Question about difficulty

[J-Plague]

I seem to remember with 6.2, there was posted something like easy=med, med=hard, hard=very hard.
Using savage AI, does anything like this still apply?
Sorry if this has already been answered, I couldn't find it =/

[Ishan]

All the custom AI's follows the same principle that is making the game harder. So yes the same goes for savage AI.

[Paladin94610]

So is it
Vanilla Easy= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Medium= SS Easy
Vanilla Hard= SS Medium
Vanilla Very Hard= SS Hard
And >Vanilla Very Hard= SS Very Hard

Or

Vanilla Easy= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Medium= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Hard= SS Easy
Vanilla Very Hard= SS Medium
And >Vanilla Very Hard= SS Hard and SS Very Hard?

[bɑne]

So is it
Vanilla Easy= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Medium= SS Easy
Vanilla Hard= SS Medium
Vanilla Very Hard= SS Hard
And >Vanilla Very Hard= SS Very Hard

Or

Vanilla Easy= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Medium= Doesn't exist in SS
Vanilla Hard= SS Easy
Vanilla Very Hard= SS Medium
And >Vanilla Very Hard= SS Hard and SS Very Hard?

Once again, it depends on the Campaign AI. If you select the aggressive one, the game will be harder (for some). That said I disagree with that list. With both. Its just not that easy to correlate difficulty levels, nevermind that the original comparison was between SS6.1 difficulty and SS6.2 difficulty... and not between vanilla and SS6.x.

[RabidSheepLegion]

OT but has anyone noticed when you start a new campaign at least one different AI faction just turns into a steam rolling powerhouse?

EDIT: I guess I could ask if that has to do with difficulty too

[TheBard]

I've only been playing SS (and MT2 in general) for about 2-3 months so far, but I'm a longtime Rome player, so I'll offer up what little experience I've had.

I always use some house rules (almost never "continue battle," don't like to be the one to start wars with neighbors, no rushing, don't just wait for enemy to advance on me when I'm the attacker, no unfair terrain cheapies, etc.) and I want the campaigns to be hard without being impossible. I like to build up slowly and I want alliances to last for as long as they make sense for both sides. I don't call crusades on excommunicated neighbors, I don't really use assassins, I don't use spies to open gates. I try to limit myself to tactics that the computer can at least theoretically use or does use at least sometimes.


I played as France on SS 6.3 with Savage AI, Hard battles, Medium campaign difficulty. RR/RC on (obviously), perm watchtowers, longer assimilation. I found that it was pretty easy once I learned the new game (I didn't play on Vanilla at all really, but I had played RTW and MTW1 forever). It was too easy to push England out of France, too easy to consolidate France proper, too easy to turn the tide against HRE; I even managed to comfortably send several generals and many high-level troops on successful Crusades to the Holy Lands.

After about 130 or so turns, I just got bored with it. I wanted a tougher challenge, but I didn't want to use Gracul's AI (I want alliances to last) or BGR (my laptop would make for incredibly long turn times).

So I am now playing as Aragon, on Hard campaign, Very Hard battles, RR/RC again, the LLP mod, NHA mod, longer assimilation. I've found it to be incredibly challenging, just about exactly the right balance for what I want. For many turns I could only keep Zaragoza, Pamplona, and Barcelona. When I did successfully expand against the Moors, I was thrashed and lost several newly acquired cities. Then Genoa took Toulouse and started a war with me, making things much more difficult. I've had great trouble supporting both enough of a navy to keep my ports free and enough of an army to do anything against the Moors.

It makes for some very hard decisions in terms of upgrading castles/cities vs. more troops. I also couldn't afford to support Crusades (not enough generals). I've had quite a few battles where if I lost, the whole campaign would be in jeopardy, and I've lost many generals (including an heir and a king within a year of one another) in battle. My overall battle won/lost record is something like 55/15, but many of those are naval. I would say my land battle record is probably 35/12.

I would say that if you pick a difficult faction (Aragon, Portugal, Lithuiania, Scotland), and use some house rules, Hard campaign, Very Hard battles, might be about right. But it does depend very much on what tactics you allow yourself to use.

Hope that helps some. In retrospect, I wish I'd written an AAR on the Aragon campaign, but I didn't think about it until 20 years in. Ah well, next time.

Edit: Just for some context, I'm about 100 turns in with Aragon and only have 5 cities (Zaragoza, Barcelona, Pamplona, Burgos, Valencia). I had Toulouse, but Genoa took it back.

[J-Plague]

I've only been playing SS (and MT2 in general) for about 2-3 months so far, but I'm a longtime Rome player, so I'll offer up what little experience I've had.

I always use some house rules (almost never "continue battle," don't like to be the one to start wars with neighbors, no rushing, don't just wait for enemy to advance on me when I'm the attacker, no unfair terrain cheapies, etc.) and I want the campaigns to be hard without being impossible. I like to build up slowly and I want alliances to last for as long as they make sense for both sides. I don't call crusades on excommunicated neighbors, I don't really use assassins, I don't use spies to open gates. I try to limit myself to tactics that the computer can at least theoretically use or does use at least sometimes.


I played as France on SS 6.3 with Savage AI, Hard battles, Medium campaign difficulty. RR/RC on (obviously), perm watchtowers, longer assimilation. I found that it was pretty easy once I learned the new game (I didn't play on Vanilla at all really, but I had played RTW and MTW1 forever). It was too easy to push England out of France, too easy to consolidate France proper, too easy to turn the tide against HRE; I even managed to comfortably send several generals and many high-level troops on successful Crusades to the Holy Lands.

After about 130 or so turns, I just got bored with it. I wanted a tougher challenge, but I didn't want to use Gracul's AI (I want alliances to last) or BGR (my laptop would make for incredibly long turn times).

So I am now playing as Aragon, on Hard campaign, Very Hard battles, RR/RC again, the LLP mod, NHA mod, longer assimilation. I've found it to be incredibly challenging, just about exactly the right balance for what I want. For many turns I could only keep Zaragoza, Pamplona, and Barcelona. When I did successfully expand against the Moors, I was thrashed and lost several newly acquired cities. Then Genoa took Toulouse and started a war with me, making things much more difficult. I've had great trouble supporting both enough of a navy to keep my ports free and enough of an army to do anything against the Moors.

It makes for some very hard decisions in terms of upgrading castles/cities vs. more troops. I also couldn't afford to support Crusades (not enough generals). I've had quite a few battles where if I lost, the whole campaign would be in jeopardy, and I've lost many generals (including an heir and a king within a year of one another) in battle. My overall battle won/lost record is something like 55/15, but many of those are naval. I would say my land battle record is probably 35/12.

I would say that if you pick a difficult faction (Aragon, Portugal, Lithuiania, Scotland), and use some house rules, Hard campaign, Very Hard battles, might be about right. But it does depend very much on what tactics you allow yourself to use.

Hope that helps some. In retrospect, I wish I'd written an AAR on the Aragon campaign, but I didn't think about it until 20 years in. Ah well, next time.

Edit: Just for some context, I'm about 100 turns in with Aragon and only have 5 cities (Zaragoza, Barcelona, Pamplona, Burgos, Valencia). I had Toulouse, but Genoa took it back.

Thanks, this was actually very helpful. While I'm sure it depends also a large part on what faction you're playing as, it looks like then I'll play medium or hard depending on if I'm in an expansive or challenging mood. Although it may turn out a bit different since I use different settings and fight differently.

Also, just installed bugfix. Did the RR switch dissapear or should I re-do my install/bugfix?