First Game on Very Hard

[Quickening]

Having played considerably far into the English Medieval campaign I felt I understood the game enough to go for a harder challenge. And while I understand the game fully, I did not expect just how hard the enemy would be on Very Hard!
I went the Scots on the Viking Campaign and the first disaster stuck when my province in Ireland rebelled and the rebels decimated me. I then gathered what forces I had and attacked the rebel province south of my lands on mainland Britain. Again, the rebels decimated me!
Now I never play games on anything less that their hardest unless Im learning how to play it. And Im sure that in Medieval, like in Rome, the AI gets a morale bonus on Very Hard.
However as an example, I charged a unit of armoured spearmen with two full units of Highland Clansman followed by a cavalry charge in their rear. First of all, the Spearmen weren't even close to breaking and second, they beat up my three regiments so badly that they all fled!
So what exactly does Very Hard give the AI in Medieval? Steroids?

[Quietus]

Having played considerably far into the English Medieval campaign I felt I understood the game enough to go for a harder challenge. And while I understand the game fully, I did not expect just how hard the enemy would be on Very Hard!
I went the Scots on the Viking Campaign and the first disaster stuck when my province in Ireland rebelled and the rebels decimated me. I then gathered what forces I had and attacked the rebel province south of my lands on mainland Britain. Again, the rebels decimated me!
Now I never play games on anything less that their hardest unless Im learning how to play it. And Im sure that in Medieval, like in Rome, the AI gets a morale bonus on Very Hard.
However as an example, I charged a unit of armoured spearmen with two full units of Highland Clansman followed by a cavalry charge in their rear. First of all, the Spearmen weren't even close to breaking and second, they beat up my three regiments so badly that they all fled!
So what exactly does Very Hard give the AI in Medieval? Steroids?

Did you put the charging Clansman and Cavalry on wedge formation?
Did you put the Clansman on "hold" after the charge as well as the Cav?
Did you repeatedly charged the spearman behind the back with the Cavalry (on wedge)?

You should have left out the 2nd clansman out of the melee as a reserve.

[r johnson]

Very hard sounds hard.

[Innocentius]

Quietus has a good point. Using several units against one is only really effective if the enemy unit is weaker than your own troops, and you want to maximize the number of prisoners.
However Very hard (or Expert, as it is called in the game) is truly very hard.

[caravel]

Having played considerably far into the English Medieval campaign I felt I understood the game enough to go for a harder challenge. And while I understand the game fully, I did not expect just how hard the enemy would be on Very Hard!
I went the Scots on the Viking Campaign and the first disaster stuck when my province in Ireland rebelled and the rebels decimated me. I then gathered what forces I had and attacked the rebel province south of my lands on mainland Britain. Again, the rebels decimated me!
Now I never play games on anything less that their hardest unless Im learning how to play it. And Im sure that in Medieval, like in Rome, the AI gets a morale bonus on Very Hard.
However as an example, I charged a unit of armoured spearmen with two full units of Highland Clansman followed by a cavalry charge in their rear. First of all, the Spearmen weren't even close to breaking and second, they beat up my three regiments so badly that they all fled!
So what exactly does Very Hard give the AI in Medieval? Steroids?

I assume you're referring to "expert" difficulty? If so then what you're experiencing is the effects of a morale bonus in the favour of the AI. For the beginner this can be quite unfair. For those that understand the nuances of the game, it can be an exploit because the enemy doesn't rout as easily, giving more kills to the player units, and thus greater valour. I'd advise you to stick to the "hard" difficulty. IIRC, If you're auto-calcing battles it will be an even bigger disaster, because that morale bonus is taken into account for autocalc also.

[Martok]

Caravel is correct. On Expert, the AI gets a +4 morale bonus to their troops in battle, making them much harder to route. I also believe the computer gets a small valour bonus (I want to say it's .3, but don't quote me on that) as well, meaning that the AI's troops have a slightly higher average valour level.

[gaijinalways]

The expert level is tough, and often you're going up aganist more than tough peasants .

[Ironside]

As Martok covered most of it I'll simply add that 30% is supposed to be roughly equal to 1 valour. On hard it's 15% IIRC.

As for the difficulty. After checking out the campaign it shows that my memory is correct. The armoured spearment in that province is valour 2 and led by a 6-star general, making them valour 5.
Or to put it differently, they would kick your butt even on normal (and as they had morale 4, they wouldn't always rout if hit in the back).

A tip on the battlemap is to check those small extra flags some units have. Those flags represent valour, one flag for each valour. So a unit with a lot of those flags is a very dangerous foe.

And a tip for the Scot's campaign is to take Ireland first. And keep Ulster at all costs! It's a very rich province.

[Quickening]

Okay, thanks all.

[Biggus Diccus]

If you think those spearmen were teh pain, then you haven't had some viking raiders pay a visit yet. Jedi Huscarle bodyguard units, I will say no more

Btw: Now I got the sudden urge to start a new MTW campaign again

[drone]

You definitely want to keep Ulster, it is rich and taking out the Irish is either priority 1 or 2 for the Scots (Picts being the other). The province with the rebels on the mainland (Reget?) isn't worth it in the early game, that's a tough fight and I think the province has a high unrest factor. It spawns some nasty troops.

The Scots are tough, Clansmen are nice, but unreliable. You will want to build up clansmen in Ulster to hold the province, and start building Clansmen in Sci as well, since they get a valour bonus there. Build the shrines/chapels in Sci and Ulster to boost morale for troops built there. Have another province work on getting spearmen, you will need spears as an anchor, while you flank with Clansmen. I usually try to tech up to ships in Dal Riada, to support Ulster from the mainland and guard against Viking raids.

One other trick, on turn 1 destroy your Abbeys. You will get 1000 bucks in cash, and it will keep the Vikings off of you. If you leave them, they will attack and you will lose them anyway, along with a lot of troops.

[Ironside]

One other trick, on turn 1 destroy your Abbeys. You will get 1000 bucks in cash, and it will keep the Vikings off of you. If you leave them, they will attack and you will lose them anyway, along with a lot of troops.

Allying with the vikings and have some decent garrision also works and usually spares you from attacks.

[Mooks]

Iv never experianced this ; and I always play on expert. Maybe 4 years of playing make you pretty good.

Just a tip, if your facing a lone unit. Use missiles first, it makes it much more easier.

Thanks for that flag tip, I didnt know that (And have been wondering that exact same thing)

[Martok]

I didn't understand the significance of the unit flags myself until a couple years ago. It definitely made me more careful about how I engaged the enemy!

[yesdachi]

Starting out in expert/very hard is difficult but once I get rolling I rarely see a difference, but make a few bad moves in the beginning and it is almost impossible to recover.