suggestions to make SP campaign more difficult

[Lord Slapshot]

Does anybody have any suggestions for factions, command line switches, or any thing else that would make the SP campaign in VI or MTW more difficult?

I've heard the Welsh in VI are difficult and will try but somehow I have my doubts. In MTW, I've won with the Danes, French, Polish, and am now playing Sicilians thinking that would be hard but to no avail - I've almost reached critical mass in late 1100's. I'm thinking Aragonese might actually be tough.

I'm not trying to boast or anything but every game so far I've played on Expert (early) and seem to have no difficulty and have yet to face a real challenge, just like probably 99% of us do after the basic game mechanics are mastered. (No offense to new players). Perhaps taking a certain faction in high or Late is the answer? (but I like the whole Empire building element)

I play a pretty straight game now with green_generals, restricted camera, etc., don't use any of the questionable tactics or auto-calc just play how probably all of us play and this game is almost impossible to lose without intentionally doing something wrong (hmmmm, I think this was a conspiracy by the game designers to keep all of us geeks playing - you know, preying on our innate psychological hedonism)

Anyway, I'm sure in multiplayer I would get my ass handed to me since I've only faced AI but the thing is I really enjoy the SP strategy elements of this game so pls don't suggest playing MP. I fight every single battle and don't auto-calc anything at all - in fact it happens so infrequently I love it when I happen to have my whole army routed or surprisingly lose a general early on. But it goes against my very nature to intentionally sabotage my game just to make it difficult. I also am not really warm to the idea of doing things like restricting use of spies, assassins, border forts, or whatever, because these are elements of the game that are fun.

I guess what I was looking for is just a bunch of ideas of what other command line switches or mods are out there that can enhance the game play without too much sacrifice.

Also, I'm displeased that there isn't a patch out RIGHT NOW to fix that 57 year old General Death bug. Random King deaths worked in MTW, surely all it takes is a few hours of looking at code, then using Ctrl-C Ctrl-V and a recompile to fix? Granted the generals have to be treated the same way which weren't in MTW but hey isn't object-oriented code supposed to be reusable? Someone in the know should notify the development team directly - this really takes a lot of personality out of the game, playing a campaign went from feeling like a participant in a universe where free will and my decisions matter to one of simply being a pawn in some Orwellian dystopia.

Thanks in advance

[KukriKhan]

...simply being a pawn in some Orwellian dystopia...

Now there's one of those 'hear it everyday' phrases I'd like to hear Wolf Blitzer try to speak. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Welcome to th.Org, Lord Slapshot

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Have a look in the Dungeon for mods, cussin' and discussin' of mods, not to mention fussin' about mods.

BTW, for me Poland was the most challenging faction to play.

[Longasc]

I would say, play some LATE Era Hard Factions on Expert.

There is a lot more action in later eras, believe me. Hardly remember to have fought so many high level troops playing early. And you get some new nice and fun troops, too, and Castle Sieging is now really difficult - fortresses instead of forts.

Still, you cannot make the game more difficult as it is - perhaps is a mod out there to make it more difficult, but I would simply try playing a moderate-hard late era Faction for a new experience.

[FesterShinetop]

Just put some restrictions on yourself

Try this thread (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=7;t=7434) in the Main Hall by ToranagaSama

[The_Emperor]

Playing the Russians in the High period can be difficult with the Mongols tunring up as they do...

or you could try playing as the Turks, they always seem to have it pretty rough

In VI, I'd sugguest playing the Irish. No archers and few good mainstay troops makes fighting the Vikings very difficult.

[Sir Robin]

I would suggest going into the early.txt and raising the rebellious rating for all provinces.

Also, with gnome, raise the building requirements for peasants and archers.

This has added alot to the challenging part of MTW 2.0.

Hit up a couple of the mods to.

If you don't have VI then WesW's 1.84 mod is an excellent way of bringing back the fun.

[Degtyarev14.5]

No ships. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Until you need transport across the oceans, which occurs as late as possible.

A.

[Lare]

Don't use the save-reload. It's tempting to quicksave after every turn, and if the enemy attacks, just load the game and put more troops on the province that's going to be attacked. The other thing is not fighting the same battle again, even if you've screwed up bad and had lots of unnecessary casualties.

Using the reload-option effects your play so that you're more willing to take risks in attacking, and leaving some of your provinces almost undefended, if you need them f.ex. in attack. If you don't reload, you'll have to consider all possibilities more carefully and that'll slow your empires' growth.