Easy vs. Very Hard

[NZV]

I typically just play on medium, but I was trying out a few custom battles on both easy and very hard (SS 6.1) earlier to see the difference between them, and honestly I didn't notice any. I was expecting crappy enemy light infantry to put up a fight against my heavy infantry on very hard, for example, but no such thing occurred. Everything flowed pretty much exactly as it did on easy, and as it does on medium. Hell, my out of ammo archers didn't do too shabby against high end Teutonic Knight heavy infantry.

So what is the difference, exactly? Because I definitely didn't see it. Is it just a morale thing? Even that seems iffy considering I had all kinds of expensive Teutonics running from my horrible Bedouin infantry. I wasn't even using any cavalry. I found myself actually winning a couple very hard fights accidentally, even with much weaker units put in deliberately poor positions. Anyone happen to have the numbers on what's changed between difficulties?

[TeddyBearsDoLie]

Im pretty sure it's just the morale.

[Sir Walter]

On Easy, your Spear Militia (with no extras) beat the same unit of the AI's. On Medium it's even and on Hard/Very Hard the AI gets better IIRC. (And morale)

[xxmaelstrom]

I must suck because Easy is still hard for me .

[Sir Walter]

I must suck because Easy is still hard for me .

You may have a glitch. Mind you, over a six month period of playing Rome and Medieval II, I've slowly progressed from playing Easy to Hard - just keep at it, and you'll get better (and if you're struggling play a nice and easy faction like the Fatimids or England or Sicily... then move on to the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa and Lithuania ).

[tono4850]

I must say that SS has a quite good campaign AI,but very bad battle AI(Even battles on VH is pretty easy and boring)for example,AI never defend its archers and I always kill them by my cavalry.

Are there any submods which improve mainly battle AI ?now i play clean SS 6.2

Thx for anwers

[Navajo Joe]

tono4850,

If you look in Sub Mods you will find a Battle AI by Germanicu5, that certainly improves the AI battle tactics. There is also a Mod by Xeryx called XBAI, which is a standalone Battle AI Improvement mod

[xxmaelstrom]

You may have a glitch. Mind you, over a six month period of playing Rome and Medieval II, I've slowly progressed from playing Easy to Hard - just keep at it, and you'll get better (and if you're struggling play a nice and easy faction like the Fatimids or England or Sicily... then move on to the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa and Lithuania ).

Glitch in the game or glitch in my playing ability? And yes, I am having trouble playing as England. Aren't the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa, and Lithuania really hard?

[Sir Walter]

Glitch in the game or glitch in my playing ability? And yes, I am having trouble playing as England. Aren't the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa, and Lithuania really hard?

Glitch in the game. Yeah, that was the idea, I failed a bit as Genoa but I'm doing well as Lithuania at the moment. The best way with England is to get Longbowmen, Bill-men and Light Men-at-Arms early and play defensive in battles. I'm writing a strategy guide soon and one of its themes will be England

[xxmaelstrom]

Glitch in the game. Yeah, that was the idea, I failed a bit as Genoa but I'm doing well as Lithuania at the moment. The best way with England is to get Longbowmen, Bill-men and Light Men-at-Arms early and play defensive in battles. I'm writing a strategy guide soon and one of its themes will be England

Nah, I just suck, lol. I have a hard time figuring out how to take settlements, how many units to leave inside a taken settlement, when to build units because of the upkeep. Whenever I start building a full army, I always end up going into debt and losing money and yeah. Idk how there could be a glitch in the game because everything runs smoothly.

[Khosrau]

Glitch in the game or glitch in my playing ability? And yes, I am having trouble playing as England. Aren't the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa, and Lithuania really hard?

I'm currently playing the early era campaign HRE on H/VH with Point Blanks RR/RC compilation (The Savage campaign AI and Germanicu5 Battle AI). And yeah, it's one of the tougher ones. You're empire is quite big, but difficult to hold together because of the many neighbouring factions. Prepare for a constantly shifting frontlines and a lot of enemies. At one point I had all my neighbours at war with me. That's just too much, so diplomacy is important. Don't play if you dont want to trade settlements for ceasefire if needed

On the other hand, it's probably my most enjoyable campaign until now. Try if you like a challenge

Als Lithuania, be prepared that everyone will hate you and you can expect a crusade on your capital real soon.

Genoa is difficult too because of many surrounding enemies and little opportunity to expand.

So yeah, I would definately say those are the more challenging factions.

[Chyeaaaa111]

VH/VH all day, every day! Anything less is WEAK!!!

[NZV]

VH/VH all day, every day! Anything less is WEAK!!!

But there's almost no difference >.> At least not for the battle difficulty.

[xxmaelstrom]

VH/VH all day, every day! Anything less is WEAK!!!

What's VH/VH?

[Sir Walter]

What's VH/VH?

Very Hard for both Campaign and Battle.

[xxmaelstrom]

Very Hard for both Campaign and Battle.

Oh screw that, lol. I can't even do well on Easy. The prices for everything are really high. I'm used to Third Age where a farm is 800 as opposed to 1200 or 2000.

[Ichon]

Oh screw that, lol. I can't even do well on Easy. The prices for everything are really high. I'm used to Third Age where a farm is 800 as opposed to 1200 or 2000.

I haven't tried Third Age but I have tried other mods than SS and while some costs in SS are a bit higher I think SS also has more income producing buildings etc than most mods. So it might make the initial turns in SS a bit more difficult but its rare I can't scrap the cash together to keep building at least 1 improvement in the majority of my cities.

Trade treaties with neighbors, merchants, and selling map info or the trade treaty rights in the first 10 turns or so can net you 2-5,000 depending your starting faction and that is enough to build the first couple levels of farms or mines in most cities which add even more income. Only as HRE or Byz do I need to produce military from more than 1 or 2 of my cities and the rest can be financial centers. Most campaigns by turn 80 or so I am bribing cities nearly as often as capturing them in battle.

[Sir Walter]

Oh screw that, lol. I can't even do well on Easy. The prices for everything are really high. I'm used to Third Age where a farm is 800 as opposed to 1200 or 2000.

If I do say it myself, the strategy guide I recently posted might help you get used to Stainless Steel.

[Ichon]

VH = Very Hard difficulty so... in the battles you can notice a difference the longer the battle lasts. On easy battles usually don't last as long because with lower morale enemies rout more quickly, but by the time you get to VH enemies take usually at least 1 full rear or flank charge to rout and sometimes even more than that if the general is still alive.

I have wondered about stamina on VH as well... when an enemy army traverses the entire map then charges uphill it still inflicts more losses on me with identical units. I know some of that is due to taking the charge but even when I counter-charge and just don't sit waiting within 30 seconds if its 2 Light Men at Arms fighting I've lost 10% while AI lost only 5% or so. A recent battle where I had no cavalry except a very weakened general(wounded and sick for -4 HP and only 8 bodyguard from a sally earlier in turn) this almost cost me the battle... by the time my unit had lost 70% the enemy after crossing map and charging uphill into my downhill charge had lost only 40% or so. No archers in battle either so...

When I try to set up a test usually the AI does seem to get some small advantage but its the random campaign battles were such situations happen that seem sometimes they actually do get a big advantage on VH. It's rare though that the fighting advantage is as obvious as above but occasionally happens. Mostly the annoying thing is 1 single unit taking 3 or 4 charges to its rear to break... so it just makes battles longer and cost more men on VH. Also sometimes a routed unit will reform just long enough to stop turn and kill a general pursuing them and then rout again.

VH campaign AI the main thing different I notice is many more stacks of enemies but depending on how you play this can be an advantage especially if you turtle a bit and aren't using BGR or some other submod that adds difficulty.

I noticed that when I played SS 6.1 without BGR my conquests expand much faster on VH-VH than H-VH because 3 reasons;

1. More stacks of enemy factions fighting and besieging each other means less income for them and also more often the AI has trouble deciding where to send its stacks vs so many threats.

2. Winning more battles produces stronger generals and more cash from ransoms(which due to higher money bonus for AI on VH they actually seem to pay out more often).

3. AI is more aggressive with a larger stack in VH and where on H it might sit in castle and wait for siege on VH it will sally out and be defeated more easily.

[xxmaelstrom]

Does RC/RR make the game harder than it already is?