Difficulty effects in battle?

[bozewolf]

Greetings all. I'm not new to the Medieval games (played and been a fan from the start in fact) and still playing the original. My question has led me here since it seems a good place to ask it.

Does the difficulty setting affect the battle performance of your units at any level outside Normal? Usually I play on Normal but since the strategic AI is rather simpleminded sometimes I put it on Hard for more of a challenge (I still find the AI builds weak armies and still isn't much cop in close combat, but okay). However I've noticed that in some circumstances the AI can win unit-to-unit battles on Hard and Very Hard that it technically shouldn't be winning.

Recent example being the trouncing my Sicilians recieved from the Byzantines. My army was low valour and the Byzantines always have nice high-star generals, so that definitely makes a valid difference, but I was still quite startled at the way their Kataphraktoi could charge straight into my feudal sergeant-line and actually win the ensuing fights. Even when side charged with some militia sergeants they manage to grind down a lot of my men before that specific unit finally got killed completely or routed.

I consider myself a fairly competent general. I understand all the dynamics following the basic rock-paper-scissor concept, I don't make too many stupid decisions . But if their cavalry can barge straight into my spearmen and win, that leaves me with very few options to exploit. I've noticed pretty much the same is true on Easy. I've checked it and you can be very rude with your troops and win "unwinneable" fights.


So I have a suspicion that the AI gets some kind of bonus on higher difficulty levels (and vice versa, you get the bonus or AI gets a penalty on easy difficulty). Is this true?

Are there any good mods that up the AI's capabilty on the strategic front? So I don't have to feel bad about putting the difficulty back down to Normal.

[Jxrc]

Description in the Beginner's guide (available in the Guide forum) is the following:

"On difficulty
There are four difficulties, easy, normal, hard and expert. Your difficulty will decide how much money you start off with, any bonuses given to you or the AI and what tactics the AI will use on the two maps. Starting funds are as follows:
Easy = 10000 florins
Normal= 8000 florins
Hard = 6000 florins
Expert = 4000 florins
On easy the player will get an extra +4 to morale in battle, making it harder for the AI to rout your troops. On expert the AI get this bonus. Normal and hard don't give anyone a bonus. The AI will use different tactics on the battlefield depending on your difficulty. Here is a list provided by GilJaySmith, one of the developers of Total War:
- On expert the AI gets a morale bonus - on easy the player gets one
- On hard and above, AI skirmishers will try to avoid being pincered
- On easy the AI will not consider going into loose formation to avoid being shot at
- On easy the AI will not consider outflanking, double-envelopment, or stop-and-shoot tactics
- On easy the AI won't move troops out of the way of castle walls that may be about to collapse
- On easy the AI will try to hide rather than flee if the battle is going badly
- On easy the AI will not try ambushes
- On easy the AI will not try the 'appear weak' battle plan
- The AI is more likely to deploy in woods on harder difficulties, and less likely to camp near the red zone on easier difficulties
- The AI is more likely to consider scouting the map to find the rest of your army if it can't see it all on higher difficulties
- On easy the AI will not skirmish
- On higher than easy, the AI will specifically consider sh00ting at your artillery
- On easy the AI will generally attack rather than defend, and will not consider withdrawing for a much longer time
- On higher than easy, the AI will check to see if it's marching into enfilade fire when attacking your main body
- On easy the AI may come out of a wall breach to chase you if you attack and are repulsed

In addition to these changes LongJohn (another developer) says the following: The combat strength of the a.i. units is affected by the difficulty level.
On easy its combat effectiveness is reduced by 30-40% (can't remember the exact figure).
On hard it's increased by 10-15%, and on expert its 30%. 30% being around 75% of the increase you'd get from 1 valour upgrade."

Regarding the specific facts to which you refer in your post, I have to say that Kataphraktoi lead by an eight-star general with the usual valour bonus that the Byz get very often can beat almost anything you can throw at them early in the game. Arbs are very handy to deal with those in the late area. Before that you can either try to overwhelm them by sheer numbers, use javelin (if you like micromanagement) or use mounted crossbowmen (the best option IMHO). If you select the hand-to-hand way, be prepared for loads of casualties.

Hope it helps,
Good luck

[drone]

There are battlefield bonuses depending on the difficulty level.

On Easy, your troops get +4 morale. On Expert, the AI troops get +4 morale. On Hard, the AI troops get a 15% bonus their attack and defense stats, and on Expert this is +30%. So the AI troops will be better statistically on higher difficulty levels.

On Hard and Expert, the AI will also do things a little smarter on the battlefield. Ambushing, using trees and terrain, that sort of thing.

Welcome to the .Org!

[caravel]

What they said

If you want the fairest game without the imbalancing AI morale bonus then go for the hard.

About the Byzantine. As mentioned above they start with some very good Royalty, but also their faction leader gets a +2 influence bonus and +1 command bonus. This and Kataphraktoi, makes the Byzantine a very formidable force in early. It also makes it very difficult to trigger a Byzantine civil war. Their faction leader's influence is simply too high.

[bozewolf]

Thanks folks. I do realize the ownage a high valoured K. unit can deliver and I've been on the recieving end of their ouchies before, but I was still a little peeved by the way they cut their way through one and a half units of sergeants and some militia and come out with half the unit intact. I just never experienced it quite like that before. I re-checked the save game and almost all spearmen were valour 0 and the general had no stars, lol. I'm playing a sucession game with my friend but he only likes the campaign part and doesn't build great troops.

I'll chalk it up to too many things working against me then, since that same turn I was greeted by civil war and an attack from the bloody Pope. Time to start a new campaign me thinks.

I've read somewhere that Command stares negate morale penalties or give positive morale of their own. Is this true? Ive been playing medieval for years but I never knew all of such specific numbers (lost the manual ages ago, heh).

[caravel]

Command stars give +1 morale per star to all friendly units within 50 metres. Once the units go outside the 50 metre boundary this bonus is effectively halved (2 command stars give +1 morale, 4 command stars give +2 morale).

They also give +1 valour for every two stars (excluding the morale bonus).

The morale bonus is separate (not bestowed by valour as is usually the case) because it only takes effect on the field based on the distance from the general and most importantly his continued existence.

This is why a good general is so very important in MTW.

-Edit: Morale on the battlefield is very complex, remember that there is a -8 morale penalty immediately following the general's death. This can cause a catastrophic chain rout if your units are non elites with low base morale.

[bozewolf]

Thanks. I basically know all these things by principle and the obvious ones by numbers (like the 2 stars/1valour bit) since you can see it. But Im mighty interested in the actual numbers that lurk behind most of what the game calculates. It's good to know this stuff. I hate morale penalties on generals. So often a good high-star guy gets ruined because he should be in the looney asylum.