How should I play?

[ImKyleJames]

I was wondering about the difficulty settings. I have tried to play the campaign on hard, and even very hard but that's become quite difficult now with LTC. And that is a wonderful thing too. So i'm using Medium for the Campaign settings and that's cool, however, what about battle? I was thinking at first it made AI better so I had it turned way up. Then I noticed that there are handicaps so I was wondering, if I wanted to play on Hard or VH then what sort of handicaps am I seeing? I noticed that Very Hard and my units are quick to rout, anything else?


How should I play? How do You play?

[Lusted]

I play on hard/very hard. I use hard for the campaign as it's a nice challenge without the ai ganging up on you too much. And very hard battle difficulty is the most realistic.

[Arjuna]

Certainly use Very Hard battle difficulty. I've heard Diplomacy is actually an option on Medium campaign difficulty, so I'm testing that out now.

[ImKyleJames]

alright, ill go start a M/VH, cause I want the diplomacy.

what handicaps are in effect on VH?

[Lusted]

None, there are no handicaps on VH battle difficulty.

[ImKyleJames]

wow really?? then how is it very hard? what makes it so? im sorry, im just confused by it i guess.

[Lusted]

On very hard the effects of morale and fatique are increased, and the ai is more aggressive.

[General A. Skywalker]

On very hard the effects of morale and fatique are increased, and the ai is more aggressive.

But hard is ok too, isn't it?

[Astalder]

My limited experience has seen the unit performance is about the same on hard and very hard, but on very hard units get exhausted very easily. Heck I took York as the English with what I deemed the minimum needed army and by the end of it all four units of infantry had routed due to exhaustion. They then reformed at the city limit and after a few minutes they could go back in, but it's a real issue and I've seen it crop up in any seige (field battles too if you do a lot of walking).

I haven't decided if I like it or not, 500 men routing from a fight with 20 b/c their shift has ended seems a little silly to me... makes things interesting I guess if you actually keep men in reserve to take the second shift.

[Silent Assassin]

I always play on Med/VH Med is because I like to have a good diplomacy and VH the AI is very aggressive and your Rep goes down fast. I like talking my time building my empire IMO

[Daelyn75]

I'm wondering what benefits the AI gets on Hard/Very Hard campaign, do they get extra money, bonus units, bonus build times? Other then your rep going down and having a difficult time at diplomacy, is there any difference?

[ImKyleJames]

I have been playing on m/vh for a while now as Russia and im really really enjoying it. Wars come and go, and I get the chance to really build my empire. I was scared of the Mongols for a while, but when I never saw them I expanded into Europe more fully. Milan has just started in on me now but I have friends in England so it's ok. The Timurids are just appearing and wow do they look like they're gonna rough me up good. I have noticed that Diplomacy works, and the Battles can go either way when it's a close contest. Things are wonderful! I was wondering something though..

On one of my cities, right of the name is a picture of an Ostrich???

[Furin]

Great Mod, AI seems to have problems with the huge building costs though, I will give the AI factions a bigger kingspourse in my next campaign. The AI always seems to spend every coin on its armies and very little on building, at least it does not seem to have enough cash left to build the large walls and 9k+ buildings.

Playing Venice I just had a great battle against the Tirmuids at the bridge near Aleppo. The two mortars I ordered from Venice did not arrive in time so the whole battle was spear militia, crossbowmen and hastly recruited pilgrims against 3 stacks of Tirmuids silver chevron troups, and I had no general nearby and no archers (fire...). of course I lost but it was hell of a battle.

As for vassalship, works perfectly, isn't bugged. The Byzantines accepted a vassalship although they had 4 settlements left, I was besieging their capital with just 1 fullstack and they asked for piece, I thought "what the hell, ask them for being my vasalls" and to my suprise they accepted. They are my pets for at least 80 turns now. My reputation was "very reliable" and my power "supreme".

I used a little bit cheap tactic in the beginning, my first crusader army took every city from egypt, razed the buildings and then I gifted everything to the pope or Milan or HRE. Of course they lost everything within 2 turns and that slowed them down considerably while i was making a lot of money from it. The general razed every single city from Antioch to Cairo and stayed long enough to make a second crusade, this time destroying every turk town. The whole arab and asia minor region went rebel and now (i think 35 turns left to finish) most of it is still rebel, the AI just can't handle this cheesy gameplay. I won't do it again, promise .

I also got the unspecified error crash once but after a retsart/reload it was gone. No idea whatsoever what caused it.

[Sonny WiFiHr]

Vh/Vh + UAI 1.41 best results.

[notger]

Isn't battle difficulty 'very hard' supposed to give the AI bonuses in terms of attack and morale? I thought I read it somewhere, but it might be old knowledge from Rome, carried over. Lusted states that there are no handicaps, just an increased effect of fatigue and morale, so what is right?
(Ok, when in doubt, believe Lusted. ;-) )

[Lusted]

Isn't battle difficulty 'very hard' supposed to give the AI bonuses in terms of attack and morale? I thought I read it somewhere, but it might be old knowledge from Rome, carried over.

That was true in Rome but not in M2.