NTW on VH/VH?

Hi there
I was wondering, without having tested it: how is NTW with VH/VH settings?
So far I've only played normal diff. and I have to say that I am disappointed.
Not that much because of the strat map, more because of battles.
In battles I can win all battles with a 1 vs 2 ratio, sometimes 1 vs 3. why? Artillery. With 5-6 units of obusiers you can route any army, very fast, with very little casualties.
How is it on VH, for those who have tested it?
Is the army charging the artillery with its cavalry? or even with the infantry if at range, and not stand there doing nothing and getting killed...
And about the start map: how is the AI with VH settings? More aggressive?
Thanks for sharing your experience.

It gives the AI unfair advantages, doesnt make it better, it jsut means in a 1 on 1 between your Chasseurs for example and its it will come out on top easily

If you're using that much artillery the difference is you just have to fire 2 volleys more per battle.

Ok so the battle AI with VH is cheating... and what about Hard then?

and how is the campaign AI on VH?

NTW on VH/VH = Very Easy

The only thing that makes it challenging is if you fight drop-in battles every possible time.

I recommend you play hard campaign before jumping to very hard. If your frame of reference is medium difficulty campaign, VH can turn into a very rude awakening quickly. Most likely you will go bankrupt very early on in the game if you follow a medium difficulty build sequence. But once your economy is stable its all the same, only difference being how frequently you want to get into battles, because the AI will constantly send multiple full stacks against you. For some people this gets repetitive so VH is not for everyone.

Also, I believe AI spies are more lethal in VH campaign so if you happen to favor a particular general make sure he has a spy in his army or he's toast.

And no naval battle can be auto-resolved. Your ships of the line will lose to merchant ships and the like. (Exception: razees. If you don't care about playing naval battles, build razees instead of ships of the line, their auto-resolve values are crazy high).

To be honest building your army around a ridiculous number of howitzers is as much a 'cheat' or exploit as any bonuses the AI gets at VH/VH.

Don't really know about Empire as I never bought it but I've played every other TW game and NTW is the first one where the AI actually builds reasonably balanced armies rather than stacks made up entirely of peasants or militia or siege artillery.

For me all the pleasure would be gone if I could just defeat them all with a stack of super weapons and elite troops that bears no resemblance to any actual Napoleonic army

And the key thing you will find at VH/VH is that you can no longer rely on enemy infantry to run away from sustained artillery fire - they will close to musket and melee range so you'd better have something else other than just artillery to stop them overrunning your guns.

I personally play VH campaigns and H battles, because I think the bonuses that the BAI gets on VH are a bit too extreme. Watching the King's German Legion run from a line of militia is just depressing. VH campaigns are nice and challenging though. The CAI becomes at least sort of aggressive and will send several stacks at you at a time (not because they're particularly coordinated, but because they have around a dozen stacks or so running around.)

Originally Posted by Clodius

To be honest building your army around a ridiculous number of howitzers is as much a 'cheat' or exploit as any bonuses the AI gets at VH/VH.

Don't really know about Empire as I never bought it but I've played every other TW game and NTW is the first one where the AI actually builds reasonably balanced armies rather than stacks made up entirely of peasants or militia or siege artillery.

For me all the pleasure would be gone if I could just defeat them all with a stack of super weapons and elite troops that bears no resemblance to any actual Napoleonic army

And the key thing you will find at VH/VH is that you can no longer rely on enemy infantry to run away from sustained artillery fire - they will close to musket and melee range so you'd better have something else other than just artillery to stop them overrunning your guns.

So true. Howitzers/obusiers in NTW are just totally unrealistic. I mean the game is very polished and all that, but the game mechanics and some units are just to arcade.

Your best bet is to play a campaign AI mod only. This allows you to play drop-ins and giving you superior CAI and the best BAI you could ever have - a human.

Try out my one here

Id recomend playing drop ins, with campaign set to hard, that makes the AI more aggresive and gives it a slight bonus, battles I would jsut leave on normal, if that doesnt work, do the same but try a realism mod, NER, EIC, TROM etc...

Originally Posted by Drakon

Hi there
I was wondering, without having tested it: how is NTW with VH/VH settings?
So far I've only played normal diff. and I have to say that I am disappointed.
Not that much because of the strat map, more because of battles.
In battles I can win all battles with a 1 vs 2 ratio, sometimes 1 vs 3. why? Artillery. With 5-6 units of obusiers you can route any army, very fast, with very little casualties.
How is it on VH, for those who have tested it?
Is the army charging the artillery with its cavalry? or even with the infantry if at range, and not stand there doing nothing and getting killed...
And about the start map: how is the AI with VH settings? More aggressive?
Thanks for sharing your experience.

lol

I assure you that with 9-10 batteries is even easier...

Originally Posted by Ryo

lol

I assure you that with 9-10 batteries is even easier...

That's enough artillery historically for like a 50,000+ army or something

So if I understand righ, the most difficult AI which doesnt use cheats is:
Hard for battles, Very Hard for the strat map, right?

Originally Posted by Drakon

So if I understand righ, the most difficult AI which doesnt use cheats is:
Hard for battles, Very Hard for the strat map, right?

No. Anything passed Medium difficulty cheats. The BAI gets morale and other bonuses. The CAI gets increased cash everyturn (and I've heard an increased technology rate too, not sure if this is true tho).

This means that there is no AI technology that can allow the AI to know what with and when to attack certain units? I'd rather not expect my best units to rout because of the enemies peasants because they get a morale boost, but because they have been smart enough to flank my unit while it is engaged.

The game is quite easy even in VH/VH, the bonus BAI gets aren't enough to counter human ability and pause button.
If you want a nice game I suggest VH/VH with France, at least when you will rule over Europe it won't be so absurd. And try to avoid playing with 6 howitzer batteries, keep 4 artilleries at maximum with only one being of Howitzer if you don't want to have a large unfair advantage on the BAI

Originally Posted by Astinus

The game is quite easy even in VH/VH, the bonus BAI gets aren't enough to counter human ability and pause button.
If you want a nice game I suggest VH/VH with France, at least when you will rule over Europe it won't be so absurd. And try to avoid playing with 6 howitzer batteries, keep 4 artilleries at maximum with only one being of Howitzer if you don't want to have a large unfair advantage on the BAI

Ah - I suspect I only find VH/VH challenging because I never use the pause button unless there is some external thing (a phone call, my lunch etc) that needs my attention.

Similarly the only time I allow myself to replay a battle again is if I've either auto-resolved and got a crazy result or messed up big time in my initial deployment.

Its nothing I have tried Empire and Napoleon with VH/VH many times. Its nothing bad just interesting to play this game. Campaign difficulty changes from half stacks to full stacks. That means almost everytime enemy have full stack armies.