higher difficulty level

[Franconicus]

I played several factions (Julii, Germania, Carthage, Egypt, Scythia and Greece Cities) in hard/hard. Now I miss the challange. And I wonder whether I can change the rules to add more thrill.

For example:
No bribing
no map selling
playing Britons without attacking Gauls
playing Germanians without building new spearbands
...

Do you have any suggestions?

[paul_the_atredies]

I'm thinking of playing the game on VH/H. I tried to played VH/VH but battles were unrealistic. One time, my roman general got killed by a band of skirmishers. :(

[Count Belisarius]

I played several factions (Julii, Germania, Carthage, Egypt, Scythia and Greece Cities) in hard/hard. Now I miss the challange. And I wonder whether I can change the rules to add more thrill.

. . .

Do you have any suggestions?

Try playing one of the more popular mods. My personal favorite is RTR. Even the so-called 'easy' factions, such as the Greek Cities for example, present interesting challenges. And Armenia on anything harder than M/M is darn near impossible.

[The Stranger]

yeah RTR or SPQR mod i recommend. also try vanilla with Client Kingdom Mod this is great too. or wait for EB

[NimbleNota]

You should play MP instead of SP much more challenging hehe

[Dearmad]

Play vh strategy, MEDIUM battles and darthmod. You will be challenged.

[Shottie]

I have a question about this, I hate to 'hijack' (or take the thread of topic) but what are the differences between the difficulties. Also what is EB? I take that its a mod but whats so different about it? (sry about my spelling, its been a long day)

[soibean]

couldn't tell you the accurate differences but I know morale bonuses are involved for enemy armies
EB is Europa Barbarum(sp?) which is a mod in the Hosted Mod section on this site. It's near beta phase and should be released soon.

[steve]

I play on VH\Vh and turn off my morale, its pretty hard and it took me awhile to get a good footing in gaul.

[IliaDN]

If you don't want modding , than it is possible :
a) To play on higher dif;
b) Bribe only rebels and small armies ( 100 sold for ex. )
And all in all your ideas are cool.

[Es Arkajae]

Use V/H campaign, and only Medium battles.

That way the AI gets a helping hand from improved strategic AI and better starting stats I believe as well as some little bonuses in building units and buildings etc. but doesn't get silly bonuses in battlemode.

Both sides in battles are 'equal' as far as stats go.

[sapi]

Use V/H campaign, and only Medium battles.

Agrees

[PseRamesses]

I played several factions (Julii, Germania, Carthage, Egypt, Scythia and Greece Cities) in hard/hard. Now I miss the challange. And I wonder whether I can change the rules to add more thrill.
Do you have any suggestions?

I def recommend RTR and v6.0 is soon to be released (EB too). The positve side is that there is only one roman faction except SPQR. I tried roleplaying the romans according to history. That is, look up a history book and folow the exact path they took. The only problem is the darn senate who keeps lobbying me between 2-4 foes constantly so I´ve "solved" this prob by my own agenda: 1. strictly follow the roman expansion according to history and 2. fullfill all senate missions but return the captured city/ -ies in a peacetreaty on the very next turn, after sacking it ofcourse.
Carthage is another nice "follow-the-course-of-history-game" except for loosing ofcourse. So I do what Hannibal couldn´t, sack Rome and turn them into a protectorate.
Play a defensive game only. Take the Spanish or Pontus, secure Iberia or Asia Minor and then stop! You may not conquer but you may pillage and subdue. I once played a game as the Britons and only held the Brittish Isles with Spain, Gaul and Germania as protectorates I finished off the game by sacking Rome - it was great fun I´ll tell you!
Let your imagination flow. If you just stop and think there are zillion other ways to play this game then global domination you know. Good luck!

[lismore]

I played several factions (Julii, Germania, Carthage, Egypt, Scythia and Greece Cities) in hard/hard. Now I miss the challange. And I wonder whether I can change the rules to add more thrill.

For example:
No bribing
no map selling
playing Britons without attacking Gauls
playing Germanians without building new spearbands
...

Do you have any suggestions?

If you go to descr_strat you can mod a couple of the factions to be monsters: e.g give their characters higher management/ command levels, give them a better starting army and a bigger balance, change their character to napoleon or ceasar and give them better starting buildings.

I changed the Germans and carthage and you would not believe the difference it makes to my Julii campaign! Carthage attacked Rome in 261BC and the Germans have crossed the Alps. Much more exciting

[Beefy]

play numidia in RTR, i think i lost on the 6th go summin like that.

[john6305]

For me, to make it more challenging, I would do this:

Set camera to be fixed on the general in the options
Do not pause during battles
Do not save the game at all unless you have to stop playing
Play on VH/VH
Pick one general and only when he fights do you go to the real time battle map - otherwise, you autocalc other generals' battles for the realism of not being there.

Just some ideas
Mebbe use this in combo with the other posters' ideas

John6305

[IliaDN]

Just one fresh idea :
no mercs ... at all!

[Franconicus]

I think if you limit cash flow it is o.k. to use mercs.

[IliaDN]

Well , you know - the idea of my quick conqust is that I use mercs