Difficulty Settings

[oudysseos]

I was wondering what the dev team suggests- for 0.72/4 it was M/M, as I recall, but in the meantime some other mods have introduced major differences in gameplay between medium and hard settings- ATW, for instance, is meant to be played on VH/VH. Has the new EB had any developments of that nature? What is the qualitative difference between a Medium campaign and a Very Hard Campaign?

[QwertyMIDX]

EB has actually always recommened VH/M. We recommened M for battles because the diffucultly stat boost it gives to the AI in battles (+7 attack and defense) throws off the stats balancing and causes people to complain about how their elite unit was defeated by a levy. For campaign difficultly we recommened VH which makes the Rebels more aggressive (they'll actually attack your cities) and as we've tried to make them more than a speed bump we like to see them being active. It also helps make the AI controlled factions more aggressive too.

[Gazius]

EB has actually always recommened VH/M. We recommened M for battles because the diffucultly stat boost it gives to the AI in battles (+7 attack and defense) throws off the stats balancing and causes people to complain about how their elite unit was defeated by a levy. For campaign difficultly we recommened VH which makes the Rebels more aggressive (they'll actually attack your cities) and as we've tried to make them more than a speed bump we like to see them being active. It also helps make the AI controlled factions more aggressive too.

Has the quantity of stacks that appear on this setting been toned down a bit? I remember in .74 I tried it on the recommended settings, that huge numbers of rebels popped up and basically beat me in the first year as Ptolemy. Just not a good enough player to beat 3-4k stacks with the starting number of troops for a long period of time. Does Hard make a decent midway point? I like the aggressiveness of VH, its just that they don't go away when you beat them, essentially.

[Watchman]

In my .74 experience Hard is okay. The AI gets enough money to be able to wield decent armies, but not so excessive amounts that you need to be at least as worried about its diplomats...

I'm under the impression VH kind of messes up naval battles too, as the difficulty-setting stat bonuses for autoresolve are apparently based on the campaign difficulty.

[Dooz]

H/M or H/H seems to be the way to go for EB from my personal experience. I too don't like the campaign on VH as it's a little too excessive. M battles might seem a bit easy and the kill ratios a bit uneven after playing M2TW, but it's still doable. In fact, I found myself losing more than I should have against the African rebels I've been combating as Carthage these past few years. H battles might be a bit uneven with the AI stat boost, +4 attack and morale, but if it feels right for you then go for it.