Belligerent Englishman

[Marauder]

I recently bought M2TW, having never played an TW before. I started a full campaign on M/M (not knowing the AI was so weak). I started as the English since I like archery and don't know the French of a propensity for waving white flags prematurely.

Since starting I haven't made a truce once (hence the belligerence). While a few have been offered to me, which I accepted, I ended up breaking them eventually when I needed some elbow room (sorry France)

Long story short, I’m at war with France (they have Marseilles left, I just haven’t bothered to take it yet), Spain, Venice, and Denmark. Needless to say my Pope rating is hovering in the 3-5 range since all my enemies are Catholic.

I’m pretty sure this kind of behavior (reminds me of a certain 43rd president….) won’t fly on VH/VH, what would be some specific downfalls? Namely, what would diplomacy buy me? Also, should I just quit this campaign and start a new one on VH/VH?

[FactionHeir]

Hello and welcome to the ORG.

Generally at higher difficulty levels you will find that diplomacy becomes less useful (or rather: useless) unless you play modded. Also, the AI factions tend to gang up on you and the pope will like you a bit less (read: excommunicated if you keep up what you described). Outside of that, the AI may or may not act a tiny bit more smartly, but it won't get that much more challenging IMO.

VH battles compared to M mean that the AI towers shoot a bit faster and that they have the same morale boni as you do rather than a lower morale rating.

Hope that helps.

[Marauder]

Is there a comprehensive list of the difference between M/H/VH? I've seen that the range damage formula has a difficulty variable, and you mention the morale bonuses (boni, although proper, makes me giggle too much).

Also, what mods would improve the diplomatic experience? I'm playing patched 1.2 right now, fresh out of the box other than that.

[FactionHeir]

Not really. Some things are hardcoded (like morale effects) but most are just diplomacy related. Range damage is unaffected by difficulty as far as I know.

Mods, there are a lot. Depends on what you want really.
If you want graphics, play stainless steel
If you want a different setting, play broken crescent
If you want a close to main game experience minus bugs, try my VanillMod.

[Old Geezer]

I find that VH stategy level to be less difficult than medium, because it is easier to get AI factions to attack you so that you can expand. Taunting the AI with weak ships once it has attacked you is a sure-fire way to get that faction excommunicated. So I find VH to be almost an exploit. VH battle settings just mean that you have to fight every battle and not autoresolve very much.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

You can also try Deus lo Vult..
It has a HUGE map and some nice trait changes...

EDIT: Yeah! 500th post!

[Robert the Kingmaker]

Hello and welcome to the ORG.

Generally at higher difficulty levels you will find that diplomacy becomes less useful (or rather: useless) unless you play modded. Also, the AI factions tend to gang up on you and the pope will like you a bit less (read: excommunicated if you keep up what you described). Outside of that, the AI may or may not act a tiny bit more smartly, but it won't get that much more challenging IMO.

VH battles compared to M mean that the AI towers shoot a bit faster and that they have the same morale boni as you do rather than a lower morale rating.

Hope that helps.

FactionHeir pretty much sums up what I was going to say. However, though I know this sounds paranoid; in my experience with VH, I can't help but feel that the computer cheats, that's why I hardly play that difficulty. Though Hard is less challenging, in my opinion, the only thing that separates Very Hard from Hard is that the computer cheats, not because the AI is necessarily more intelligent.