Battle AI and difficulty level

I've been playing on normal, because I am loathe to let the AI 'cheat' and just get bonuses to its unit stats, but I am not finding it very big challenge. (Surprise, surprise!)

So, I'm thinking I will start a new campaign on H/H as France. (I don't want to play VH because the amount of cheating by AI is intolerable and unrealistic).

In particular, I noticed that on Normal, the battle AI does some stupid things like positioning their artillery BEHIND hills and then they just fire their cannons into the hill. What's up with that?

If I raise the difficulty to Hard, does the AI manoeuvre differently? I've seen people say that the manoeuvres don't change, they just get buffs to their stats, but I'm not actually sure about this and I don't know how reliable those claims are.

Can somebody actually say for certain, does the AI manoeuvre differently (more agressively? smarter?) on the battle map, or on the campaign map for that matter.

I know on the campaign map, you get diplomatic penalties on Hard, but does it also affect the way the AI uses their armies, etc? Do they actually get more difficult to play against, or is it just cheating with cash bonuses?

Gents, please enlighten my poor soul.

Younggrognard,

All legit questions. From what I know, increasing the difficulty for the battle will not change the battle mechanics or the AI. The AI will still do the same mistakes, but when it does do a 'foolish' charge on VH, you will at least fear it (due to its increased stats).

I tend to only play VH (battle) when I'm up against France (for I believe France didn't get the perks it really needed on N).

Try TROM2 mod---in this, campaign difficulty only determines its aggressive/passive nature (not the econ bonuses and all). I think it's really an important little tweak that gives the game a realistic 'depth'!

Cheers Pasha

I will look into TROM2. But it does seem that the AI are more aggressive in their campaign moves, not just economic bonuses? So, they are actually more dangerous, even without the econ bonuses?

I'm curious as to the mechanics of the game. I guess I can't micro-analyse it too much, because it is a game after all and if I analyse it too much I guess the fun goes out of it. I can't help it, I'm an old grognard...

Cheers

Strategically, the AI is more aggressive on H/VH. This is good in that it will fight wars, bad in that it will generally not make peace or honor treaties in the long term (especially with you). Tactically, there is no real difference. The AI always gets bonuses on higher difficulty levels.

If I may chime in....I did notice in a few battles with difficulty set at H/H, that the AI armies would at times actually perform a tactical defense if out numbered. Usually, the AI will attack with no thought of the odds once you move units within a certain distance of their lines. I even experienced watching a tactical withdrawal by unbroken units in one battle. I was amazed. The AI strategy was certainly more aggressive, to say the least.

It’s much more fun in very hard difficulty because it is a challenge and the ai get about 3-4 times the amount of units they do in easy/normal. This mean you can’t just have one maybe two full stacks to dominate Europe. At the frontline your enemy will have several armies and they will actually make an attempt to capture land.

And I forgot to mention was that the higher campaign difficulty does make the ai more aggressive, I have seen more expansion in very hard and the enemy actually make an attempt to recapture lost land, I don’t really see that in normal.

So at H/VH the AI basically cheats? And doesnt stop attacking?

BAI is best on Hard if you want a little challenge; but not an overpowering AI. On hard they do get cheats; but you don't get any handicaps as far as I know. On Hard it will make you have to do a little more thinking than just run up to there line and attack. They get just enough bonus to keep you from making stupid head on assaults. It's just enough to have to use some flanking maneuvers to get a good attack.

The sense I am getting from you guys is that you think H/H is the best balance and gives a realistic and tough challenge.

I also had a look around all the other threads on the same sort of topic. And also on unit size.

The most popular difficulty setting (somebody made a poll) is H/H.

The most popular unit size by a landslide is Ultra. 75% of people use Ultra, which is a huge majority.

I was looking into unit size because I was wondering how it affects difficulty.

Some people said that on medium unit size the AI maneouvres the best and performs better.

I had played on Large before and was wondering if putting it up to Ultra would screw up the AI.

And somebody said try a custom battle against AI with same setup with Medium and Ultra unit sizes, see the big difference how the AI is harder to beat on Medium.

So I did this test, fought a full custom battle with identical setup, first with Ultra and then with Medium. The battle difficulty was on normal for this test.

It turned out to be the opposite - the AI performed better on Ultra unit sizes. I won both battles but I lost signficantly more men, as a ratio of kills to losses. So, that was MYTH BUSTED.

The AI was a tougher challenge on Ultra unit sizes. Who'd have thunk it?

Originally Posted by YoungGrognard

I've been playing on normal, because I am loathe to let the AI 'cheat' and just get bonuses to its unit stats, but I am not finding it very big challenge. (Surprise, surprise!)

So, I'm thinking I will start a new campaign on H/H as France. (I don't want to play VH because the amount of cheating by AI is intolerable and unrealistic).

In particular, I noticed that on Normal, the battle AI does some stupid things like positioning their artillery BEHIND hills and then they just fire their cannons into the hill. What's up with that?

If I raise the difficulty to Hard, does the AI manoeuvre differently? I've seen people say that the manoeuvres don't change, they just get buffs to their stats, but I'm not actually sure about this and I don't know how reliable those claims are.

Can somebody actually say for certain, does the AI manoeuvre differently (more agressively? smarter?) on the battle map, or on the campaign map for that matter.

I know on the campaign map, you get diplomatic penalties on Hard, but does it also affect the way the AI uses their armies, etc? Do they actually get more difficult to play against, or is it just cheating with cash bonuses?

Gents, please enlighten my poor soul.

as far is the battle difficulty concerned, I advise that you just try some quick battles with different difficulties, and same armies, though you should notice that the only differences are the buffed stats for the enemy units (and eventually the lack of accuraicy for your artillery, as I have noticed). Instead, the campaign difficulty just raise the ease which other nations became your enemy, advantages in units' time and cost of recruiting, and their aggressiveness.

Anything but VH and its a cake walk. But I like to lose a realistic amount of battles and get beat up when I should.

Yes vh on battles.

I always play tw games on M/M. The H and Vh are no difference to the ai other than the ai gets gifted silly bonuses for battles (making a mockery of unit stats)and are stupidly aggressive on the map (further ruining the already dodgy diplomacy).

If you want to improve the ai the best way is to get a good mod or combination of mods.
Or if you know how, make your own improvements. The battle.entities file is very useful in this regard, allowing you to set many new entries for basic behaviour of units. I have made them for grenadiers, skirmishers and the general units and noticed immediate improvements.