Is MTW too easy?

[Farflame]

I bought this game after playing Shogun (which I loved) to death. I could beat Shogun on expert level, but it was a good challenge, but I don't find the same thing with MTW. I started MTW on expert level, as the English in the early period, and within a couple of decades I'd already taken over Britain, France and was wiping out the Germans. Even worse, none of the other factions EVER attacked me, even after I'd attacked them first. The only problems I've had to face have come from rebellions, which are sometimes are major problem.

I'm not complaining about the battlefield AI here, which I think is pretty good considering the complexity, and it usually puts up a decent fight. It's the campaign that's bugging me. I've also tried playing the French, Spanish and Polish, and found the game too easy with all of them.

And by the way, I'm not claiming that I'm some kind of mastermind, as I said, Shogun always gave me a good fight.

Anybody got any ideas? Is expert level broke or something, or does the campaign AI suck in general?

[Shiro]

Well I certainly don't think so. I get my butt handed to me on a plate quite often. + I like to play with all of the auto options off so that it is certainly a handful. Dealing with taxes and spies and building and titles and whatnot is a real challenge.

Read this forum - a lot of people find expert hard.

Good for you if you're that good though! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

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"Everything Shiro said sounds good to me."
-Solypsist

[Rob]

Campaign AI is different to Shogun.

In Shogun, the more provinces you controlled, the easier the game became, to the point where once you controlled half of the map, the result was a foregone conclusion - all that was left was to wipe out the enemy (or be wiped out by the 'Hojo Horde'). Your greater income made it easy to simply out-build everyone else. You could keep a Very High tax rate all the time, even when conquering new provinces.

In MTW, the larger your empire becomes, the more difficult the game becomes. Support costs are higher, provinces are more likely to rebel (thus requiring larger garrisons) and factions can 're-spawn' if their former lands enter into a rebellion. In Shogun, if you were winning it was very hard for that strong situation to turn bad. In MTW, a strong position can weaken very quickly. The more provinces you control, the more difficult the game becomes.

The AI doesn't attack you often, and that is a flaw with the game in my opinion. The enemy AI should be more aggressive. But, this does not mean that the game is not challenging. It is possible for the game to suddenly go wrong for you - a couple of re-spawning factions at once force you to move troops away from the front line, causing some newly-conquered provinces to rebel and others to be invaded. The loss of income from this makes meeting your support costs for your armies difficult. Then suddenly you find that your major ports are blockaded and your economy is crippled. You can go from a seemingly dominant, expanding position with a large economy to losing large amounts of money every turn and under attack on several fronts within a couple of turns.

However, if you do manage to keep rebellions from happening, you do have a fairly easy ride - the other factions don't put up as much of a fight as they should in my opinion.

[Farflame]

Well that's a bit more encouraging at least. I have to say, I haven't actually beaten the game yet, but after wiping out the French and then finding the Germans to be a pushover, I started to think I'd never get a challenge. Maybe I just need to stick with it. On the occasion I played the French, the English did suddenly reappear, and yes, that was a major setback and I lost the whole of the British isles to them. So maybe as you say, it gets more difficult as you become more powerful (which sounds good). As you say, in Shogun, it was just a power struggle, and once you'd taken half the map, you'd basically won. Maybe I need to stop seeing this as 'Shogun 2' http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

By the way, have you noticed how the Pope occasionally goes mad and hands you a gift virtually every turn? As if I wasn't annoyed enough at the game being too easy, in one game, the Pope gave me 6 or 7 gifts of 1000 Florins within around 10 years.

[Pachinko]

Quote Well that's a bit more encouraging at least. I have to say, I haven't actually beaten the game yet, but after wiping out the French and then finding the Germans to be a pushover, I started to think I'd never get a challenge. Maybe I just need to stick with it. On the occasion I played the French, the English did suddenly reappear, and yes, that was a major setback and I lost the whole of the British isles to them. So maybe as you say, it gets more difficult as you become more powerful (which sounds good). As you say, in Shogun, it was just a power struggle, and once you'd taken half the map, you'd basically won. Maybe I need to stop seeing this as 'Shogun 2'[/QUOTE]

{This is my bold for the Quote}


Come on dude...Just wait.


[This message has been edited by Pachinko (edited 09-14-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Pachinko (edited 09-14-2002).]

[Farflame]

Ummm, my point was that it SEEMED too easy and it didn't seem worth carrying on. I think what disappointed me most, was that after defeating the French, I expected a REAL fight from the Germans, but they were just as useless. However, I can see the point that holding onto captured territory maybe isn't as simple as actually capturing it.

[Pachinko]

You havent had the "Horde Elmo/Egypt!" You remember that Hojo Horde? Well, Hojo was easy compared... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/eek.gif

[Farflame]

I did spot a huge horde in Egypt after I'd taken out the Almohads. I have to say though, that the one thing I didn't like about Shogun on expert mode was the MASSIVE armies that the AI would build up. It basically became boring towards then end. I prefer the early game, which is why I was disappointed by the early MTW game. However, MTW does seem to be better balanced so maybe the later game will be more fun?

[Yoko Kono]

i have to agree
while i have not beaten the game yet, i have found the game to be suprislingly easy on expert compared to shogun
i am yet to experience these mass rebelllions but i guess i should actually finish a campaign rather than start a new one every 200 years http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Farflame]

The mass rebellions are crazy, and they seem a bit unrealistic. The peasant rebellions are understandable, I had to deal with 800 of them in one, but the more advanced ones are insane - a 16 unit army of high quality units just springs up from nowhere. It does make it more difficult, but you kind of feel cheated that you beat the REAL opponent and then get wiped out by some random event.