hard to do. I've found it frustrating, myself.

It's a completely different genre, but Galactic Civilizations 2 is the best AI I've ever seen in an empire builder game. If you like space games, you should try it out. The AI is downright mean in harder difficulties.

[LeoDowner]

What do you mean about not being a fan of VH battles with barbarians ? Is that when you're playing as the barbarians ?

I hate space games, I like the movies though.

[Jamey]

What do you mean about not being a fan of VH battles with barbarians ? Is that when you're playing as the barbarians ?

As I said above, when playing as most barbarian factions routing the enemy is a key component in victory. VH battles plus a competent enemy general make it virtually impossible to route the enemy short virtual annihilation of every enemy unit. I don't find that fun.

I hate space games, I like the movies though.

Your loss, but to each their own.

You could try following Candelarius' Roman Guide (I know the timeline seems painfully slow, though). Better yet, get a little culture in your life.

I decided to generally follow Candelarius's army composition advice (using his Roman core with varied Auxilia). His timeline is way too slow for me, but using decade long conquest goals to slow my expansion worked well. I've described my campaign in the status reports thread.

[caldarium]

I'm currently playing as Rome on H/H and I'm still able to 'steamroll' whole empires with armies of mercenaries

LeoDowner,

IMO, you shouldn't overuse mercs unless you're Carthage. You could try following Candelarius' Roman Guide (I know the timeline seems painfully slow, though). Better yet, get a little culture in your life.

[LeoDowner]

Have you played Germany on ExRM yet Jamey ? I too am a German fan I'm just wondering how hard I could expect a VH/VH campaign to be with them.

[Jamey]

I think I played Germany on H/M and had a very enjoyable campaign.

I'd expect that a VH/VH German campaign would be ok until you started fighting the major civilized factions. High defense, high morale units would be very tough to handle with VH battle difficulties. Let's do a comparison of a unupgraded Principes vs. an unupgraded Cattan Warrior on VH (+10 to attack, defense, and morale, IIRC):

unit      Atk Jav Def Morale
Principes 21  21  42  28
Cattan    16  10  24  17

Keep in mind that you'll have zero armor on your Cattan Warrior. Add in a general on the other side, and you're in a world of hurt. Personally, I find that sort of match up a bit too frustrating. If you enjoy it, more power to you.

[boofhead]

You could always consider house rules to make things more challenging. And don't forget Quintus' guide to playing Rome historically - it's great fun (if that's what you like). Puts you on the defensive a lot of course, and diplomacy and bribery counts more.

[LeoDowner]

I see what you're saying about the differences that VH would bring, I'll have a play around in some custom battles to see exactly how hard it might be.

House rules could work but I want to play the game without any restrictions on the way I play, only with those that are put in place by the game. I don't think I would stick to them for long if a tricky situation came up anyway.

[Jamey]

I'm enjoying my Roman campaign a lot when I can find time for it, you may want to try something similar. The only downside is that 1-2 manually fought battles versus stronger enemy armies each turn means that playing a turn takes a lot more playing than it did before.

[decimator22]

I always play VH Campaign /M battles that way the computer gets more money but hte battlews are still realistic in H and VH the computer gets Bonus in Attack and i think in defense and morale (It never gets smarter by the way), making some units impossible to defeat. If u still find it easy declare war against everyone as fast as u can.
As Roman attacker Gauls, Ilyrria, Epirus , Greeks Macedon and that should keep u boxed for a while.

[Wien1938]

The problem, my dear fellow, is that the AI is simply crap. It has little conception of tactics and tends to look for the easy kill. I have demonstrated on a old post (different forum) how to defeat even the strongest AI army and that is a matter of using the correct formation.

Here's my Macedonian army formation vs AI.

The front line is a line of pike phalanx, interlocked to present an AI scarign front.
Behind the phalanx are Cretan Archers for massed arrow fire.
Each flank column is (from top down) Theurophoroi (missile infantry, good in melee), Thracian Infantry (missiles, strong melee), hypaspistai (spears+javelin).
The rear flanking formations are Tarentine Light Horse, which retreat through the Hetairoi formations behind, if attacked.

The phalanx usually scares the AI into looking for (in order of favourites) a: to charge the cavalry, or b: to try and charge the phalanx in the flank, or c: to charge the lighter infantry.
If a: the Theurophori usually pulverise any formations going down the flank and either break them with javelin fire (the Cretans firing on their reserves at this point), or the Thracians charge after a javelin volley (or the Hetairoi) and break the enemy.
If b: the Theurophoroi pulverise them while forming up and then they are either charged by Hetairoi or reserve infantry.
If c: the lighter infantry soak up the charge, the enemy then being charged by Hetairoi in the flank.
If in the unusual circumstances that the enemy frontally charge the phalanx, then either reserve infantry or the cavalry come around and hit them in the rear, thus routing and then the cavalry really start to kill them.

Either way, the formation will allow the player to defeat even the strongest armies (and believe me, I've destroyed three full strength Roman armies in Italy in the same battle that way).

[LeoDowner]

The Gauls seem to be the worse that I've fought in terms of AI. They are supposed to rely on a massive frontal charge with their Infantry but they just approach me and then charge one single warband after another, sometimes they don't even charge and just march into me. I thought I could try using the weakest troops available, I'm training an army of Etrurian Spears & Swords with merc Gallic Slingers and Cavalry to go against the Gauls. Using Roman Infantry would be too easy.

Can anything be done to make the AI better ?

Also Wien, what do you do against Sarmatian Horse Archers ? I just chase them around until they're cornered (cunning strategy).

[Jamey]

The Gauls seem to be the worse that I've fought in terms of AI. They are supposed to rely on a massive frontal charge with their Infantry but they just approach me and then charge one single warband after another, sometimes they don't even charge and just march into me. I thought I could try using the weakest troops available, I'm training an army of Etrurian Spears & Swords with merc Gallic Slingers and Cavalry to go against the Gauls. Using Roman Infantry would be too easy.

I've been autoresolving my battles vs. Gaul more often than not. The strongest armies they've sent against me have me as 5-2 favorites, so the Gauls are just going to run away as I approach, anyway.

I think that it might be wise to reduce the cost of the Heavy Gallic units. I haven't seen more than two of them in a single army during 3+ decades of conflict.

My defensive legion in Cisalpine Gaul has a Roman core (2 each of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii), 6 Etrurian Hoplite, 4 Gallic Slingers, and 2 Gallic Heavy Cavalry to go along with its 2 generals. I considered lowering the strength of the army, but until Gaul actually produces something stronger than warbands it really isn't worth the effort.

Also Wien, what do you do against Sarmatian Horse Archers ? I just chase them around until they're cornered (cunning strategy).

I normally autoresolve against massed horse archers. It's way less annoying than fighting it out. Unless, of course, I'm playing Sarmatia. I had a lot of fun with a HA force versus a HA and cataphract heavy Parthian army. The armor on Sarmatian HAs makes them very strong versus opposing HAs. That battle was especially interesting because I was relieving an Armenian settlement, which meant that I had an AI "buddy" doing its best to get into the line of fire of my HAs.

[LeoDowner]

I'm just happy the Sarmatians aren't very aggressive, if they were I would play as Numidia to get as far away from them as possible. They're such a pain to fight against.

[Jamey]

I'm just happy the Sarmatians aren't very aggressive, if they were I would play as Numidia to get as far away from them as possible. They're such a pain to fight against.

I find a heavy infantry heavy army will autoresolve well against them. But, as you say, they don't tend to be very aggressive.

So far in my Roman campaign, the most annoying to fight have been Numidia, with their many, many javelins and fast moving Desert Infantry. I've had to change my tactical doctrine somewhat to get my infantry into melee ASAP while plinking their cavalry with missile troops. Holding a line is far less important than avoiding eating extra javelin volleys. I'm dreading when Numidia finally sends in its free troops from me returning its settlements - it's retrained them up to silver chevron status.

[LeoDowner]

I never really expand that way unless there's nowhere else, much bigger and better Cities to be taken around the Meditteranian. You could always wait for Carthage to deal with them and then you deal with Carthage.

[Wien1938]

Against Sarmatians, I simply shred the buggers with massed Cretan Archery and use well-timed hetairoi charges to drive them back if they get too close.

[LeoDowner]

Anyway back on topic, is anyone else finding their campaign too easy ?

[Jamey]

I have never played a Total War game (mod or vanilla campaign) that didn't wind up being too easy in the long run. The AI just doesn't play the game well enough. When I can consistently kill 3000 opponents with less than 100 casualties in an army of 1300 (at a man-to-man parity by the autoresolve odds), what threat can the AI really be?

That's without getting into the issues the campaign AI has (building prirorities, conquest priorities, "diplomacy", etc.).

I find I have the most fun with a weak faction or with house rules limiting expansion. Your experience may differ, of course.