New AI in retrofit mod?

Before installing Kingdoms, I had run a couple of crusader armies through the Mideast. I would take a city, sack it, clean out the updates for cash and abandon the city to sack the next one. After a couple of red-face turns, the city would fill up with rebels. It was a great, simple tactic that denied the Egyptians their core cities unless they took them back from the rebels and made me bootfuls of loot.
Last night, playing as Sicily, I took Alexandria and Cairo in a crusade on Cairo. Not wanting to garrison them, I gave Alex to the Pope and trashed Cairo, same as usual. Only within five turns, the Pope's garrison troops fled Alexandria, which immediately filled up with a varied Egyptian 2/3rds stack, and when I abandoned Cairo, the same thing happened.
I've also increased difficulty from M/M to H/H, and I was wondering: Is this a result of moving up in difficulty or is this a retrofit feature? Because it's suddenly way harder (and more realistic). I can still waltz through Egypt with a good crusader stack, but I leave behind a whole bunch of p.o.ed Egyptians that I might have to deal with as a group down the road instead of a bunch of independent rebel cities I can safely ignore.
This is getting interesting.
:2thumbsup:

strange, although i have never played on H/H i usually play M/M, they usually just fill up with a tonne of rebels...

Great fun sacking the Egyptian cities, i even added it to my signature :laugh4: I would have destroyed Egypt single handedly but i forgot to crush Damascus :embarassed:

I'd think it is the retrofit that's causing the increase in intelligence. Retrofit mod uses the kingdoms.exe, which probably has better AI than the medieval2.exe.

Whatever it is, it's great. The old strategy always felt like a cheat (not that I didn't use it, mind ...)

Just so you know, VH battles does not give an advantage to the AI, it only makes the battles more "realistic" eg morale and stamina have more of an effect. I decline to say if it actually makes it harder or easier, because there are ways to exploit morale/stamina to make it very easy for the human player to win.

I usually leave battles on VH and only change the campaign difficulty since it actually affects your diplomacy, AI money and aggressiveness etc.

But the retrofit feature could also be an advantage if you wanted to go back and do it again, you could just go back and slaughter the egyptian cities, the egyptians are likely to move some of the garrison soldiers out to figh a war with the turks...

Im not much of a mod fan but i like what i hear about this retrofit. Will i be able to continue my current campaign after installation?

Yes. Most mods install themselves separately from the original game so that you can still play the original game and your campaigns will still work.

In fact Kingdoms is just 4 mods that do not alter the original game files. Most mods use this same system.

I play retrofit with the original (1.2) descr_units.text so I get the benefits without the madness. I don't like tha way Dismounted Dvor or Dism. Boyar Sons Pwn Dism. Chivalric Knights in Retrofit. The DCK have 50-60% casualty rate by the time they reach dismounted dvor and they archers don't even have armour piercing. I have a hard time seeing the arrows wipe out a unit wearing plate and a shield from the front.

I am finishing up my first retrofit campaign as Poland. It has been a much improved experience over vanilla. The enemy troops are somewhat more aggressive, on the whole, when you sally out - just appear more responsive, and challanging in general (admittedly, I have given up using the sally out flank attack exploit). Plus the diplomacy is actually functional - makes me feel like Meternich or Tallyrand! The other factions are much more agressive against each other. I ally with and support the French financially and they are constantly battling the HRE and Brits which keep them off my Western front. Do the same with the Lituanians to keep my Eastern front safe, and the ERE to keep the Hungarians weak. Then I attack, first north - and once I own the Baltic, south. Once the Baltic is yours, you can't spend money fast enough to keep your balance down to a reasonable level. Once Constantinople was taken, I island hopped to the Levant and am now engaging the Egyptian's - actually lost a full blown field battle last night! Also, I never do a Pearl Harbor, always cancel my trade rights and/or alliance (the latter rarely if at all) at least one turn before I attack a neutral faction. All in all, still not as challenging (H/H) as I'd like, but more so than vanilla as a whole.

Do a simple test: Start up any campaign in M2TW on VH/VH and simply press next turn button for max 10 turns. Chances are pretty good that you will be attacked or sieged in 5 turns depending on faction you chose. Repeat same experiment on same difficulty with retrofit. I tried 5 different factions for 20 turns and nothing: happened AI was passive against me. Which explains why I was able to expand so easily when I played the mod. That is not total war that is dumbed down easy mode for the masses if you ask me. If I choose VH campaign difficulty then I expect the Mars people land and attack me never mind my neighbours.