That's it, I'm giving up. Break out the alcohol.

[Red Harvest]

These last two statements about not being a simulator hit the nail on the head. The units look terrific, they just don't act in a historical fashion. While unit characteristics might be patched, it is questionable how much the AI will be improved. Even on "expert" in MTW you could count on high end units holding out for awhile (even though a unit a generation or two below you might still win the one-on-one.) However, base level spears did well vs. even heavy cav (although they might slowly attrit away, or run if anything went wrong next to them, or a second cav unit hit, etc.) I'm having trouble controlling my brood...err...army. Those zerglings...I mean cavalry are everywhere at once.

[Colovion]

My Terrans can't control the zergling swarm no matter how many bunkers I build!!1 Guys! What am I doign wrong!?

[Thoros of Myr]

My Terrans can't control the zergling swarm no matter how many bunkers I build!!1 Guys! What am I doign wrong!?

When in doubt...peasant rush

[ElmarkOFear]

Your just not clicking fast enough! :)

[ChaosLord]

Maybe Hoplites are just too weak to begin with? I'm not sure why you're suffering so badly to them. I'm playing my current campaign on hard battles/very hard campaign and haven't noticed my guys being totally useless in combat. Which should say something, since Hastati have been the backbone of my armies. I've only been fighting Carthaginians though, about to wipe out their third king and their faction entirely. But whatever bonuses they get on hard it doesn't seem to be anything that ground breaking, it might be that the Roman factions are overpowered though.

[Colovion]

I'm putting my money on the Roman factions being overpowered

I could be wrong but since they are all attacking me, and only them, I haven't fought anyone else.

[Red Harvest]

Maybe Hoplites are just too weak to begin with? I'm not sure why you're suffering so badly to them. I'm playing my current campaign on hard battles/very hard campaign and haven't noticed my guys being totally useless in combat. Which should say something, since Hastati have been the backbone of my armies. I've only been fighting Carthaginians though, about to wipe out their third king and their faction entirely. But whatever bonuses they get on hard it doesn't seem to be anything that ground breaking, it might be that the Roman factions are overpowered though.

I didn't have much trouble using Romans to whip Carthaginians on very hard/very hard either...except when I ran into 4 units of elephants in a stack, backed by a a fair bit of cav. Took me four armies to subdue them. The Carthaginian infantry is very weak early on. The phalanx units later have problems that all but the highest quality (120 man unit) hoplites seem to share. There are some balance issues that the game speed amplifies, and "very hard" amplifies them yet again. Those 120 man units look awesome though...of course I thought that about the "Scared Band" infantry until I used them in combat on very hard.

[hoof]

I posted this in an earlier thread:

Don't play on Hard if you want a fair fight. Here are some stats from some controlled tests I did:

A few experiments (all battles fought until 1 side routs, large battle, syrian flats during winter, no weather):

first number is my troops left at rout time, second is theirs, lower number always represents the loser

Hastati vs Hastati:

easy level:
(the AI never threw pila on easy, but my troops did)
61/10
65/32
60/13
66/15
62/14

medium:
35/6
13/21
13/54 (my general died early)
18/2
5/22

hard:
6/41
5/52
2/39
3/52
4/48

very hard:
(on very hard, my troops broke and ran much earlier than on hard, which is why there are more of them left at rout time)
17/64
11/57
18/58
11/66
24/61

As you can see, Hastati vs Hastati, all else being equal, the difficulty level does appear to dramatically affect killing ability.

As it stands now, you cannot expect your troops to hold their own vs equal enemy types. If that is how you like to play, that's great, but especially since Generals no longer improve unit killing/surviving ability, I don't like the fact that a unit of AI hastati might be really a unit of AI principles or heavier stats-wise on hard or very hard. I want to fight the best AI tactics, but on equal terms, unit wise. Why couldn't CA have stuck with MTW's model of leaving the stats the same, but increasing morale?

I first noticed this problem when I saw what should be equal/lesser troops walk right through hoplites defending a gateway. Now I know why.


Next I tried Cataphracts (the regular horse type).

Again the first number is my guys left, the second is the AI's, and each side starts with 54 horsemen.

Easy:
45/11
44/12
42/8
47/12
47/18

Medium:
30/20
27/18
5/29
1/18
24/11

Hard:
1/32
16/52
3/45
18/50
15/48

Very Hard:
(again, like with the Hastati, my men broke much quicker than on Medium)
22/47
19/49
20/50
19/47
17/48


I think people don't really understand how much of an edge Hard gives the AI in combat. Maybe MTW spoiled us, but I think a lot of the frustration going on is due to the artificial combat bonuses the AI troops get.