After a break will be starting a Roman Campaign, which difficulty lvl should I play?

[Conan]

Hey guys,

Had a few years off EB and still very much looking forward to EBII, but until then I've re-installed EB with "Jirisys' Europa Barbarorum Mega Mod Pack for EB 1.2 with Alexander" and going to start a new Roman campaign.

Question is which campaign difficulty setting should I have? I can't really remember if I did a Roman campaign on Very Hard. I would like to do one but what can I expect?

Thanks for your time guys!

[d'Arthez]

Really depends on your gaming style. If you are only able to sneak in a single turn or two turns per session, AI tends to become braindead, and won't do much, other than collecting insane elite stacks (when a game is loaded, AI has to draw up strategies anew it seems). Those stacks would be your only real challenge on Very Hard then. Even if the whole world declares war on you, you should be able to manage it relatively comfortably.

If you play longer sessions, AI will obviously be challenging, because they will actually try to execute a strategy, and create elite stacks and hire mercenaries when they can afford them. The downside is that unless you blitz, you can end up having to wage 5 / 6 battles per turn, which will be a very frustrating experience.

So if you are more into turtling, I'd recommend Hard or even Medium campaign difficulty.

What might also be a nice idea is to give the Eleutheroi massive monetary bonuses through the EBBS, so that they can actually develop and defend their cities with more success.

[mikepettyrtw]

I'm interested in how you learned of the AI mental reloading. It sort of reminds of the "Matrix" for some reason.

[Rovert]

you gota go H/H , even VH battles but the ai can become really gay on that setting and just walk high right on the map and walk its entire force at your right flank slowly.
VH campaign AI is just annoying and VH battles cavalry gets chewed up by bitch troops , so i would have to suggest H/H just so playable.
RTW engines just blows these days , we need EB2

[SoFarSoGood]

H/H and blitz works for Romans most times.

[seleucid empire]

Hmm For some reason, Italy seems to spawn a lot of rebel stacks, and a few of them are actually quite large. I used to play VH as Romans but I got caught unawares once and lost Capua. So i started playing on H instand of VH

[d'Arthez]

I'm interested in how you learned of the AI mental reloading. It sort of reminds of the "Matrix" for some reason.

I always play on VH/M.

Mainly my experiences in a few dozen Hayasdan and Baktria campaigns. The campaigns in which I only played a few turns / session tended to be a lot easier than the ones in which I tried to play a similar style but longer sessions. In the short session campaigns I would never meet substantial resistance from the Arche Seleukeia. Not so when I played longer sessions. Came even close to defeat once or twice.

You can also see it if you play with FOW disabled, and follow AI characters.

[mikepettyrtw]

I always play on VH/M.

Mainly my experiences in a few dozen Hayasdan and Baktria campaigns. The campaigns in which I only played a few turns / session tended to be a lot easier than the ones in which I tried to play a similar style but longer sessions. In the short session campaigns I would never meet substantial resistance from the Arche Seleukeia. Not so when I played longer sessions. Came even close to defeat once or twice.

You can also see it if you play with FOW disabled, and follow AI characters.

I am going to look very deeply into that as I have experienced something similar. Lately I sacked all of mesopotamia and much of western persia in my current Saka campaign. It seemed a little too easy. After reading what you said, I think it might be that I was playing inbetwen 3 campaigns and the constant reloading was FUBAR'ing the AI. I'll try to play each faction longer now. Here's a balloon for that extremely pertinent observation (feel free to put that one in your sig). I think your observation may have quite a large impact on my campaigns.
PS. I know this is like an EB-sin, but I do wonder if the AI in Civ 4 does the same thing.