So what exactly does hard/very hard battle difficulty change?

**Jamborinski** · January 12, 2012, 07:04 PM

Some tell me it only affects enemy morale (gives them bonuses) while other sources say it mearly increases the speed of routing (for both sides). Does anyone know for sure what it does?

**Aeratus** · January 13, 2012, 12:42 PM

Stamina and morale are affected for sure (and the effect on stamina is much greater in Kingdoms than in Vanilla). The rest, it seems like people disagree on.

**Jamborinski** · January 13, 2012, 03:48 PM

Do you know if that's just for the player or AI too?

**tudor93** · January 13, 2012, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by Jamborinski

Do you know if that's just for the player or AI too?

well, it only affects the AI's units morale/stamina giving them some bonuses; it wouldn't make sense if you would have the bonuses too, would it ? I mean ... it will be the same thing as medium

**Jamborinski** · January 13, 2012, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by tudor93

well, it only affects the AI's units morale/stamina giving them some bonuses; it wouldn't make sense if you would have the bonuses too, would it ? I mean ... it will be the same thing as medium

I know that would be logical but denizens of the internet can say some strange things

**Aeratus** · January 13, 2012, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by Jamborinski

Do you know if that's just for the player or AI too?

For morale, it increases the AI's morale. For stamina, I'm pretty sure it only affects the player (by making the player's troops tire out much faster).

**Sitalkes** · January 15, 2012, 05:43 PM

I've seen the difference in tactics - I was playing on medium and wondering why battles were so easy and then I read that you have to be on hard or very hard to see the AI make a decent effort to envelop you. So I switch to Hard and wow! Suddenly the AI is appearing on my flanks (out of nowhere) and using cavalry much more effectively, it did seem like a whole new game. The AI troops also are also harder to rout as they do have better morale - which means that you get to kill more of them instead of capture them, curiously making it easier for you to follow the chivalry path and to get the "marks of war" etc traits.

I'm playing Kingdoms vanilla and I would like to know if I switch to VH/VH instead of Medium/VH will that stop the AI from just sitting in cities and waiting for me to attack him - the AI never sends out a full stack to oppose me in the field, just stacks of up to four units which I can easily defeat peacemeal. Only the rebels seem to challenge me with a decent battle! I didn't play VH/VH since I think that means I won't have enough money to build anything - is that true?

**46thCharlemagne** · January 15, 2012, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by Sitalkes

I'm playing Kingdoms vanilla and I would like to know if I switch to VH/VH instead of Medium/VH will that stop the AI from just sitting in cities and waiting for me to attack him - the AI never sends out a full stack to oppose me in the field, just stacks of up to four units which I can easily defeat peacemeal. Only the rebels seem to challenge me with a decent battle! I didn't play VH/VH since I think that means I won't have enough money to build anything - is that true?

On VH campaign, I get plenty of full or nearly full stacks thrown at me, even multiple full stacks later in the game when the AI can afford them though they're often loaded with ridiculous numbers of siege artillery, which is incredibly annoying if you're not feeling fond of fielding 6 or more cavalry units with every army.

**CavalryCmdr** · January 16, 2012, 01:05 AM

Campaign dificulty has no direct affect on your money, just the AI's, however, it will be harder to get money from AI factions through diplomacy because they will not like you much. Aditionally you will likely need to recruit/support a larger army, so it will make money a little tighter early on but should not really bother much once you get going.
Dificulty is directly related to how agressive the AI is, and how many units it can/will recruit.

**Aeratus** · January 16, 2012, 01:12 AM

Campaign difficulty affects public order. So you won't be able to set high taxes as easily on higher difficulty.

**Sitalkes** · January 16, 2012, 04:37 PM

Great! It's going to be VH/VH from now on then! Now I understand why TATW says you are supposed to play it on VH/VH at the start and why playing it on Medium/VH to get around the new difficulty level of version 3.0 might make the game less enjoyable.

**El Cid99** · January 17, 2012, 05:41 PM

Medium and hard difficulties are the exact same in terms of stats; both armies have their base stats. However, on Hard, the AI will try to flank you, and will be generally better.

On Very Hard, however, the AI gets a significant boost to morale (apparently a boost of 4 morale, if you want specifics). They also get a small boost to stamina. They are slightly smarter than Hard AI.

As for campaigns, on higher difficulties, the AI will be less friendly to you, and has more recruitment slots per settlement. They also get a few monetary bonuses.