Nobody ever makes peace with me, no matter how far away they are.

[I_damian]

I'm on my third WRE campaign and I'm determined to survive until the end date and not collapse. I know I can do it. The biggest load of BS though is that nobody will ever make peace with me. After losing all of Britain to rebels (I abandoned it because it's indefensible) the Irish and Scottish area people are still at war with me and are actually landing armies in southern Gaul and southern Spain, desolating regions there. Both refuse peace over and over.

I kinda wish diplomacy would follow older Total War games, where if you didn't share a border with someone they would very likely make peace with you. It's so frustrating and unrealistic for the Irish to be marauding through southern Spain with two full stack armies. How does a single county state even support two full stack armies?

[Hooahguy]

I wonder if it's a Britannic thing. In my current Rome 2 game, only the Iceni of the Britannic tribes will ever accept peace, and that's only if I throw money at them.

[I_damian]

Nah I think it's a diplomacy thing. CA are really taking the "Total War" thing seriously, at least on hard campaign difficulty. In last night's game as WRE on hard/medium (I always play on hard/medium in all TW games) I was at war with pretty much the entire world. Nobody would trade with me and every turn at least 2 new factions were declaring war and small, one-county factions (like Ireland) were making a beeline for my undefended territory because I was the player, even though it led to hilarious situations like the Scottish raiding southern Gaul and southern Spain with full 20-stack armies and desolating the provinces there. I quit that game in frustration when about half my provinces were either desolate or totally raided (all buildings at max damage) with no money to repair them.

The AI is clearly designed to make a beeline for the player, no matter their situation, even if doing so leaves their home capital totally open to attack, they just exist to annoy the player no matter what, no matter how nonsensical it might be for them to do so - even when there are better, easier defended territories closer to them that they could take to build an empire they still prefer to sail full stacks to undefended parts of the player empire and raid them.

In today's game as the Eastern Roman Empire (again, hard/medium) the Western Roman Empire broke their military alliance with me on turn one and broke their trade agreement with me on turn 2. Then every nation around me declared war. It just doesn't make any sense. Diplomacy is ferked like it was in Rome 2.

Programming the AI to attack and harrass the player at all times, even when it's inconvenient or outright suicidal, is not programming a good AI, it's programming a terrible AI.

[Paradigmatic]

Always look at the political map first thing when loading a new game. The character of the AI is random but it will give you a good idea who will attack and who will be friends. For example, never play the ERE if Nobatia is red. It's just a bad gamble. Similarly never play either empire if the other hates you from the start.

I've found that the AI tends to follow it's opinion of you. If it likes you, it's friendly. If it hates you, it will cross half the world to attack random settlements.

You have to check at all times, even your friends, because there leader can change, which changes his opinion of you. Also check if the opinion is going up or down. Finally, the AI responds pretty well to gifts. I've found they're a good way to keep the african minors in check as the WRE, even get trade and NA with them.

The diplomacy system is a bit stupid however, as it takes effect on the next turn. So for example, you might give a gift to someone that would change their opinion from -20 to +10 on the next turn. But if their ally declares war on you at the end of the turn, their opinion being still negative, they'll likely attack you. Or, you just subjugated a faction, you're attacked on the end turn, and the subjugated faction immediately revolts (because it's opinion is still -190 from the previous war).

It's a stupid system, but you can play around with it.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

From what I've seen "Hard" is just the same as previous total war games, gimped stats for the player whilst the AI gets better everything and, I suspect, cheats by recruiting units it shouldn't be able to etc.

AI's not actually any smarter - so if you want a sensible campaign you need to play Medium.

[easytarget]

The AI in TW games has always been rather bad, and easily and consistently one of the worst things about the series. And the steps they take to address it narrow the players options and rob the series of immersion. And frankly I don't think for a minute they take this consistent feedback to heart whatsoever.

Been playing COH recently, picked it up on sale, never played it first time it released, know what stands out immediately to me by comparison to TW, the AI under every single circumstance, be it campaign or skirmish, is orders of magnitude better than anything CA has ever produced ever whether BAI or CAI. And this game I'm talking about is from 2006.

[Seyavash]

In my ERE hard campaign I have been able to get a number of peace treaties. The huns even sued for peace for a while. It didn't last but after I defeated and/or beat up a few of their stacks they agreed to a truce and ran off to pick on the WRE for a few years. A number of emergent factions also declared peace after a few defeats. Africa, Dacia, Macedonia. I was also able to get peace with Britain and I think one other faction in the British isles. I had gone to war with most of the world as the ally of the WRE, for a price of course.

[Oleander Ardens]

I had pretty much the same experience as Seyavash as ERE. Quite a few factions sued for peace - often against considerable pay from my deep pockets. I had actually one Eastern one asking to become my puppet, pretty much out of the blue...

Gifts are major, if you have enough money.