The thing I don't like about hard difficulty...

[NapoleonMaster]

Is that IA factions can hoard whole stacks of mercenaries while you are sometimes excluded from hiring mercenaries in many zones.

Pretty much IA factions can abuse the fact that they have money granted to them by the game.

I could see people liking this but seeing an IA faction having 2 or 3 full stacks while only having one poor town kinda breaks my inmersion tbh.

[realm56]

Well, the problems are as follows:

• On any campaign difficulty lower tha hard, the AI does not hire mercenaries at all.
• The AI will always have worse financial management than the human player, hence the money scripts for the AI (The ones in use for EB2 mainly work by wiping out their debt at the end of each turn if they incurred any) to help them out which has the side effect of enabling them to hire mercs en masse.

What is present right now can be seen as a compromise given the constraints placed on the vanila Medieval 2 campaign AI (I fully expect that its still being worked on but no one's perfect.).

A temporary workaround:

• To ensure that you can at least hire at least some mercs (Especally on turn 1), hire the ones that you need because the AI can and will do their hiring immediately after your turn ends (Or alternatively, hire the ones you want immediately when they become avaliable).

[Jurand of Cracow]

On any campaign difficulty lower tha hard, the AI does not hire mercenaries at all.

btw, do you know if it's hardcoded, or coded in the EBII files?

[Sarkiss]

Is that IA factions can hoard whole stacks of mercenaries while you are sometimes excluded from hiring mercenaries in many zones.

Pretty much IA factions can abuse the fact that they have money granted to them by the game.

I could see people liking this but seeing an IA faction having 2 or 3 full stacks while only having one poor town kinda breaks my inmersion tbh.

the AI in EBII is largely defensive until it accumulates a 'surplus' of armies. if they only have 1 or even 2 stacks, they are normally quite defensive, guarding their settlement. they need that because of lurking rebels etc and what realm56 said. i feel they actually need more help, especially later in the game. from the mid-game forward, i am consistently the richest faction in the world, regardless the faction i play as, and can out compete the AI in virtually all aspects, including mercenary hire (if i need to). in fact i feel that abandoned mercenary pools benefits the player much more than it does the AI.

[Hellenikon]

Do you know that as the player, your turn comes before the AI, so effectively you get the first in the line to pick mercenaries? Each turn that they refresh, the player always has the privilege to get them before the AI. I don't know how you can argue that you are "excluded from hiring mercenaries in many zones". I think those 2-3 full stacks you mention with a single town is somewhat exaggerated, and it has more to do with garrison scripts that with hiring mercenaries.

[The Despondent Mind]

But there has to be a way to give the AI financial aid and them have some mercs, but not having endless horde stacks. I agree with OP, its completely immersion breaking.

[Sarkiss]

But there has to be a way to give the AI financial aid and them have some mercs, but not having endless horde stacks. I agree with OP, its completely immersion breaking.

hm, i have not seen horde stacks in EBII for quite few versions now. other mods yes, EBII, not really. is it just me (playing on H/H)?

[NapoleonMaster]

Do you know that as the player, your turn comes before the AI, so effectively you get the first in the line to pick mercenaries? Each turn that they refresh, the player always has the privilege to get them before the AI. I don't know how you can argue that you are "excluded from hiring mercenaries in many zones". I think those 2-3 full stacks you mention with a single town is somewhat exaggerated, and it has more to do with garrison scripts that with hiring mercenaries.

I doubt many IA factions or rebels would want to attack a Capital which already has 2 stacks around it and a full garrison.

I haven't seen rebels attacking IA capitals personally.



Sarkiss, I know there are also loopholes for the human player but for me it's not about being gamey with the game it's about inmersion and I can suspend my disbelieve to a degree but this "gamey" aspect of the IA breaks my inmersion when I see multiple stacks full of mercenaries being kept permanently when they only have 2 towns.

[Sarkiss]

I doubt many IA factions or rebels would want to attack a Capital which already has 2 stacks around it and a full garrison.

I haven't seen rebels attacking IA capitals personally.



Sarkiss, I know there are also loopholes for the human player but for me it's not about being gamey with the game it's about inmersion and I can suspend my disbelieve to a degree but this "gamey" aspect of the IA breaks my inmersion when I see multiple stacks full of mercenaries being kept permanently when they only have 2 towns.

im not the one that enjoys a pointless battle fest so im generally with you on that account. with regards to AI, it always needs more support, troops included. it just doesn't cope otherwise. so there is a fine line with achieving AI competitiveness whilst not turning the game into a constant tedious meat grinder. i think EBII deals with this quite well: it usually takes around 2-3 major battles and you can bring small-medium factions to their knees. maybe get lucky, or perhaps im not playijng on VH (?) but of all the mods I played, EB is one of the most reasonable and successful when it comes to limiting the stack spam without sacrificing the game play or AI combat readiness in the process imho. by contrast, and this is just my personal observation based on preferences for rarer but more decisive large battles, in my Bulat Steel playthroughs you can see the Turks keep sending an army after army my way as nothing happened.

btw, the units in the AI armies you assume to be the mercs may actually not be. there is a lot of overlap in regional and mercs pools.

[eyelurker]

hm, i have not seen horde stacks in EBII for quite few versions now. other mods yes, EBII, not really. is it just me (playing on H/H)?

It's a bit late but the merc last stand are really felt against ptoelamy.

Everytime i invade egypt the one place i always struggle to conquer is ptoelamic theron. It's so far south(4turns to reach)from egypt while being a garbage settlement that can only barely used by ptoelamy and saba. Conquering and stabilize that province is difficult and you gain little once you suceed, you only want to conquer to wipe out Ptoelamy.

And then in hard mode somehow Ptoelamy can spawn 2-3 stack of army in this garbage settlement. I play at normal difficulty afterward.

[Sarkiss]

It's a bit late but the merc last stand are really felt against ptoelamy.

Everytime i invade egypt the one place i always struggle to conquer is ptoelamic theron. It's so far south(4turns to reach)from egypt while being a garbage settlement that can only barely used by ptoelamy and saba. Conquering and stabilize that province is difficult and you gain little once you suceed, you only want to conquer to wipe out Ptoelamy.

And then in hard mode somehow Ptoelamy can spawn 2-3 stack of army in this garbage settlement. I play at normal difficulty afterward.

this latter spawn is probably exceptional and to do with the last ditch attempt to save the faction from total annihilation? i really wish there was a kingdom of Kush/Nubia down there, to contest this are with both Ptolemies and Saba, if nothing else.

[romulus_aeneas]

this latter spawn is probably exceptional and to do with the last ditch attempt to save the faction from total annihilation? i really wish there was a kingdom of Kush/Nubia down there, to contest this are with both Ptolemies and Saba, if nothing else.

That and the garrison scripts are very similar to Divide and Conquer's mechanics to prevent players from rushing the AI.

I believe the downside to placing a faction to the south of the Ptolemies is it might take pressure off the Arche Seleukia that would unbalance the Syrian War. Hard to say for sure to be honest. Just a thought

[eyelurker]

this latter spawn is probably exceptional and to do with the last ditch attempt to save the faction from total annihilation? i really wish there was a kingdom of Kush/Nubia down there, to contest this are with both Ptolemies and Saba, if nothing else.

Yeah that army "spawn" is essentially is just Ptolemies buy mercenaries continiously as Ptolemies last ditch attenpt because their last weak settlement doesn't really produce much by itself.

Ptolemies also already have a script to relief both Akko and Alexandria as well as Alexandria garrison script which i think is more appropiate for Ptolemies last stand.