HInts for managing morale in battles on Hard...

**Es Arkajae** · 02-10-2005, 07:50

No one here is 'afraid' of playing on hard:p, they/I believe that it just gives some silly unfair stat advantage to the other side rather than making them any smarter.

I put 'better morale' in the same basket as 'smarter', as it means the enemy will last longer, able to put his plans into action.

Now can anyone confirm that 'Hard' only gives a morale bonus?

I imagine Bob would like to have it confirmed too, otherwise I better stop hijacking his thread~:p

**_Aetius_** · 02-10-2005, 08:08

I dont understand why the player has to incur morale penalties just for the AI to offer a decent fight, thats ridiculous all that means is the players has a massive disadvantage because unless the players armies are given time to gain experience to make up for the morale bonus they suffer for being on harder difficulties then the AI all always win or eventually grind you down, theres precious little the player can do when his men have crap morale.

**HoreTore** · 02-10-2005, 09:03

Originally Posted by _Aetius_

I dont understand why the player has to incur morale penalties just for the AI to offer a decent fight, thats ridiculous all that means is the players has a massive disadvantage because unless the players armies are given time to gain experience to make up for the morale bonus they suffer for being on harder difficulties then the AI all always win or eventually grind you down, theres precious little the player can do when his men have crap morale.

Not true, simply not true. You'll just have to tactically outclass the AI on the field to make up for it. You can't simply march up to the enemy and have a big brawl, you'll have to be smarter than that

And the bonuses to the AI simply makes the AI more challenging to play against. Of course, the best solution would be to make him tactically smarter, but that takes a whole lot more resources and time, and the creators of the game doesn't seem to have that, so they took the easy solution and increased the troops, not the tactics of the AI.

**Bob the Insane** · 02-10-2005, 10:15

Originally Posted by Es Arkajae

I imagine Bob would like to have it confirmed too, otherwise I better stop hijacking his thread~:p

It would be great to have that confirmed (if such a thing was possible)...

I am settling into it now, in many ways it is good as you really need to start considering the morale of your men during the course of the battle and if you have low morlae troops you have to be real careful with their positioning...

One of my strengths in the game has been a the strategic level, basically making sure I could always bring more and better troops to any battle... So even if things where going against me I could still be pretty sure of a meatgrinder style victory, a victory was not based on whether I won or lost the battle but on how few men I lost while winning the battle. But now you can not just churn out low grade troops and expect them to perform, as the player it really feels like you are making a difference in the battles...

Still don't like the concept of the VH AI super troops though...

**_Aetius_** · 02-10-2005, 11:17

Not true, simply not true. You'll just have to tactically outclass the AI on the field to make up for it. You can't simply march up to the enemy and have a big brawl, you'll have to be smarter than that

And the bonuses to the AI simply makes the AI more challenging to play against. Of course, the best solution would be to make him tactically smarter, but that takes a whole lot more resources and time, and the creators of the game doesn't seem to have that, so they took the easy solution and increased the troops, not the tactics of the AI.

My point was that in occasions in battles were the only real strategy is a full scale attack etc that 1 v 1 the AI will always have an unfair advantage, i think the harder difficulties should only improve the ability of the AI not the morale and ability of there troops.

How is it fair in a battle when you have equal sized armies the same kind of troops and obviously going to use the same or similar tactics that the AI has that advantage that it has worked nothing for?

**Fridge** · 02-10-2005, 13:16

As far as I'm aware, hard difficulty gives all AI units a +3 attack bonus, V hard gives them +7. I think that's it - I don't recall reading anywhere about a morale bonus, and certainly no new tactical options for the comp!

**alby** · 02-10-2005, 14:59

i play on VH but even at most settings if things are evenly matched the A1 seems to get the upper hand

to me the generals dont appear to have much of an effect on your units and its experiance that matters

i suggest u train your archers exp as i suggest here
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=43322

also use spies more to see wot you are up against. i always keep ongars near my main army and find you can swap them for archers, attack the enemy with artillery (set on fire) as they never charge your positions; then retreat and repeat till they suitably weakened to go for an all out battle.