Difficulty

[ROFL Copter]

I know that the game says to put the difficulty on Very Hard/Very Hard, but I never usually put the battles on Very Hard in most mods because it really only gives the AI stupid and ridiculous bonuses that do not make it any smarter. So ignoring this I put it on normal, and the campaign on Very Hard. However, whenever I fight Orcs they seem to rout almost instantly. Is this mod designed that it HAS to be played on Very Hard, or is it just an option? As I said, in most things everything feels very balanced and fair on normal.

[MasterBigAb]

I know that the game says to put the difficulty on Very Hard/Very Hard, but I never usually put the battles on Very Hard in most mods because it really only gives the AI stupid and ridiculous bonuses that do not make it any smarter. So ignoring this I put it on normal, and the campaign on Very Hard. However, whenever I fight Orcs they seem to rout almost instantly. Is this mod designed that it HAS to be played on Very Hard, or is it just an option? As I said, in most things everything feels very balanced and fair on normal.

it is only suggested to be played on very hard,,,
the orcs do rout very easily, right, but they compensate it with their insane numbers... (it is meant to be so, lore)

btw.: ask question here thread next time please !

[ROFL Copter]

I almost want to play it on very hard, but then I would lose my campaign...
What are the exact bonuses the AI gets? I know its something like +14 moral and +7 defence/attack or some such. How much better is it really? In most of my experience (EB being the best example) it is already hard enough at normal.

EDIT: Are they really supposed to rout THAT fast? Literally a second after their charge they seem to rout... Should I just quit and make it harder?

[trueblaze]

Actully all attack and defence stats stay the same it just the moral (and maybe stamana) that are increased. I think the increases go by incraments of 4. So on easy they'd all have -4 moral, while on hard +4, Vhard +8.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I play with medium/hard settings and find the campaigns most enjoyable...

Hard battles or campaign?
I just want to know if its normal for Orcs to be THAT . Really, when they are that bad they dont even get a chance to use their numbers.

Meduim campaign/ hard battles...

[ROFL Copter]

Hard battles or campaign?
I just want to know if its normal for Orcs to be THAT . Really, when they are that bad they dont even get a chance to use their numbers.

[Fomalhaut]

I play on H/H, provides decent challenge. Not too hard but not too easy.

[ROFL Copter]

Does anyone think I should restart mine with harder settings before I get too far in?

[trueblaze]

yes

[eugenioso]

mr roflcopter, what is it exactly that you find hard about VH/VH? (besides the name)

i could write a massive post about what it could be, but id rather just wait for your reply

[jinjo]

i am playing vh/vh with high elves now but it isn't very hard for me al least

[Lordinquisitor]

Playing on Vh means that you actually have to use *difficult* (Yes, sarcasm.) maneuvers like flanking enemy units.

[Kawee]

Playing VH/VH means you actually have to care and pay a bit of attention. Sometimes it's more tedious than fun though.

[Dizoakius Maximus]

If the difficulty for this mod is anything like normal TW games, I can state with some experience that once you get up to that level of difficulty the games become less and less forgiving.

You generally don't get alot of money, and if you invest in improving your realms to net more and more money, then you are usually lacking in units to defend your newly enriched homestead.

That's usually when the full stack army arrives on your border and sacks your town.

If you build up a goodly sized army to defend your areas; you end up getting hit with multiple enemy stacks on multiple turns, leaving you little time or money to reinforce your troops, or to build improvements.

That's usually when you go bankrupt, then your army gets squashed due to attrition and then a bunch of full stacks showing up to finish them off.

Granted, I don't know that the AI works like that in this mod, but it certainly does in Vanilla.

That being said; this mod looks freakin' awesome and I will be downloading it as soon as I can get home to my PC.

[ashenhigh]

The questions is: How do you not play on VH/VH?

[ROFL Copter]

The battle difficulty does not make it harder. It only gives the AI massive moral bonuses. It does not make it smarter or less forgiving. In EB this is completely unnecessary, and thats almost all I play.

[Hermes Trismegistos]

The battle difficulty does not make it harder. It only gives the AI massive moral bonuses. It does not make it smarter or less forgiving. In EB this is completely unnecessary, and thats almost all I play.

I find your first two sentences somewhat contradicting. How can massive morale bonuses for the AI not make it harder? The bonuses the AI gets might not be very subtle: In campaign troops and money (ultimately resulting in more troops), in battle morale - but still the effects are necessary IMO:

If you prefer an aggressive game style like I do, you could simply march through to Mordor (because the AI risks lots of its troops in risky situations and never defends effectively its settlements) without the campaign helps, > VH in campaign.

In battle the AI usually acts pretty stupid, too. When the enemy charges my army frontally with cavalry units instead of flanking for example, it would practically auto-win without any AI-bonus. With the boni it lats at least a while and forces you to use some tactics yourself to get an advantage (because under equal conditions the AI wins). So VH is the only way to get longer, dramatic, and bloody battles (like I prefer them) > VH in battle.

[Dizoakius Maximus]

I do agree with Hermes: AI bonuses make things ALOT harder.

In DLV for example, just hitting a unit in the flank or rear with cavalry (even Knights) isn't enough to guarantee a rout. They'll just absorb it and then start killing your cavalry while they try to hack their way out. (God, I've lost so many leaders that way!) The morale bonuses and experience bonuses that they get are enough to compensate for a human players innate superiority. Because everyone knows the "hold-them-with-spears-then-flank-them-with-cavalry" routine, they can hold out longer and inflict way more casualties than they normally would.

The CAI, however, makes things harder on an altogether different level: they get money bonuses, so they just spend like crazy (usually on units), and they don't worry about defending every city like a human player would. The AI can calculate the chances of a particular faction attacking them, and then devote tons of units to going after the player without worrying if a nearby faction will just jump it and eat up several provinces (the AI, I've found, will ALWAYS go after the player if it's feasible).

I, at least, tend to worry that weakening one region to devote troops to another will result in an opportunistic AI just jumping me (ok, it isn't as bad when a neighbor is allied, but it still happens)

Anyway, that's my take.

[ROFL Copter]

Of course the Campaign AI is improved. That is obvious. But in battle simply giving the AI more moral doesnt make it more fun or more tactical, its just a cheap boost. Thats why I never use it. I'm just wondering if this mod is different from the others. Most of the time it just gives the AI armies the ability to beat your elite units with their militias. Thats just stupid.

[Cruzz]

Of course the Campaign AI is improved. That is obvious. But in battle simply giving the AI more moral doesnt make it more fun or more tactical, its just a cheap boost. Thats why I never use it. I'm just wondering if this mod is different from the others. Most of the time it just gives the AI armies the ability to beat your elite units with their militias. Thats just stupid.

Actually I can't say I would've ever noticed any particular improvement of the campaign AI based on difficulty. The AI just gets a larger money bonus and thus can have more units and thus may act more aggressively in general as risks seem smaller to it.

All that extra morale and stamina are so going to make those 0-chevron goblin skirmishers beat your swan knights. Let's be a bit realistic, the only kind of unit to unit matchups that increasing stam/morale greatly affect are 1. cavalry charges against things you probably shouldn't be charging against and 2. high durability, low damage units. I have noticed that under VH/VH, all other things being equal, a group of orc archers will end up smacking up a group of gondorian militia (heavy infantry) in pure melee on the walls as the militia will get tired way before the fight is over. This then actually gives the AI some chance of scaling walls as they so often just stick an archer group on all their siege towers and ladders instead of using proper melee units for them.

Personally I'm playing VH/VH as Gondor with the RC/RR submod and ReallyBadAI. The battle AI still does plenty of moronic moves with ReallyBad, but atleast it is an improvement. Only played through around 50 turns so far, but the AI has actually offered some pretty challenging fights this time around. I do kinda think that it might have been better to put the campaign AI on hard in this case, as e. osgiliath is sieged 6 days of the week . Atleast it fits with the atmosphere of the lore.