anybody play hard battles?

[Joszen1]

I'm one of those that plays on vh/vh. I currently have a Luso campaign going quite strong - although killing the romans is going to be, erm, a magnificent feat - in 210BC. I don't get what 'the mod is balanced for m difficulty' means. No AI could match my manouvering. So I reason like this: give me an army of sheep (all I can really afford) and give the AI (bleet-bleet) an army of lions, and then lets test that proverb! Also, vh/vh is cool because micromanaging armies on the campaign map is essential and easy to leave you embarrassed. But, when you pull together a bunch of Iovoman and Scortamareva and kick the pants of legionnaires you feel a profound sense of accomplishment and self-validation. What more can you ask for?

[Hax]

I personally play on H/M or M/M.

Balance is everything!

[ldb88]

VH/VH It really is very challenging, but that's part of the fun!

Still, you do get incredibly good at beating the AI. I usually get between 5:1 and 10:1 kill:death ratio on evenly matched, medium-sized battles, usually closer to 10:1 when I outnumber the enemy. (I tend to do poorly on large battles because it's more difficult to micro. I even set unit size to medium to make controlling my units easier).

I don't know how well I would do on medium battle difficulty. A balanced battle? The player has brains, so the computer must have bonuses. Or brains. But bonuses are easier to code

[DaCrAzYmOfO]

VH/VH = Kill the general, charge the rear, wipe and repeat. Gets old quickly....

Ive found that trying to emulate tactical maneuvers and actually fighting one on one and getting casualties on medium is much more rewarding...especially when you lose...oh yes...trixy trixy AI...damn them and their hiding in woods lol

And btw, fighting hordes of extraordinarii on VH is NO FUN AT ALL. even with a full army of slingers or 3 units of gesatae.. :(

[Connacht]

I really dislike the idea that harder difficulties are so only because they give bonuses to enemy units (and not because they improve AI).
However, on medium difficulty I find the game too easy, I just have to sit and make some movements, the enemy will ALWAYS die.
With H or VH instead there is the possibility that my opponents might crush my soldiers if they have strong enough armies (anyway, sadly the majority of battles still have the usual result with all the enemy soldiers routing or laying on the ground).

[rootje]

I have a question concerning this topic, I started a campaign on vh/m with Rome 3 weeks ago and eventho I roleplay and try to keep my legions relatively small[1 legion army per region,for example] I still tend to defeat stack after stack of ai controlled armys with relative ease. Is there anyway to change a campaign running to hard battle difficulty :(?

I'd hate to capture all those rebel settlements all over again and do so much work again, just because the ai has let me down in difficulty...

(simple example? I've started expanding in gaul; gave a FM a full stack made up of the troops a roman consul would have had back in the days, even afterhe got locked in the mountains by troops and had bad morale traits due to rationing still I defeated full stack after full stack, even taking on stacks with ''naked fanatics'' with releative ease, the troops of Rome seem just too good to provide a challenge without giving the AI +4 on all stats...)

I've still havn't seen a single defeat yet..while in medieval total war 2[on vh/vh,btw, but it uses different ai] I used to get my ass kicked once in a while due to stupid mistakes or an ai actually using the advantages he got[or the ones i gave him] in a nice way...

[Starforge]

Rootje - no way I know of to change difficulty once started.

Personally I run VH/H playing most of the factions. I found VH/VH requires (from me anyhow) a larger level of exploiting the AI (Kill leader / take greater advantage of the AI's inability to maneuver / Horse Archers / or baiting AI units with high value tagets that they'll blindly follow on the map regardless of where it leaves them tactically.)

I don't rely on historic formations, army composition or tactics, however, making Hard a good fit for my houserules. I don't use retraining - only merged replacements as one of my houserules because typically, 3 chevrons and you've cancelled the hard advantage making the fights all too easy again.

I don't lose a lot of fights but it does happen.