Quote Originally Posted by Slaists View Post
Okies, that means CA might have finally differentiated the difficulty settings. VH seems to be playable, but it has become much more of a 'precision' game than before. Battles (including the smallest of skirmishes) really have to be played by the player, because the player faction cannot afford the replenishing costs that result from autoresolve.

I was amazed by the number of galleons that AI Spain could spam on VH... A while later, I realized, they pay about 50% of the upkeep that the player would pay for a ship of the same gun-class...

Yes that's the feeling I get too.

And the AI is rolling in money on even H/M.

As Cultured Drizzt fan said in his point 2. The trade theatres are now devoid of action and I can get all the trade spots I need. I get the feeling that this is because CA has gone back to simply handing money to the AI nations based on the difficulty setting. As a response they don't seem to want to fight for trade nodes after the initial 10 to 20 year slug fest is resolved.

It was a hell of a slug fest but it seems a little artificial now.