Any tips on making the game harder?

[noodle]

I've been playing MTW for years now, and I'm still not bored with it (bad news for the devs I guess). I played vanilla for about a month before being very bored but then installed MedMod and have never looked back. I've tweaked around with the startpos file, changed the amount of territory I start with, given other factions more money, units etc, played two VI campaigns, but I've still *never* finsihed a game.

My problem is that I really really enjoy things when I'm up against it fighting for my life, but once I reach that point where you just know you are not going to get beaten - and I'm sure every veteran MTW player knows instinctively when that point is -I pretty much lose interest, leave it for a while, and then start again.

I'm just about to do just that and start again and wondered if anyone has or knows of ways to make the game harder. Of course, I dream of the MP campaign (and we know that's never gonna happen) but are there any AI tweaks or to make things more challenging that may have become known now that the game's been out for so long.

As I said, I'm playing with MedMod3.14, I currently play the HRE in the late period. I alternate between hard and expert setting... (im not too keen on the simple +4 morale bonus on expert hence the reason for switching to hard from time to time).. I've tweaked the startpos so that I don't begin with as many territories. I'm now going to give every other faction about 500,000 florins to start with as I've heard that may make them more potent but anything else?

In the games I've played so far, turns 2 to about 20 are real backs to the wall stuff. I'm usually at war with the Swiss, English, Hungarians, Polish, and Swedes no later than turn 5. Any human player here would make mincemeat of me but the strat map AI often fails to press any advantage and seems incapable of maintaining a decent empire. I've seen the French go from being an uber power with multi stack armies to almost nothing in a dozen turns or so. Oh for the days of shogun and the Hojo hoard!

So, any suggestions? I'm not really into self imposed stuff - I play to win, but I don't use assassins, inquisitors and the like, and being HRE I rarely build shipping trade routes.

[Zarax]

Try the mod in my sig and play as the Hungarians, I'm sure you'll enjoy the Horde when it will come out...

[Yoyoma1910]

You know, I too am always trying to find ways of making the game more complicated and intrinsic for myself as well. At first that task was easy, because I've never had a rule book (I got my copy second hand). But eventually through trial and error and in bits and pieces I came to grasp the nuances of the game.

However, I am always experimenting more with possible techniques of dominating the Medieval World.

One technique I have decided to begin testing out is actually quite opposite from what you normally do. I call it 'Silent, But Deadly.' I know, I know, the title stinks, but I'm not an add-wizard, ok. This should make the game rather complicated, so maybe you will want to try it as well.

The goal of the game is conquest through nonmilitary action. Your army should remain only a domestic function, used only for defense against invasion. The way to gain land is through marriage and assassination. I don't know if many people try this or not, but it should be kind of interesting. Marry off your daughters, marry other peoples daughters, and after you share a blood line with them, start knocking of the heirs. Theoretically, after all the heirs are gone you may gain land through the ensuing civil war. If you do, great, if not, better luck in the future. either way, simply take what you get and start over again.

Maybe even limit the amount you're willing to spend on bribing rebels annually. Every nation needs to make budgets, right? And I always try to be realistic in my taxation actions. To me, 'Normal' not 'As much as the peasant bastards can give before they're bled completely dry' is the standard to go by when collecting from your citizens.

Or you can try a couple of the Mods... I hear a rumor Zarax has a good one... but I cannot remember where I heard that from...

[Zarax]

Or you can try a couple of the Mods... I hear a rumor Zarax has a good one... but I cannot remember where I heard that from...

Thanks for the trust
I've not really received feedback on it yet, there's a thread about it a few posts below where i post the updates etc...
I'm experimenting with roster rebalancing in order to make the game more interesting and i think that in some istances i'm getting near...
Facing the Horde head-on with the Hungarians or the Poles without the usual roster is quite interesting and imho shows a more realistic scenario than the vanilla one as it's quite unlikely the Mongols ever faced a so well equipped army like the ones that are usually employed against them in the game...

[Etym]

. . . wondered if anyone has or knows of ways to make the game harder.

So, any suggestions? I'm not really into self imposed stuff

I'm not sure whether this is "self-imposed" or not, but if you want more challege, disband all (or most) of your top-of-the-line units and see if you can still conquer the world.

[Zarax]

That would be interesting...
World conquest by mass peasant rushes, in the end you build fortresses by piling up your army's dead bodies

[Satyr]

One technique I have decided to begin testing out is actually quite opposite from what you normally do. I call it 'Silent, But Deadly.' I know, I know, the title stinks, but I'm not an add-wizard, ok. This should make the game rather complicated, so maybe you will want to try it as well.

I generally play for the battles which is why I get bored pretty quickly too. So playing with strategic agents only defeats the whole point of playing MTW for me.

I often get better (longer) games out of the Viking era than I do out of the Medieval era. Try playing as the Scots but first give the Vikings about 100,000 starting florins and give everyone else about 25,000. You are not allowed to ally with anyone! Now go take over the world. I guarantee a long and hard campaign. For me this is as tough as it gets.

If you need to play in the Medieval eras, try to do your best to keep one other faction as big as yourself on the other side of the world so that you have a huge challenge to look forward to when you meet. This also keeps you occupied on 2 fronts. I mostly take over provinces and then withdraw and let them go rebel to manage this. Or I help by attacking the other faction's enemies and then abandon the provinces I take as they get near so that they can snap them up. Still, this isn't as much fun as my first option.

[PittBull260]

u can make it harder by:

not doing anything the first few decades(maybe just a little)
and the AI will make huge armies, I do this all the time, and then the cpu has huge armies against me

[kiwitt]

never trade. i.e. no ships, no markets, no ports. Only agriculture and mining improvements.

[English assassin]

Its self imposed but limiting yourself to attacking with one stack maximum makes it quite a bit harder just at the point where it you aren't careful you start to run away with the game.

Or you could turn up your own stupidity levels by playing drunk....

[Yoyoma1910]

Or you could turn up your own stupidity levels by playing drunk....

Does anyone every really play sobber, though?

[Etym]

you could turn up your own stupidity levels by playing drunk....

Just don't spill (or barf) on the keyboard . . . .

[Togakure]

... Or you could turn up your own stupidity levels by playing drunk....

rofl! Indeed m8, indeed. I have enjoyed doing this before, saving my game every 3-5 years or so, and then reviewing them later when I'm sober. My drunken strategy is usually ... interesting, to say the least.

[Zarax]

Best way to make the game harder?
Turtle...
My self imposed limit is to give all the places i conquer at least a basic self defence level so it can train spears and archers for that duty...
This way the AI usually got enough time to build up and give you more of a challenge...
Though modded games alawys gives the best challenge imho...

[noodle]

Thanks for all the suggestions :)

Actually, in the game I just played (HRE/LATE/EXPERT/GA/AI factions on 100,000-1,000,000 florins) I got wiped!

I started off with a reduced set of four core provinces and for the first 30 years all was well. Too well in fact - 30 years down and not one battle! Built up my fortresses and amassed some good heavy troops. Got the "You're the most technically advanced faction message" soon after and thought it was all going to be too easy (boringly so).

Then my boredom got the better of me. The Danes - who were doing quite well at this point, having wiped the Russians & Swedes and taken Scotland and Northumbria - had moved into Saxony and I decided to take it myself. I won the battle, but was not prepared for the counterattack. They steamed into franconia, my richest province, and beat me back into my stronghold - whereupon my army turned rebel and I lost the province completely. Then the english landed with huge numbers into Friesland, throwing me out of there and at the same time breaking my alliance with the Burgundians, who, very uncharacteristically, by now had taken all of france, most of northern spain and half of england. They sat quiet for a few turns but then piled into swabia and pushed me back into Bavaria. That was it, the only province I had left. And not for long as the Swiss decided to get in on the action and march their uber pikes in for the kill.

ah, the bitter taste of defeat, but the challenge was spectacular. Am going back for more but this time with a different plan!