Which difficulty level do you prefer?

[Overgaard1982]

I just bought the RTW game and have been playing it for a couple of days now. Not trying to sound like a smartass - but it seems like a pretty easy game - the enemy often attacks me, but I eradicate them every single time in almost a flawless manner - even if we have the same number of troops (or if I'm outnumbered), most often bc the enemy doesnt know how to comand his troops and attack me, or gets totally confused bc of the way I use the horsearchers. It seems a bit weird, bc I'm playing it on the default/medium difficulty, so I'd expect some more challenges.

I've thought about starting a new campaign on hard difficulty, but a friend of mine told me that the enemy doesnt become smarter in battles as such, but that the enemy morale is the only thing that changes.

Is that true, and which difficulty do you prefer playing on?

[The White Knight]

I just bought the RTW game and have been playing it for a couple of days now. Not trying to sound like a smartass - but it seems like a pretty easy game - the enemy often attacks me, but I eradicate them every single time in almost a flawless manner - even if we have the same number of troops (or if I'm outnumbered), most often bc the enemy doesnt know how to comand his troops and attack me, or gets totally confused bc of the way I use the horsearchers. It seems a bit weird, bc I'm playing it on the default/medium difficulty, so I'd expect some more challenges.

I've thought about starting a new campaign on hard difficulty, but a friend of mine told me that the enemy doesnt become smarter in battles as such, but that the enemy morale is the only thing that changes.

Is that true, and which difficulty do you prefer playing on?

Indeed, the AI will stay as dumb and solely morale and such will be uppened. I recommend playing some of the mods you can find in the hosted mods section, which do quite increase difficulty.

But try on hard, ofcourse the AI is harder to beat when he gets morale boosts!

[Grunwald Saint]

Mods will help. And try very hard difficulty.

I'm currently playing with the Europa Barbrorum [v0.7.48]mod on the Very Hard difficulty. The AI is actually damn smart. Yes, they still suck at managing their finances, but diplomatically, urban development [as in the buildings they construct in their cities....], and martially, they improve ten fold.

[Zuwxiv]

Darth Formations help a lot.

I play VH/VH, but only recently. Most mods make it more balanced, so I play VH campaign and hard battle difficulty. VH battle difficulty is insane, seiges are awful. Peasants are destroying my upgraded pikemen on the walls. The enemy units just get insane boosts to morale and power, but it does make it interesting and challenging.

The campaign difficulty just makes the AI get more money from cities, you get less money from cities, and the AI cheats. It's not uncommon to see the AI train half a stack in one turn. But in a way it compensates for a smart player.... Although it would have been much better for the AI to have actually been smarter.

[Overgaard1982]

Cool!

Which mod can you recommend to increase enemy battle AI?

[The Lacedaemonian]

Camp. Hard
Battle Hard

i will try VH one day.

[The Walrus]

I prefer hard campaign and medium battle (so I can automanage rebel fights without losing a 1000 troops).

[Overgaard1982]

I will try and install that darth-formations mod. Is there any special way to install it? DO I just plant it at the desktop and open it? Or do I have to place it in the Rome folder?

[The Lacedaemonian]

just put it in your Activison folder.

[Severous]

Hi Overgaard1982. Welcome to the game/forum.

I suggest m/m difficulty and play your first campaign to its end. Then step up the difficulty level. H/H is noticably harder than medium..and vh more so.

I play on vh/vh where I cant easily beat up everything with my Roman general. The AI general is an enemy to respect and counter with suitable troops.

Archery is powerful in RTW. Cavalry is powerful in RTW. Horse archers are great arnt they. Many mods apparently reduce the advantages of these troop types. I like the Egyptian missile troops best.

Enjoy your game.

[guyyug]

I play, camp VH battle hard and i play RTR with darthformations on

[penance_of_discord]

i played my first roman campaign on m/m, and it was fun, but not nearly as fun as the hard, veryhard games afterward. the battles just arent challenging if they arent on vh. but then it is very fun to triumph against all odds. It is better AI on BI tho. good stuff.

on vh/vh, tho, i find myself constantly with a struggling economy, which is aggravating and not fun. maybe when i get some more experience running my cities.

[KaerMorhen]

I speak only for myself I prefer VH/VH because it is timetaking and chalenging and that's I do like at best

[Overgaard1982]

Thanks for all the answers - sounds like I need to invest in that BI - and upgrade the whole thing with some patches and mods

[Ulpianus]

Sadly, battle difficulty settings affect ONLY your/enemy units stats. So enemy is NOT smarter, he simply inflicts more damage and is more resistant to your attacks. Campaing difficulty affects ONLY how are resolved automatic battles.

So difficulty setting is useless IMO.

[Oxberger]

I like medium. I tried VH on the battlefield and I disliked it. Romans vs Pyrrhus(he had his damn elephants). My skirmishers could not drop 1 elephant. They probably tossed their javs 3 times, but no elephants fell. Also I surrounded the enemies elephants with spearment, but they just ran up and down my lines before finally loosing one.

[El_Greco]

campain : medium
battle : very hard
playing : TE

I don't have any problems with very hard battle difficulty , I like it when I'm fighting against insane odds and most of the time I still win
but campain has to be lower because I really hate it when you don't have money and you're constantly struck by disasters and plagues

[Boudicca]

campain : medium
battle : very hard
playing : TE

I don't have any problems with very hard battle difficulty , I like it when I'm fighting against insane odds and most of the time I still win
but campain has to be lower because I really hate it when you don't have money and you're constantly struck by disasters and plagues

Exactly. Thats the way I usually play too. I don't know however if campaign difficulty impacts AI behaviour...I am not certain about that.

[Overgaard1982]

Does battle difficulty not affect AI? It sure feels that way, or it might be because I just installed patch 1.3 and 1.5, as they are supposed to help with enemy battle AI too..(?)

[Severous]

Hi Overgaard1982 again.

My understanding is that battle difficulty affects the AI only. +7 Attack and +7 morale. You mix with those troops in otherwise equal forces and your troops are going to be killed faster and break quicker than the enemy.

I am now used to vh difficulty. Yesterday I tested a save game for a campaign I am playing with other players. Medium battle difficulty. My Julii General had a fight with warband and peasants and hardly lost a man. If that had been VH I would have had many more losses.

Campaign difficulty definately affect farms income. For Barbarian factions who place more importance on farming income this is important. You can check this out by restarting a campaign on different settings and look at the farming income of a city. VH difficulty means a lot less income than on other settings. Dont know if the AI has different income..but you sure do.