DEI + Hardcore Submod + Very Hard (Campaign)

[Alesandros]

*This is not a complaint topic, but rather seeing if anyone has tried played DEI on higher difficulties (Hard, VH, or Legendary) with the Hardcore Submod? If so, how did you fair / how did it go?

I'm about 80 turns into it (as Rome) and have managed to conquer all of Latium, Italia, Cisalpina... the city of Massalia, and am currently conquering Sicily.

The entire playthrough has been "knife-edge" where a single major battle defeat would likely result in losing the whole campaign. Every region and province was bought with the blood of Roman soldiers and her allies. I've had to fight every battle (field and siege) to ensure I suffer minimal loses in order to maintain the momentum to attack or defend... in the face of the AI's military onslaught.

I'm stuck in Punic Wars with Carthage and fighting an unceasing conflict the two-remaining powers in Spain (Arevaci and Lusotannan) - who are allied with one another... and have expanded into southern Gaul and destroyed Massalia.

Does anyone have any tips, tactics, or strategies for this most trying of R2TW adventures?

*Some things I've discovered that help are:

1. Get Night Commander for Generals so you can attack the AI's hordes individually.

2. Do not upgrade Triarii (from early to late) because the Early Triarii's phalanx formation is a godsend in city defense battles (they will easily get 1000+ kills and barely lose a soldier in the melee). Late Triarii only have the "disciplined formation"... which is still good at defending choke points... but not as good as "phalanx formation".

3. Having 1 or 2 Governors spec'd for army support (replenishment) to aid in your armies recovering quickly after major battles. They accompany the armies in the province. Without this, once you defeat a couple of the AI's armies, you won't likely be able to hold onto newly conquered territory or be able to keep up with the AI's ability to churn out new armies. Get the General Skill: Military Conscriptor (yellow skill tree) for an additional +5% replenishment.

4. Create buffer areas by conquering a region (that you don't need at the moment) and liberating it so that a newly created faction (more happy with you and less likely to stab you in the back - at the moment) can have their 2 armies to help you defend from other larger enemies.

5. Navy. You need at least (1) decent naval fleet so you can destroy the AI's armies as the transverse the sea. Night Commander is again, a godsend when attacking the army and bypassing any support / escort fleets. Try to entice the AI to retake a port-city with a fleet, so you can send in the army next turn and destroy the fleet during the siege battle.

6. Laying siege / blockading. There are times when it is a good idea to use a much smaller army / navy to lay siege / blockade an enemy city. While the city (region) has is being besieged or blockaded, they cannot recruit army or navy units. So even if you have a very weak army, repeatedly besieging a city, then withdrawing when the AI attacks during its turn, you are preventing them from recruiting 5+ units every turn.

*** Just want to say thank you to the entire DEI team. I have been using DEI for more than 300 hours and it is the single best mod for R2TW (I'd wager probably the best overhaul mod for any total war game). The amount of effort you all have put into it easily shows.

[Dresden]

Nice ideas/feedback, thanks for posting

[Jake Armitage]

yep, really nice

[Alesandros]

Pardon my ignorance, but is there a database or table that shows the AI and player advantages / disadvantages that different difficulty levels bring?

[The Despondent Mind]

This is my problem with difficulties like this, all the cheese tactics, exploits, life&death decisions over stupid minor things, unreasonable AI... All of that does not seem like fun to me, but just problem solving for problem solving sake and destroys historical immersion(which is a big part of the fun).

[Jake Armitage]

campaign_difficulty_tables store many values regarding different things (keep in mind that difficulty is described with different numbers for player and AI)
But there are other things in some other tables too and... some are simply hardcoded, like many diplomacy adjustments

[Cynoscephalae]

This is only partially related, but one thing I noticed while playing on VH+Hardcore submod is that the AI, for some reason, seems to be LESS likely to declare war on you.
This might be subjective thought, but it seems that`s how it is for me.

I have since switched to just plain VH, and the campaigns are challenging again.

I have been using the "just the AI aggresiveness" hardcore submod. Could that be an issue? Is it possible that it overwrites some of the values from base DeI and makes it easier (since the submod is around for longer than the patch in which you increased the aggresiveness of the AI factions in base Dei)?