What campaign difficulty do you players recommend?

[Shylence]

Hmm answering his question, if i may. I belive he plays it for the excat reason you stated. The AI starts churning out stack upon stack of armies. It also drinks up the mercenary pool and spawns generals in random stacks in random places. Obviously this is so the AI can fight back if it is a small factions. but in the bigger factions it drives you crazy.

I always play as VH i was ordered to play it that way and i shall play it that way untill it kills me, for i am a drone and i march on championing the cause of EB

[Fish-got-a-Sniper]

I say hard. It's balanced enough to still provide a challenge and the AI still gets the money bonus, but you actually fight battles because the AI actually churns out a half stack to a stack now and then. But if you want a truly balanced campaign experience, download the force diplomacy mod.

[Disciple of Tacitus]

I'm about to start a 1.1 Lusotannan campaign and am wondering if folks recommend Hard or Medium. I would consider myself an experienced player. I will be playing with many (somewhat restrictive) house rules to broaden the experience. What say you?

[QuintusSertorius]

I'm about to start a 1.1 Lusotannan campaign and am wondering if folks recommend Hard or Medium. I would consider myself an experienced player. I will be playing with many (somewhat restrictive) house rules to broaden the experience. What say you?

If you're house-ruling things, stick with Medium. I'm regretting going with Hard in my historical campaign, largely because I'm having to do a lot of micromanaging of the AI factions. They're very aggressive towards each other (although largely not towards me).

[Camp Freddie]

I'm using a custom script that removes 5000 gold per turn from all AIs with a positive balance. It's quite easy to add it to the custom EB script.

This cancels out the 5000/turn bonus that the AIs get on Hard.

As a result I get rather aggressive AIs but without endless super stacks.
The AI has a lot of 3-unit stacks, but regularly attacks me with half-stacks.

I'm playing Ptolmies. Most factions are expanding slowly. The greeks are all in a stalemate. Carthage is doing very little. Rome is totally kicking arse and Selukia would be if it weren't throwing all it's units at me.

The game is maybe a bit too easy, so I might reduce the nerf to -3000 per turn. I'm seeing evidence that Selukia has upgraded it's MICs and economy though, so i't beginning to throw a few half-stacks of heavy cav/silver shields at me alongside the usual eastern mobs.

I'm also playing with huge units, which makes my vicories rather Phyrric when I have to recruit from small towns.

[QuintusSertorius]

I thought it was only on Very Hard that the AI factions got bonus money?

[DeathEmperor]

I play on hard mainly because it offers much more of a challenge against ai factions (thanks quite a bit to bi.exe as well) who expand at a steady and fairly realistic pace, and they field pretty balanced armies.

Also I like playing as factions in the East (Seleukeia, Ptolemaioi, Pahlava etc.) so the constant warfare and momentary reprieves fits into my historical roleplaying quite well.

[Tiberius Nero]

I thought it was only on Very Hard that the AI factions got bonus money?

I used to think so too, but it turns out that it does get some bonus on H as well, probaby half the amount of what it get on VH, so it is not that noticeable.

[Satyros]

I always play as VH i was ordered to play it that way and i shall play it that way untill it kills me, for i am a drone and i march on championing the cause of EB

I would need your help however in a couple of questions ; you see , even though I have managed to pull off a "sauromatae" ( what ? of course I didn't finish it - I had to make pahlava via force diplomacy a protectorate after 98247938749238942835729537 beatings plus the extermination of their capital [ tried to roleplay it a little ] to LEAVE ME ALONE you fil... ahem , it becomes rather "heavy" I wanted to say ) I find that with insanely poor factions ( just as in modern football (*vomit/spit*) , there are no small factions/clubs just rich/poor ) on vh the attrition toll is too high . Which actually leads to masochists' games . Saka-Rauka anyone ?

So , on with the questions :

1)Does the AI get at all smarter on h/vh , or they just get more money ?

I wanna roleplay , but see quote .

2)Does in any way difficulty affect public order ? I mean , I wipe out me neighbours and they still don't like me . I know , this sounded sick and rather insane , oh well .

Agreed , on vh is the ultimate chalenge , I 'm afraid however that this kind of game tends to distract from roleplay which is one of the things I enjoy , the other being campaigning with the same army for millenia . Sure I can handle it vh , but I can't "disband armies after a campaign " , the war never , ever ends . Only money ends .

I would be happy if I had a solution for public order , I find my garisson upkeep silly sometimes .

I don't even like to use Force diplomacy let alone abuse it . Besides should you make someone a protectorate to save yourself some 92347297823 battles after said 98247938749238942835729537 battles : 1) you become insta-filthy-rich (unfair)
2) they become passive (sucks).

In a few words I believe that vh is intended for Epeiros , KH , Makedonia , Rome ( I've never played as the big boys AS , Ptolemy , Carthage I can't say ) or someone who could occupy the many cities of the Italian peninsula , Hellas , Asia Minor , the goldmine of the map .

Opinions/suggestions ?

Satyros

[QuintusSertorius]

The AI doesn't get smarter on any difficulty level, they're just as stupid on all settings. Difference is when you're not playing on VH campaign difficulty, their resources are diminished, because every AI faction isn't getting a bonus 10,000 mnai a turn, along with the balancing from the money script.

They're less aggressive on lower difficulty levels, and diplomacy begins to function. Plus you can actually win naval battles.

[Satyros]

Thank you for the answer QuintusSertorius . I will try then a campaign on hard with the Sauromatae to see how it goes , I'm all for slower , steady , " realistic " expansion , but as I said I find very difficult not to butcher every city of an enemy that comes against me on very hard just to leave me alone to build up for some turns . This is especially true with the poor factions .

Any tips on the public order issue would be just as welcome . Is there a guide somewhere , (nevermind I'll look it up) ? I try using my best governor-generals , experienced spies for counterspying , build law and happiness buildings , my own temples ( except in L3/L4 government ), together with a garisson , but I find my public order failing often . Which sucks and really enrages me .

Satyros

[Jedi Bruno]

The best way to solve public order issues is:
-Increase your taxes to very high;
-Get your garrioned soldiers out of the city;
-Let the city rebel;
-Then you siege them, conquer and slave everyone. You can also play the butcher(AAHH FRESH MEAT) and slaughter every single one of them. That way you solve your public order problems for 10-15 turns, depending on your management and which city it is, and also get you some money to keep on going with your world domination dreams.

[Jedi Bruno]

Oh, and a tip for you: In TW games, if something enrages you, kill it before it can kill you. If possible, do it in the most gruesome way.

[Satyros]

Thanks mate , I myself know and have used this " trick" but it spoils fun when you have a veeeeeeery nice guy as a governor in the city to have him butcher everything and everyone , even enslaving the poor bastards hardly seems an option for my "bestestest" governorns .

Of course if/when the case of the governor is a selfish evil c*** the above method is quite appropriate , thank you .

Satyros