Gentlemen,
before you point me to FAQ, been there, done that. I fully acknowledge the DEI advertised sweet spot is set at N/H difficulty setting. However...
I used to play DEI quite a lot a year or two ago (by far the best mod out there, kudos to Dresden and his team btw, AE mod for Attila does not do it for me as my favourite Rome is too developed at the battle of Zama) and found N/H to be relatively easy to manage, maybe too easy. I went for VH in my later replays, I appreciate that slow, grindy gameplay where every capture made, every battle won feels hard fought for and well deserved, progress is slow and tedious. Anything less than that makes me abandon the game as soon as the snowball arrives. So when I came back to the mod after say a year long break, I tried VH campaign difficulty as usual and boy, did I find it challenging, especially the Imperium downgrades seem brutal.
Did something change in between? It just seems that VH campaign difficulty is now really unrealistically tough. Or did I just get soft?
What do you guys fancy to play these days, I am asking mainly those who really seek proper challenge which still feels realistic. Is it Hard? Is it Very hard? Is it Very Hard with Softcore (or one of the Softcore alterations?).
What setting do you guys prefer and why?
Thank you very much in advance for your wisdom.