What does VH Campaign give the AI?

[Vikkus]

Does it just give them infinite money and units?

[Evan MF]

Does it just give them infinite money and units?

Well, not exactly but you are on the right lines... It gives them much more money and higher stats than you.

[Muffer Nl]

A boost to troop stats, a boost to income. A discount on training and building costs.

[Soul Firez]

It also gives them a much higher attack priority in the campaign AI so combined with all the other factors that the posts above gave means it will be much harder LOL

[Maverock]

Much harder and much more realistic.

Only as Gondor it will give you REAL troubles... cause Harad and full Mordor will be on your ass quick.

[Muffer Nl]

Especially combined with the scripts, which also increase their ouput at higher difficulty (I think)

[Fulgrim88]

However,imho it has always been the major drawback of the TW Series that you can't get the AI to play better - you can just make it cheat even more

There have been some little improvements with E:TW, but 1) coding an AI for a game where everyone uses more or less the same unit rosters is easier and 2) AI is still pretty dumb, even in E:TW. But at least it doesn't rely on cheats as heavily

[FriendoftheDork]

I thought the M2TW very hard battle difficulty was supposed to not change unit stats at all? Or does it mean that lowly orcs in this game pawns elite gondor swordsmen just because of silly unrealistic bonuses?

If so I'm not really motivated to play anything but M/M. Unlimited money (10k ekstra per turn) means that blockading is meaningless, while too much stat bonuses (other than morale) means that I need even better or even more soldiers to do the work. Just boosting attack and defense makes missile units better for the player, boosting armor makes supposedly lightly armored troops very tough to arrows, etc etc.

So the only way to go is to wipe out the enemy completely and as rapidly as possible.

[Vikkus]

I thought the M2TW very hard battle difficulty was supposed to not change unit stats at all? Or does it mean that lowly orcs in this game pawns elite gondor swordsmen just because of silly unrealistic bonuses?

If so I'm not really motivated to play anything but M/M. Unlimited money (10k ekstra per turn) means that blockading is meaningless, while too much stat bonuses (other than morale) means that I need even better or even more soldiers to do the work. Just boosting attack and defense makes missile units better for the player, boosting armor makes supposedly lightly armored troops very tough to arrows, etc etc.

So the only way to go is to wipe out the enemy completely and as rapidly as possible.

Yes. VH just seems to make the game unrealistic. No point in blockading or using any tatics on the campaign map, like drawing the armies away or decoying when they get so much free stuff. I had Mordor down too two cities and in one turn they spawned 5 full stacks of armies. lol 16K men in one turn from 2 cities means its just a grindfest of troops. No real tatical challenge and it gets boring quick. I wish VH made the AI 'think' better and use improved judgement instead of just handing out free units and money.

[Blackorc]

Giving money to a vh Ai will help them verry much so I think they don't have infinite money.

[Kulgan]

I completeley agree VH is just not ' realistic ' . I agree with giving the AI money and free troops, build bonusses etc. But when a unit of Goblins get shot to bits and has 10 out of 250 soldiers left and those 10 keep on charging climbing a steep hill with ontop 1000 Elves I just feel I'm playing a nintedo ish game.
No realism whatsoever just killing troops. You could just install a button that auto deheads all enemies with a single click. In the end that's the only thing you can achieve playing vh/vh.

Right now I'm playing h/h because m/m is just too easy and absoluteley no challenge. h/h poses a good challenge.

[Æsir]

If so I'm not really motivated to play anything but M/M.

How about that TA:TW is designed to be played on VH/VH? Do you feel pleased while playing on very easy (medium in TA:TW is very easy in fact)? Can you really enjoy your victories if your enemy is dumb and underpowered..

[Vikkus]

How about that TA:TW is designed to be played on VH/VH? Do you feel pleased while playing on very easy (medium in TA:TW is very easy in fact)? Can you really enjoy your victories if your enemy is dumb and underpowered..

VH doesn't change the fact of the AI being 'dumb'. Just gives them more power to use.

[KnightOfCydonia]

you dont have to play the same campaign AI as Battle AI, i play VH/M (in the tradition of the famous EB mod for Rome). The enemy churns out full stacks to their heart's desire but the troops still wont be overpowered so its a quite reasonable challenge.

[FriendoftheDork]

How about that TA:TW is designed to be played on VH/VH? Do you feel pleased while playing on very easy (medium in TA:TW is very easy in fact)? Can you really enjoy your victories if your enemy is dumb and underpowered..

Yup I enjoyed Gonor at medium until a certain point. And if higher difficulty meant smarter AI and not just ridiculous bonuses then I'd play them.

Does this mod give benefits to human players? If not, why should difficulty be higher than in M2TW?

[Rilder]

I don't want to fight full stacks every turn so I just play M/M.

[Daradain]

Me, I play VH/H. VH while in tactical mode does bring about more enemy units to fight, and it does make it pretty much impossible to win by way of starving tactics, but it also makes the game a bit more of a chalange as far as tactics are concerned. However, the VH bonuses to stats while in RTS battle mode are a bit over the top. H just gives moral bonus to AI units (I think) so that works out well. All in all, H/H is good, but pretty boring as soon as you get a good foothold going, so I suggest VH/H.

P.S. One thing I would suggest though, is the use of many archers. Archers, due to their numbers, are much more powerful in this mod as apposed to stock M2, so using large numbers of archers on the battlefield can pretty much nullify almost any unit buffs given from VH. Given enough high ground, you can get any unit, save for trolls, to rout before they get close enough to even kill one of your guys.

[trance]

Medium battle difficulty hands down. Hard and Very Hard adds strange morale and stat bonuses to the enemy, while I enjoy a challenging game, I certainly don't enjoy having rabble slaughtering elite forces nor routing when they're supposed to.

VH battle difficulty actually modifies stats in a way that ruins the mood of TATW. Units are designed to perform like they do in medium, without silly, unrealistic bonuses. KK (And PointBlank if you use RR/RC) have spent a considerable time balancing and designing units without counting in the wacko VH bonuses, so basically you imbalance the whole game. Orcs are supposed to run for the hills early on in a battle, snaga are supposed to die like cowardly - albeit cheap - flies and militia units aren't supposed to be unroutable, killing machines standing toe-to-toe with Uruk-Hai or Gondorian infantry, VH changes all that. And honestly, from experience, I still find that VH isn't hard at all, knowing the right tactics you can still win every single battle without breaking a sweat.

Thus I find that VH/M is the way to go. It's a shame that the M2TW AI is so lacking, "cheating" to make the game challenging is just lame. Medium, Hard and Very Hard AI is identical on the tactical level, they make the same decisions, can't express myself about the easier difficulties though since I haven't tried them.

VH campaign map will make the computer cheat extensively, if I recall correctly the computer is given a huge boost to it's king's purse and spawns armies like there's no tomorrow. The spawning is lame though, but I guess there simply isn't anything to do about it.

[FriendoftheDork]

Nothing to do except to lower difficulty, that is.

My next game will be hard campaign AI (to make the AI more agressive and a slight ecconomical boost) and still medium battle.

This thread has again convinced me of the lack of AI in TW games, from Shogun to Empire.

[Smokey Ladybridge]

Anybody playing this mod on anything other than VH/VH is a total wuss.

If I can complete long campaign with Dale, destroying Rhun, Mordor and most of Harad then anyone can.

Dont see the satisfaction from defeating an easy game.