Quote Originally Posted by Puzz3D
The AI units respond faster on the higher difficulty settings (Note the last sentence which suggests that no one will be able to handle the full 20 units against the AI which implies the AI gets some kind of speed advantage.), and I'm quite sure it's the player's morale and fatigue that gets lowered not the AI's. Difficulty settings have always caused a dispartiy in morale between the player and the AI in every Total War game, and now they've extended that idea to include fatigue. Also, the blog doesn't actually say the AI is more intelligent. What it says is that some AI mechanics have been included which gives the AI a more intelligent feel. Again this sounds like an advantage the AI gets and the player doesn't.

Normally I agree with you Puzz3D, but you lost me here. I don't think that he means any actual "speed" difference, as in the AI's troops move faster than yours do. It seems to me Jason intimated that the AI will react more readily and aggressively to your troop maneuvers--for example, recognizing and moving to counter any flanking attempts more quickly--than the troops sprinting like Justin Gatlin on steroids. The AI may get some less obvious and less potent fatigue and morale gifts on VH, as econ21 illustrated, that may give the illusion of being faster, but I do not think you can draw the conclusion that speed itself is altered. Those AI bonuses are designed to make the game closer to the challenge that we all desire (which I am sure you're okay with and I myself don't mind), but I would be astounded if the AI itself wasn't greatly improved. They made such a leap from MTW to RTW that the AI couldn't really keep up. Now having learned some lessons, there is no reason not to expect the AI to be much more "intelligent."

But that is my opinion, and only mine.