MTW Difficulties

[sapi]

I'm just coming back to mtw; can someone remind me what bonuses the ai gets on each difficulty please?

[drone]

I'm returning to M:TW as well, I need to refresh my memory with the guides....

According to frogbeastegg's guide:

On difficulty
There are four difficulties, easy, normal, hard and expert. Your difficulty will decide how much money you start off with, any bonuses given to you or the AI and what tactics the AI will use on the two maps. Starting funds are as follows:
Easy = 10000 florins
Normal= 8000 florins
Hard = 6000 florins
Expert = 4000 florins
On easy the player will get an extra +4 to morale in battle, making it harder for the AI to rout your troops. On expert the AI get this bonus. Normal and hard don't give anyone a bonus. The AI will use different tactics on the battlefield depending on your difficulty. Here is a list provided by GilJaySmith, one of the developers of Total War:
- On expert the AI gets a morale bonus - on easy the player gets one
- On hard and above, AI skirmishers will try to avoid being pincered
- On easy the AI will not consider going into loose formation to avoid being shot at
- On easy the AI will not consider outflanking, double-envelopment, or stop-and-shoot tactics
- On easy the AI won't move troops out of the way of castle walls that may be about to collapse
- On easy the AI will try to hide rather than flee if the battle is going badly
- On easy the AI will not try ambushes
- On easy the AI will not try the 'appear weak' battle plan
- The AI is more likely to deploy in woods on harder difficulties, and less likely to camp near the red zone on easier difficulties
- The AI is more likely to consider scouting the map to find the rest of your army if it can't see it all on higher difficulties
- On easy the AI will not skirmish
- On higher than easy, the AI will specifically consider sh00ting at your artillery
- On easy the AI will generally attack rather than defend, and will not consider withdrawing for a much longer time
- On higher than easy, the AI will check to see if it's marching into enfilade fire when attacking your main body
- On easy the AI may come out of a wall breach to chase you if you attack and are repulsed

In addition to these changes LongJohn (another developer) says the following: The combat strength of the a.i. units is affected by the difficulty level.
On easy its combat effectiveness is reduced by 30-40% (can't remember the exact figure).
On hard it's increased by 10-15%, and on expert its 30%. 30% being around 75% of the increase you'd get from 1 valour upgrade.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=31445

Medieval: Total War. They may be 2D sprites, but they put up a much better fight!

[sapi]

Lol i forgot to check froggy's guide....shoot me!

Medieval: Total War. They may be 2D sprites, but they put up a much better fight!

lol i'm afraid i have to disagree - i'm one of those strange people that recognise that rtw is a step foward. They do fight for longer though......the graphics suck though

[antisocialmunky]

It alwys pissed me off that you lost so many pikeman when you got charged since it should be a pike Phalanx type deal and not a mass of pike toting infantry.

MTW sucked because it did not have weapon lengths.

[IrishMike]

I have never had a problem with MTW graphics, but then again, I don't really get impressed with graphics all that much. They do put up a much better fight though. As the scotts in BKB's mod can attest to today. They slaughtered me with a cunning little move through the forest today.

[Martok]

I have never had a problem with MTW graphics, but then again, I don't really get impressed with graphics all that much.

You know, I admittedly used to consider myself to be something of a "graphics whore", but I agree with you on this. Medieval and Rome are proof that eye candy doesn't always trump good gameplay.

Rome is fantastic to look at and watch--absolutely fantastic--but that's where most of its appeal ends. The are only two other ways in which I feel Rome really improved upon Medieval (or Shogun, for that matter):

1. The combat UI; and

2. Rome's music and sound, which along with the pre-battle speeches, helps to lend the game some badly-needed atmostphere.

Aside from those three things, however, Medieval is superior in almost every other way. Rome may be a better game in terms of how it looks and sounds, but it falls flat in almost all other respects. Medieval has better gameplay, more factions to play with, far better AI, and--perhaps most important of all--more atmosphere.

Whenever I play Medieval or Shogun, I almost always lose myself in what I'm doing and become immersed in the world. For some reason, that doesn't happen when I play Rome; I'm constantly aware of the fact that I'm only playing a game, and that it's not real.