realistic difficulty

**Anibal at portas** · January 29, 2012, 10:55 AM

What difficulty is realistic for a game realistic?unit moral realistic AI,realistic stats units AI,etc
medium/medium or hard/hard?,thanks.

**fireblade** · January 29, 2012, 12:34 PM

I think Very hard is truly very hard on the battle map, as the opponent gets massive stat bonuses. Personally I always use M for the battle map, as then neither I nor the AI get bonusses to the units.

For the Campaign map I'm not sure what the preferences are for RTR.

**Maurits** · January 29, 2012, 02:16 PM

RTR VII is officially balanced at M/M, which is the setting I tend to use. There are some reports, though, that the most difficult and still fun option is H/H. I can't say anything about that, though, as I never tested it extensively.

**Anibal at portas** · January 30, 2012, 11:36 AM

thanks.
then,i play in medium/medium.
i prefer the realism not like a militia unit win to a elite unit.
the realism and the historicity is the essence of a historical strategy game.
the problem is the the AI of the total war games is very bad.

**Maurits** · January 30, 2012, 12:10 PM

Although the AI may not be very clever, we still tried to make it a challenging campaign. Please tell us what you think about it after having played for a while

**Caligula Caesar** · January 30, 2012, 01:37 PM

H/H does run well and is a bit more challenging (I think - I don't recall ever actually having played on m/m

). It hasn't made the game impossible in the games I've played, and nothing ridiculous seems to happen like a militia unit defeating the Spartiates. The AI certainly isn't as aggressive as in vh/vh, and is capable of keeping to alliances if it feels like it and if you make sure you appear to be strong by putting troops near their border. So I can recommend it, though as I said, I haven't actually tried m/m...

**Thracian Princess** · February 05, 2012, 07:53 AM

I'd say M/M is the most realistic due to neither side gaining bonuses, but then the whole stupidity of the AI enters the equation and things get a little trickier, so I'd just say give a few different difficulties a go and find out which you prefer.

**Maximus14** · February 06, 2012, 01:51 AM

I personally like VH/VH because given the AI it's the only one where there is actually something going on. I haven't played on M/M in a while but from what i remember in battles AI just stands there in a line and waits for you to kill them. How realistic is that? I also like that taking a walled city is more of a challenge on VH, you really need superiority in numbers to take a wall section not just a stronger unit, which i think is more realistic morale wise. Though spies and Testudo make it a lot less costly when playing as Romans.

But from reading other posts i guess it's all preference and everyone could justify their own! The only way to find out which one is for you is to play play play!

Also i never had too much problems with weaker units loosing to stronger even with AI buffs. The hoplites are a lot tougher than their stats might suggest, but i guess it can be justified with their formation! Also playing as sparta, spartan elites would eat up everyone, but that was before the patch... :

**Thracian Princess** · February 06, 2012, 08:39 AM

I personally like to play on H/H or H/VH, but yeah you have a good point about the whole AI actually doing something thing as well. As you said it just depends on what each player wants out of their game.

**Caligula Caesar** · February 06, 2012, 11:05 AM

I don't find the argument that m/m provides no bonuses and hence is more realistic convincing. As you player, you are (usually

) gifted with intelligence and a grasp of strategy, something the AI often tends to lack. How realistic is it that every other faction is handicapped in such a way?

On the other hand, on vh, the AI just attacks you all the time, and takes any sort of strategy out of it; on h, the AI can still be reasonable even if it is more aggressive.

**demagogos nicator** · February 06, 2012, 11:22 AM

Difficulty level also affect the ammount of local mercaneries available to AI in every region. While on medium there are no mercaneries available to AI factions (or maybe very few) on VH you could find yourself fighting stack after stack made up of mercaneries. IMO hard difficulty provide a reasonable compromise in this issue.

**Spike** · February 07, 2012, 03:06 AM

I usually played this on H campaign, M battle difficulty as the Barbarians or carthaginian (or numidian)

if play as Rome or the Greeks, I suggest H battle difficulty coz your troops allready has superriority in one on one (I know about gallic ambacti, but they are late comer and H means the historical levy troops and light swords has no much use)