Do you think ETW is to easy

**Sir Nicholas Altman** · March 25, 2009, 02:53 AM

I am a veteran player of Total War games. Have them all and been playing since Shogun. Empire TW its far the easiest so far.

I started my second campaing on very hard/ very hard as Holland. I figured a small nation, hard fight, many enemies. But now I am at turn 75. I conqured and destroyed Flanders, Strassburg, all small German nations and Poland. Then I decided to attack France. One big battle and France is destroyed. In America I got all south Carrabean and north South America and 2 provinces in India. All together 24 provinces.

So I am now all mighty Netherlands with only Britan with higher prestige. I will invade Spain now and I guess in 5 turns they are toast. I am so disapointed how easy it is. Like France is one province? WTF? Spain one plus Gibraltar? WTF?

Does anybody else think ETW is to easy?

**django333** · March 25, 2009, 02:58 AM

Try Darth's mod.

**IHV** · March 25, 2009, 03:24 AM

Dont know really, probably bit too easy since i have to play Very Hard/Very Hard and im not veteran TW gamer.

I started 4tpy United Provinces campaign with vanilla.
I started off making lots of Indiamen trade ships and i got 2-4 slots in every region so atleast i got steady income.
I started off going to the Rheinland region south of Netherlands and i took it, but after that Austria and most of the little Provinces in Germany declared a war to me, after few turns there was hell going on in Rheinland and when France offered me money , islands near south america and newfoundland for it, i gladly took the trade.
Lets just say French lost the region in one turn, and after things settled down in there i took it again and immidiately Spain offered me 2 islands and one province near venice, + 2 techs and money. (must be valuable piece of land this).

Anyways i dont think its that easy, i was constantly under attack from Hannovar region, they attacked Netherlands every turn,(i had fort built in border with them) eventually i pushed them back and built a fort near their capital to launch an assualt.

1. Currently im planning on moving into native lands from Newfoundland but since they got 2 full stacks i need some really big army. (Hard)
2. Near south america im getting my ass handed to me by Pirates (7x120 Line Infantry got wiped by 6x120 melee only Pirates, and ive tried to wipe them 3 times now and failed). (Hard)
3. I tried to move to North america but Algerian barbarians kicked me back to the ship i came with and Spain sunk them... (Hard)
4. My main region Netherlands is under attack by Spain from west and by Württenburg and 1 more german Province from east so its hard for me to gather army to move out. (Hard.)

So besides the terrible fact that there is no naval invasion (rules out GB my ally) i really enjoy my Holland campaign.

Few questions myself.
Is AI supposed to be so stubborn, factions at peace with me wount accept trade agreementd despite the goodies i offer them, ever.
Whats exactly the difference between different difficulty levels during battles? Does Very Hard just make them smarter? Since to me it seems it also increases their stats, which is bad if you ask me, but 1 on 1 my line infantry lose to any other type of army. In Algeria i litterally got raped.

Tho i agree that AI leaves some regions defencless, i could prolly kick Spain out of South America in few turns since he has no army there, but atm im having too much fun trying ot beat Pirates and the action at Netherlands.

**Roman Knight** · March 25, 2009, 03:28 AM

Yeah, hard battles, very hard campaign as Prussia and the Marathas are the first to put up a fight.

**anaztazioch** · March 25, 2009, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by Roman Knight

Yeah, hard battles, very hard campaign as Prussia and the Marathas are the first to put up a fight.

??? What fight ?
Prussians you have strong recruiting town. 3 units a turn, you can take Warsaw in 1 turn rom Konninsberg. With 2 line infantry recruiting towns your very strong. Also such states like Hannover, Saxony have strong cities.

And Martha ?
Cmon, just send all you got and you destroy Mughals in 15 turns.
I mean i send my captal army west along the coast killing all Mughal army and just replenishing man. My east army went east to Calcutta conquering it without any problems. My cavalry general killed all enemies getting close to capital.
I kept some garrison so that Mayore wont conquer even one province of mine. I later conuqered them with ease. 20 Turns and im sole owner of india, no Prtugal or Netherlands here. I moved on to Amsterdam in europe as my abassy there and some Netherlandish city in Americas. Netherlands are out and i got footholds to push all continents in 35th turn... VH/VH

**Pink Beard** · March 25, 2009, 12:48 PM

Just defeated 2 english fourth rate ship of the lines and a fift rate frigate with only 7 Light Galleys. Lost only 1 galley, sank all english ships.

Yes E:tw is a bit unbalanced lol...

ps; that's 28 cannons on my side vs about 170 on theirs, that's about 110 total crew on my side VS ~420 on theirs.

**Roman Knight** · March 25, 2009, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by anaztazioch

??? What fight ?
Prussians you have strong recruiting town. 3 units a turn, you can take Warsaw in 1 turn rom Konninsberg. With 2 line infantry recruiting towns your very strong. Also such states like Hannover, Saxony have strong cities.

And Martha ?
Cmon, just send all you got and you destroy Mughals in 15 turns.
I mean i send my captal army west along the coast killing all Mughal army and just replenishing man. My east army went east to Calcutta conquering it without any problems. My cavalry general killed all enemies getting close to capital.
I kept some garrison so that Mayore wont conquer even one province of mine. I later conuqered them with ease. 20 Turns and im sole owner of india, no Prtugal or Netherlands here. I moved on to Amsterdam in europe as my abassy there and some Netherlandish city in Americas. Netherlands are out and i got footholds to push all continents in 35th turn... VH/VH

No, as in that't the difficulty setting, not how difficult it is. I find it way too easy, but I refuse to play very hard battles as the AI just cheats and all the tactics are boring.

**jogamen** · March 25, 2009, 03:43 AM

Originally Posted by Sir Nicholas Altman

So I am now all mighty Netherlands with only Britan with higher prestige. I will invade Spain now and I guess in 5 turns they are toast. I am so disapointed how easy it is. Like France is one province? WTF? Spain one plus Gibraltar? WTF?

Does anybody else think ETW is to easy?

i agree with you, playing as GB have in 15 turns conquered france and next 10 turns spain. it could be earlier but was waiting what spain will do after conquering france

**Haakon** · March 25, 2009, 03:49 AM

Why does people call the retail version, vanilla? Why not just......retail?
and yeah, this game is too easy. It's more a stroll in the park than an actual game.

**Roman Knight** · March 25, 2009, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by Haakon

Why does people call the retail version, vanilla? Why not just......retail?
and yeah, this game is too easy. It's more a stroll in the park than an actual game.

It doesn't matter at the moment, but after a while, retail could mean expansion pack or no expansion pack. At the moment it could mean normal or SF editions, but that doesn't matter too much.

**upsettingshorts** · March 25, 2009, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by Haakon

Why does people call the retail version, vanilla? Why not just......retail?

Because mods are like tasty toppings!

**Sir Nicholas Altman** · March 25, 2009, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by tdpatriots12

Because mods are like tasty toppings!

I am at Prestige campaign. 15 provinces and world Prestige as Holland.

**Rockstone** · March 25, 2009, 03:59 AM

In my view the principal weakness is that you can pretty much cripple a country by taking a single city.

For instance France. At the time pretty much the most power nation in Europe and rivalling Brittain in the world. You can simply walk to Paris, with one or perhaps two full stacks, not meeting any resistance along the way and all but defeat France. Take the remaining province and France ends.

With a little care you can do this in 10 turns. I did this in my GB campaign and France was out of the game by 1705. Really clears up western Europe and everyone else is a walkover (I'm pressently chasing Spain down in South Italy - I got a little sidetracked by the victory conditions).

So I agree, because of the one-city-takes-all principle, ETW is too easy.
But still... its a great game!

**Roman Knight** · March 25, 2009, 04:19 AM

I don't agree completely, I came up against three full stacks when attacking France. Two on respective bridges with one in the city, which provided for an interesting challenge. On the other hand, it's shocking that once you've taken Paris, you've destroyed France utterly.

**man** · March 25, 2009, 12:30 PM

its more difficult :S

**Gora sahib** · March 25, 2009, 12:34 PM

OP I'm curious, which campaign did you play? Prestige? Long? Domination?

**gord96** · March 25, 2009, 12:41 PM

get Darthmod 0.2

**Shadow8** · March 25, 2009, 12:46 PM

maybe i just suck witch i doubt but no, i find ETW intersting and fun actually, not all that easy. although SOME parts are easy.

**HordeOfDoom** · March 25, 2009, 09:11 PM

On VH/VH as France, fighting smaller nations & natives is proving more difficult than larger ones (ex. taking all of British North America was easier than taking down Savoy), but it's definitely far far more challenging than any previous TW. Once the AI uses naval invasions this'll get really interesting.