difficulty levels and war declarations

[Bartolomeo XIII]

Can someone tell me how the AI behave on very hard and legendary? I'm playing as Rome on hard and so far, after about 30 turns, its quite hmm peaceful. Even the hostile factions are reluctant in declaring war on me. Is the AI more aggressive on higher difficulties?

[2gutter67]

If you have any kind of power at all then you will not be declared war on. It's only if you're relatively weak will any faction even contemplate declaring war on you.

[adrastea]

I started playing a new campaign as Arverni, and after 10 turns pretty much every factions surrounding me declared war on me, apart from my ally Pictones. However I haven't seen any of them actually trying to invade my lands.

[adrastea]

That's on VH btw

[Bartolomeo XIII]

yeah, seems that it is related to power. Maybe I will wait for patch or mod, because at the current level the game gives no real challenge

[Hrobatos]

Well attack them. Go on war on multiple fronts, make yourself a chalenge when alredy AI can make one for you.

[Dumanthis]

This game is too easy and broken. No matter to discuss

[Jackal2233]

No, the difficulty needs improvement. The game is still too easy on legendary, once you've established yourself no one dares attack you especially after you reached level 2/3 imperium. What the game needs is smarter campaign AI, attack you while you are distracted, attack you while your army is elsewhere, attack you while you are on multiple fronts (the game does this, but not when you're at level 2/3 imperium, the AI needs to be more opportunist)

[Tacitursa]

In the diplomacy screen check the small yellow and red bar near the top of the tab. It shows your power compared to each faction. If the yellow is 50/50 ratio or better AI are unlikely to be aggressive and will be fair/agreeable with diplomacy.

On harder difficulties most of the factions have a ratio in there favor so they just think your weak and easy to kill off. You can counter it by asking for non-aggressive pacts or paying for defensive/military alliances. It seems going to war makes AI more likely to attack too and it just snowballs until the entire region declares war so its best to only attack the hated factions which causes everyone else to like you more instead.

[Nexor]

I am experiencing the opposite. I am playing as Carthage on hard. The power bar is about 80/20 in my favor, even against the strongest factions. Still, at 200 BC i am at war with at least 20 factions, only 3 (discovered) factions apart from Lybia and Nova Cartago (my Satrapies) remained neutral to me. I am actually able to deal with them, but I wanted to go for a economic victory, which is now impossible. BTW diplomacy seems really weird. I got the most reliable status and still even the weakest factions don't want to accept a non agression pact. I only have the diplomacy relations from right at the beginning, where it was only hard to get a non agression pact, not impossible. Only 2 factions ever accepted trade agreements with me and only one a defensive alliances. Seems really strange and is very annoying. I started a new campaign as rome now and suddenly diplomacy works totally fine...

[Slaists]

I am playing on VH. Have tried 3 factions so far: Macedon, Pontus and Rome (as Junii): in neither of those any AI ever declared war on me. Macedon campaign went on up until turn 100; the other ones are still on earlier turns though. Oh, forgot, there was one DOW from the AI: a vassal of mine declared war on me after I went to war with Seleucids and their satrapies. That was actually quite a reasonable step since my armies were busy and the vassal had 6 stacks ready to roll right into my backyard. I think, they even managed to grab a region before being squashed.

[Azmodin]

In my first campain with Pontus, now in the year 146 b.c., I'm at war with nearly all factions except my satraps (Macedon, Egypt,Persia,Pergamon,Odrysea,Biephi,Sardes,Knossos and Cyprus; they all own 1 settlement). Those factions are even at war with each other but they only attack me, the whole mediteranean sea is full of transport ship fleets from spain and africa, the babarians push from the inner Balkan and the Arevaci made it to take Ephessos in Asia Minor. My 12 armies are at their limits and I concentrate on defending at the moment, So I can't really understand why no one is at war with the player in so many campains o.O

I have even relationships around +200 with some factions I am at war with, but noone accepts my peace offer although the power bar is often 90 (me)/10 (the other faction).

And if you wonder why I have so many satraps, before everyone started declaring war on me I only had Persia and Sardes, but well I wanted some allies then so I liberated some factions while conquering settlements to make them my allies (most of my satraps are at my borders like Macedon at Pulpudeva and Egypt in Jerusalem).

[store alex]

Everyone declares war on me, especially weak tribes so far away I didn't even know they existed. I crush them all but it does seem ridiculous.

[SupAll]

Your power ratio with a single faction is one factor. Your power ratio compared to everyone who's at war with you combined is also another. The more factions you go to war with, the greater the likelihood that other factions, no matter how small, will want a piece of the action. You will notice this with AI factions as you whittle them down to the point where they have one territory and every faction in the game declares war on them.

And like in most TW games, the AI faction will not sue for peace until you destroy their armies. So long as they have armies roaming about, you will find it difficult to get a peace treaty out of them.