recommended difficulty

[Zim]

Did a few searches but didn't find anything recent (I apologize if I missed an obvious thread due to poor search word choices ).

I'm just coming back to try ETW after not playing it for a year (finally have a computer that can handle it). I've heard with the recent patches the game is much harder. I've been wondering what difficulty most orgers play the game at.

[LordCurlyton]

Well I'm new to the game but not TW in general. I wouldn't use harder than M for Campaign if you like diplomacy. Take your pick for difficulty for battles. I generally use M or H.
EDIT: And the diplomacy is WAY better in this than previous TW games. Though from what I gather the AI is more aggressive (well, interestingly so at least), but diplomacy works on M, so...

[Fisherking]

I think that these days most are playing on Normal or Medium Campaign difficulty.

Battles may be changed in-game so that if you would like hard land battles and easy naval battles you can do that before you fight.

You may know that already though.

Hard and Very Hard give massive bonuses to the AI pretty much across the board and make them much more belligerent and unwilling to make any sorts of agreements. You will likely also have your own money problems and the game will seem like it is out to get the human player...which it is.

Even if you play on Easy you may not find the game a total breeze.

[Zim]

I see one thing hasn't changed in the past year, at least on anything above Medium campaign difficulty I can't go a couple turns without being attacked. I'll be giving medium a try in my next game and see how things go.

[Hooahguy]

play darthmod, H/H

[Dead Guy]

I should probably try darth mod... But I want to take over the world in my latest vanilla campaign.

I play on VH campaign. I haven't had a single alliance this entire campaign. Everyone hates me and noone wants a trade agreement, even for 5-digit numbers. It wasn't like that at first of course, but I have been at peace for a grand total of 6 turns out of 75 years as Prussia. But I guess I accept that kind of challenge.
I play on M battle difficulty. Because I DON'T accept losing fights I shouldn't because of numerical (as in losing equal amounts of men in a firefight between rank firing line infantry and militia) handicaps. I would love a tougher opponent if it meant that it out-manouvered me etc, but not this crap.

I always played RTW/M2TW on VH/VH, regardless of mod etc, but I just can't stand stupid outcomes like the previously mentioned shoot-out.

[AlexCouceiro]

[I couldn’t agree more on what you said. If you choose the hard settings for your campaign, diplomacy will be impossible.. You will end up attacked by everyone and will have to fight countless battles each and every turn of the game. If you go for medium on the other hand, you will find diplomacy more realistic and will be able to "create your own difficulties" according to your own will, playing a more flexible game. You will be able to back up your allies properly until the end of the game; will be able to experiment different strategies and will not need to stab allies on the back in order to win the game. Despite CA´s improvements towards diplomatic, political and economical issues, there is still need for more. You should be able, for instance, to support your enemy’s enemy on war, or to destroy your enemies’ farms, blockade their ports and destroy their economy, therefore forcing them to sign a deal etc... Diplomacy and strategy is better than it was before but not good enough yet.

If you want to have fun while playing - and not simply beating at any cost the computer in order to win the game doesn’t matter what - I would recommend exactly as Lord Curlyton said: M/M or M/H.

[Servius]

So, Campaign Difficulty mostly affects diplomacy (bargains, how much factions hate you, how likely it is you'll get war declared on you, and how hard it will be to get any other nation to agree to anything) and Battle Difficulty affects, what, the stats of the AI units?

I'd like to know what is changing when I adjust the difficulty so I know whether it will have the effect I want. If all it does is make weak units strong and gives the AI factions tons of money, I'd like to know that.

[Peasant Phill]

You're right about the campaign difficulty. The Battle difficulty influences bonuses on the stats of your or the AI's units.

[Fookison]

I enjoy playing at M/VH. That gives me the greatest balance in the game for my playing style.