What campaign difficulty do you players recommend?

[Irishmafia2020]

I play hard on BI exe and I find I get good results. I also use force diplomacy to make the a.i. accept my gifts, and occaisionly to agree to a treaty if I am on the verge of destroying them. Overall this gives good results, and I use F/D less than you would expect so that the a.i. still retains its independence... VH is just masochistic and a bit unrealistic in my opinion...

[Ibrahim]

I'm hardcore-ish: VH/M (so I get violent wars, but the battles are balanced as EB intended.). mind you i now play on BI exe as well.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Really cool that so many contributed! Thank you all and I think Hard will be my choice for campaign, as I think it might well give me the best overall gameplay experience.

[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

[Jedi Bruno]

That's simple. If you don't want to "shame" your nice governor's name, just don't use him to recover the city. Attack just with your captain. That way you can also have a captain promoted to general.

[Chaotix]

I found out that playing on M/M difficulty on EB has allowed me to jump to VH/VH on unmodded RTW and M2TW- M/M without a mod is just too easy for me now, because EB ups the difficulty factor considerably.