a question about difficulty settings

[Demiurge]

What do each of the difficulty settings change in EB? like in what ways is the game harder as you move from medium to hard to very hard on the campaign map and on the battle map?

[QwertyMIDX]

EB is best played on VH/M, at VH (campaign) the AI is more aggresive and the rebels will actually attack your cities, while M (battle) keeps the AI from getting stats increases that will make you angry about what unit is killing your elites etc.

[Dayve]

VH/M is indeed fun and the best way to go about it... But my god does the AI cheat on the CAMPAIGN(not battle) map... I started my first Baktria campaign today, also my first VH/M campaign in EB, and the first thing i noticed was how difficult the game was... Firstly just one rebel army around that area (and there are lots!) is more powerful than your entire army... And one ambushed me and wiped out all but my faction leader and 2 of his bodyguards!

Then i marched back to Baktra and was ambushed again by rebels! My general survived only by intervention of the gods methinks, he must be destined for great things! I auto-calced and he survived. Then back in Baktra i had the chance to create a unit of militia phalangites bringing my armed forced upto 240 men in all, not including my generals bodyguards, when a rather large rebel army laid siege to my only city, Baktra! I thought i was about to lose my first!(not last) campaign... During the street fighting though, i sent my faction leaders son through the streets and he came up behind the enemy which was crammed into one street and smashed into their rear, causing mass routation and cut down hundreds of men in mere seconds, i had survived!

Anyway after taking a rebel city i had a little more income and could build an army large enough to take a rebel city further south, since the ones in the east were garrisoned with full stacks So i take my 600 or so men and 2 generals, and when i'm in the area the Seleucids declare war on me! And it was at this point i notice they have manymanymany units of Mad Asabara (i think) in their armies... Cavalry which has 500+ upkeep... How are they affording this i ask? When i played the seleucids i could barely produce one unit per turn...

[QwertyMIDX]

Yeah, there is a large compound of cheating on VH. The EB money script plus the RTW hardcoded cheating makes it a bit crazy.

[Dayve]

Sorry, there were so many typos in that post i had to edit... But i have only just woke up so...

[Elthanas84]

EB is best played on VH/M, at VH (campaign) the AI is more aggresive and the rebels will actually attack your cities, while M (battle) keeps the AI from getting stats increases that will make you angry about what unit is killing your elites etc.

Well, I always play on VH/VH settings, because I think the AI is really too stupid and needs this boost up. Even on VH you can normaly wipe out equal or weaker AI Armys with minimal losses.
In my newest campain I as Makedonia I could rush all my neighbors without any resists. After 8 or 9 turns turns I controlled already 16 cities and have still 2/3 of my starting army.
I think I should try another faction first, perhaps the makedonia cavalry is just tooooo overpowered and makes this campain so easy.

[QwertyMIDX]

Hopefully we can make rushing the AI a bit harder in the nearish future.

[Elthanas84]

Hopefully we can make rushing the AI a bit harder in the nearish future.

Well, I normaly I don`t like rushing the AI much.
But in EB you have such big financial problems with your starting army, leaving you only two options. Disband your whole army or rush. And disbanding Elite units is somehow out of my mind.

[QwertyMIDX]

You'll be in an ugly pickle then. Although cash should be a bit more flush with the farming income script, not too much though.

[Rilder]

BAH, VH campaign difficulty for maximum enjoyment,,my behind, you'd have to put a sword to my neck to get me to play VH campaign difficulty.

[NightStar]

VH Campaign is fun...but difficult as hell. Given that the A.I receives 10.000 mnai extra each turn and the player on the other hand will be struggling with a couple of bucks

Originally Posted by Elthanas84
In my newest campain I as Makedonia I could rush all my neighbors without any resists. After 8 or 9 turns turns I controlled already 16 cities and have still 2/3 of my starting army.

As I have only been playing factions that start with one province I can't see that happen. I am lucky to have captured 2 provinces after that amount of time.

[Demiurge]

Ok, so i took the advice of someone above and played a campaign on VH/VH... I chose the Casse, which start with only one province and are surrounded by rebels. The EB guide on them says that you don't need to worry about the rebels because casse are the only ones that can actually start peaceful with them even trade with them, but that wasn't true for either. Within a year and a half (6 turns) A huge rebel army came knocking on my only city's gates. That was the end of my game.

So uh, please tell me I can actually have a chance, if I lower difficulty. Cause I tried this like 3 times and like clockwork boom they come a-knocking and I have a measly force that can't defend against their huge army.

It would be nice to see more of the casse campaign

[Malrubius]

I would recommend Medium battles. On Very Hard, the AI gets insane bonuses so levies can whip your elite armies.

[Demiurge]

WoW thats crazy. Guess I'll give VH/M a shot then

[Dayve]

Yeah isn't it +7 attack and +7 morale bonus to enemy troops on VH battles? Heh, so just imagine, even your elite troops, or just your starting troops at the start of a campaign, will get whooped by... Well... Anything.

[Dooz]

I personally think H/H is the best way to go about it. From what I understand, H battles gives AI moral boost only, no attack stats. Is this correct? If so, it's a pretty good tradeoff and makes for some more enjoyable battles. No insane AI cheats and not as much of a pushover as M. Also, H campaign is a bit more manageable than VH. It just seems like the best of both worlds, yet I don't really hear of anyone playing on these levels. Strange.

[booker]

I personally think H/H is the best way to go about it. From what I understand, H battles gives AI moral boost only, no attack stats. Is this correct? If so, it's a pretty good tradeoff and makes for some more enjoyable battles. No insane AI cheats and not as much of a pushover as M. Also, H campaign is a bit more manageable than VH. It just seems like the best of both worlds, yet I don't really hear of anyone playing on these levels. Strange.

I do!
But for some reason i played most on VH/VH and then i experiment on VH/M, etc..

I guess it`s the "challenge" that make you say... try to beat me AI! and you end up playing on the higher levels instead of the more "realistic" levels.

I`m going to settle on High/High now.. since i started to see the AI cheating on the campaign (never had this problem before until now). But my last campaign was crazi how the AI manage to send full stack after full stack...

[QwertyMIDX]

As the economics and stats head guy I will again say:

EB is best played on VH/M, at VH (campaign) the AI is more aggresive and the rebels will actually attack your cities, while M (battle) keeps the AI from getting stats increases that will make you angry about what unit is killing your elites etc.

[Dooz]

I do!
But for some reason i played most on VH/VH and then i experiment on VH/M, etc..

I guess it`s the "challenge" that make you say... try to beat me AI! and you end up playing on the higher levels instead of the more "realistic" levels.

I`m going to settle on High/High now.. since i started to see the AI cheating on the campaign (never had this problem before until now). But my last campaign was crazi how the AI manage to send full stack after full stack...

In my current M/M campaign the AI is sending stack after stack as well. But this is a little error or unfinished aspect of the beta which is going to be fixed in future builds. So don't expect too much of an easy going game with the H/H! And to me, it's always been more fun to play more realistically myself, trying to keep in mind what would really happen and such instead of just trying to beat the AI at all costs. It just feels too gamey that way... no fun.

[Dayve]

So is it true that the AI on hard battle settings get only a morale boost? If so then they wouldn't slaughter your elite units at all... In fact battles would be more enjoyable than on medium! Look at how quick enemies route on medium if they are showered with javelins as they approach your line... And most armies never even have a general so the morale boost they get will simply make it equal in terms of fighting... Even if the AI does have a general, he only gets himself killed immediately anyway... Does anybody know for sure about what bonuses they get on hard battles? I'm going to go and do a bit of testing myself in a second to see if it's just a morale boost...

[MeroFromVero]

Does anybody know for sure about what bonuses they get on hard battles?

Hard: +4 Attack, +4 Morale
Very Hard: +7 Attack, +7 Morale

According to question #13 of RTR's FAQ.

[Dayve]

Well here are the results of the quick testing i just did.

Test notes: Custom battle, hard difficulty setting, me as Aediu vs AI as the Casse, each given one unit of Lugoe(sp) which have identical stats, with no upgrades... Grassy flatland map, no weather changes so weather is as it is default when you click custom battle, both units fresh at the moment of engaging in combat and i did my warcry at exactly the same time as the enemy. Screenshots below.







As you can see i lost two and won one, which is baffling me... If the enemy has +4 attack and +4 morale, both did warcry at the same time and were both fresh when fighting began, there is absolutely no way i could have won, isn't that right? And all three tests were close, if the AI had +4 attack then it would have had considerably more kills of my men and considerably less deaths of its own, right? And the one thing i've already mentioned which leads me to believe the AI doesn't actually have any attack advantage is that - I won one of the battles, which under the circumstances should be impossible.

[MeroFromVero]

Test notes: Custom battle...

I've heard the difficulty levels of custom battles are bugged in 1.2 (and earlier patches, presumably); the player and the AI both get the +4 or +7 in custom battles.

So, that won't help

[Malrubius]

I've heard the difficulty levels of custom battles are bugged in 1.2 (and earlier patches, presumably); the player and the AI both get the +4 or +7 in custom battles.

So, that won't help

Yeah, custom battles assign the bonus to both sides. Campaign battles aren't like that, only the AI gets the boost. So go ahead and save your game right before a battle and try it again.

[Dayve]

Well ok how about this oh scripting geniuses of whom we are all not worthy and all that, would it be possible to make a script optional for download that would simply give the AI a morale bonus if we might want it to have one? I'm sure you'll all agree that that would make battles so much more enjoyable that they currently are... Maybe just a morale bonus of 4? I know that there would be plenty of export_descr_unit file changing probably, but i can easily change units in that to have more/less morale or anything in there for that matter... So if doing this would actually be possible and someone who knows how to do the script thing if it needs one would be willing at a later date then i will slave over the export_descr_unit for hours and hours changing things if that's what it takes.

If CA can give the AI +4 attack and morale then surely we can take the +4 attack away?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

In matched battles like that isn't one of the usual determinents whose side loses their captain first? In other words the exact alignment that the armies hit on (and whether the captain is hanging out into the open just a bit or is slightly encircled).

[Dayve]

That's true but with a +4 attack and morale i wouldn't even get a chance to kill their captain as they would route my army too quick, even if my captain was still alive.

[Elthanas84]

Well, I continued to play on my makedonia campaign and it seems VH/VH is HARD

I think my glorious time in gone after loosing all my Elite-Cavalry through the years.
When I read the history text box of the Hetaroi it is says, that their Equipment makes them too expensive to field. I don´t know, but it is intended that you have them only at start?

Maybe I am just too stupid, but in my campaign it seems that I can´t recruit them anywhere. With Infantry units only this campains sucks as hell. All my units always loose their 1on1 fights, the AI can even rush my phalanx head on.

My only chance is abusing the AI by moving in a circel with my whole army on the map until ALL units are tired and can´t hardly move any more. Then I stop and rush their fastest units (normally javelins, slinger and archers) with my whole army. Because of their now lower moral they normaly rout and often cause a mass rout. If not... well start running

[QwertyMIDX]

You know, I do say these things for a reason.

EB is best played on VH/M, at VH (campaign) the AI is more aggresive and the rebels will actually attack your cities, while M (battle) keeps the AI from getting stats increases that will make you angry about what unit is killing your elites etc.

The very hard battle setting give the AI huge stat increases, +7 attack, defense, and morale. That's why your infantry can't defeat them.

[booker]

I always had a problem where to play on. ON Vanilla, and everywhere..

I did tried every setting but i`m never sure wichone is the best. For me the Best scenario would be to have all stats even, Attack, defense, bonus, AI campagin, Money erarned etc... but then i should play on M/M (if i`m correct) but the game is extremly easy...
So i go to VH/Vh, but then the AI gets 10k per turn,Full stacks army everyhwere, i struggle to get any $, I loose all 1on 1 battles... it gets
anoying..So i go back to VH/M but then i get tons of heroic victorys...

What i should do??????? :(