the difference between difficulty levels

[Teutonic Knight]

Here it is (for a nice little sticky, as I can't find it anywhere in the TOC)


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- On expert the AI gets a morale bonus - on easy the player gets one
- On hard and above, AI skirmishers will try to avoid being pincered
- On easy the AI will not consider going into loose formation to avoid being shot at
- On easy the AI will not consider outflanking, double-envelopment, or stop-and-shoot tactics
- On easy the AI won't move troops out of the way of castle walls which may be about to collapse
- On easy the AI will try to hide rather than flee if the battle is going badly
- On easy the AI will not try ambushes
- On easy the AI will not try the 'appear weak' battle plan
- The AI is more likely to deploy in woods on harder difficulties, and less likely to camp near the red zone on easier difficulties
- The AI is more likely to consider scouting the map to find the rest of your army if it can't see it all on higher difficulties
- On easy the AI will not skirmish
- On higher than easy, the AI will specifically consider sh00ting at your artillery
- On easy the AI will generally attack rather than defend, and will not consider withdrawing for a much longer time
- On higher than easy, the AI will check to see if it's marching into enfilade fire when attacking your main body
- On easy the AI may come out of a wall breach to chase you if you attack and are repulsed

Strewth. "Behind The Magic" or what...
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[econ21]

Interesting list, but I think you have missed out the most important point - the odds in combat are skewed in favour of the AI on hard and even more on expert. I don't know the exact magnitude (although the numbers 15% and 30% come to mind); it almost seems worth another level of valour or so for hard - more so for expert.

If CA ever review this (eg for RTW), I'd make a plea for them to make AI tactics optimal even on "normal" - ie on the list, get the AI skirmishes to avoid being pincered even on normal. I like the odds to be "fair" (to avoid counterintuitive results) but the AI to be smart.

[Teutonic Knight]

Quote[/b] (Simon Appleton @ June 30 2003,03:40)]Interesting list, but I think you have missed out the most important point - the odds in combat are skewed in favour of the AI on hard and even more on expert. I don't know the exact magnitude (although the numbers 15% and 30% come to mind); it almost seems worth another level of valour or so for hard - more so for expert.

If CA ever review this (eg for RTW), I'd make a plea for them to make AI tactics optimal even on "normal" - ie on the list, get the AI skirmishes to avoid being pincered even on normal. I like the odds to be "fair" (to avoid counterintuitive results) but the AI to be smart.
I agree, but I was quoting GilJaySmith, those aren't my own words. I certainly do hope they don't give the AI an unfair advantage instead of actually working on the coding to make the AI smarter. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif