Making the game harder

**mw1776** · September 12, 2011, 09:51 AM

I've been playing SAI and IBFD pretty exclusively for awhile now and I've noticed that after the first 10-15 turns the game becomes steadily easier when playing the Romans. Once the economy is stable and unrest is quelled then the game becomes a relative cakewalk. I've implemented house rules to make it more difficult (SBH's with a few of my own) and play on H/H, but after awhile it just gets boring. It's a steady upward progression of stability, military victory, and economic growth. I'm sure if this was the fate of the real Roman empire at the end of the 4th century my citizens would love it!

While my turn to turn income varies greatly, in general I''m able to construct buildings and maintain a large army with a historical mix of units without too much trouble. Defeats in battle are extremely rare and I've yet to play a game with a disaster like Adrianople. Even phyrric victories are a uncommon.

I try to roleplay my generals - cavalry commanders use more cavalry, infantry commanders more infantry, higher command ratings use more elaborate deployments/tactics, lower command rating use simpler deployments, etc. Regardless of how I fight a battle I generally win with minimal losses. I have to autocalc to represent hard fought battles (or storming a city as I find that difficult and frustrating in a non-fun way).

A lot of my frustrations are a result of R:TW as a game - frustrations with siege warfare or the need to use Force Diplomacy to have a dynamic diplomatic game to name a couple. Even with Roman Rebels there's no real chance of a civil war. Maybe rival generals will defect, but in my experience it's rare for whole regions to rebel with me actively trying to make them rebel. The death of an emperor or the changing of an heir are painless, safe events. Success builds on success and there are little to no changes of fortune.

So how are your experiences with the IB games? Hands down they're my favorite mods for R:TW (I can't wait for the 3rd century mod!). Do you find that they are satisfyingly difficult? Do you notice a steady upward progress once you stabilize the initial situation? How do you make the game harder?

**Knonfoda** · September 12, 2011, 05:11 PM

To me that seems the way of any RTW mod I've played, it just seems like human nature vs ai and the game code is pretty limited, making for the formula you've described above. There's only so much extra money and morale bonuses will do to make for deficient AI.

**julianus heraclius** · September 12, 2011, 05:35 PM

Well, I have to say from my experience and for some reason I usually play the 355AD campaign as Julianus that my economy goes backwards and stays there. I have found this campaign the toughest of all three and even after 20 or so turns I am still under tremendous pressure especially once Constantius II attacks me. I do use forced diplomacy as well to assist me, but it is still a struggle.

From what I have read by other people there can be alot of rebellious generals if you don't watch your disloyal ones too closely which can be an added irritation (which I think is good for gameplay) but I agree, in the end the AI is just plain stupid.

EDIT: Even though battle stats are designed for medium play, playing on hard or very hard gives greater morale bonuses to the AI so battles will be more difficult resulting in greater losses. I'm not sure what playing hard or very hard does for campaigns. I haven't noticed many differences from that perspective.

**mw1776** · September 12, 2011, 11:47 PM

I want to say that the AI gets more aggressive on Hard in campaign mode, but I'm not sure. The 355 Julianus mod is definitely the hardest I've played yet. I think it's mostly that after the initial hurdle of stabilization is passed the game kind of plateaus off. This happens with most TW games for me though. I rarely play past 100 turns in most games. I think what I'm really looking for are ways that others have made the late game challenging.

**DarthLazy** · September 14, 2011, 04:40 AM

Really the only qualm I have is that, Playing SAI as Sassanids, after I demolished all the big roman armies in the Mid East with barely 150~ casualties, They are struggling to recruit any sort of troops, All of their cities have very light garrisons, and they dont manage to kill more than 20 of my men per full stack on fullstack battle. Which are becoming very rare. On the other hand, the Huns and Guptas are a pain since I have no regular armies in the area, but Archer spams are a very efficent way to deal with them. Is there any way to make the romans recruit more stuff?