Making M2TW Harder

[TevashSzat]

There is no doubt that the game is incredibly easy seeing that I am at turn 37 with Sicily with 30 provinces on vh/vh, but I have thought of some ways that is guaranteed to make the game harder.

1. Autoresolve all battles so you will be on par with ai on the batlefield.
2. Don't change the cities into castles or castles into cities since the computer never does this.
3. No killing agents by surrounding them with troops.
4. No fort building since the ai doesn't do this.
5. No cheap stuff with merchants like putting 20 of them in forts on top of silks to make like 20K a turn or having them defended by military troops.
6. No quicksave and quickload when something bad happens.
7. No disbanding units nor destroying buildings since i'm pretty sure the ai doesn't do this.

If you can do all of this, then beating a long campaign on vh/vh will finally be kinda impressive. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[gkoleoglu]

Except autoresolving (which i think is against the spirit of the game... come on this is not civ) i follow all ur rules... still i dont think neither rome nor m2 were as challenging as m1 or shogun... I mean they are awesome games and all but so much easier to beat...
I think im gonna get one of those riddiculeous realism mods :D

[Shahed]

Don't blitz.

[BigTex]

Don't blitz.

Not blitzing will make a VH game incredibly difficult. Blitizing will amost always result in an easy game, even further down the road. Nice part is you also don't have to worry about the AI draining it's cities by constantly warring.

As for always auto resolving, M2TW is about the battles as much as the campaign game. Without the battles it'd just be a cheap civ knock-off.

[Zenicetus]

Yes, some of the original ideas might help, but "don't blitz" is the real answer.

Also, autoresolved sieges actually makes things easier if you're the attacker, because I'm pretty sure that it doesn't factor in the casualties you take from wall towers. I always lose more men in a manual siege.

[afrit]

Sinan hit the nail on the head. Don't blitz.

Other rules:
1. Don't manage all settlements and refuse adoptions.

2. No offensive spies, watchtowers or forts. This allows the AI to surprise you.

[zulukiller]

Xdeathfire ="4. No fort building since the ai doesn't do this."

I see the AI doing that on M/M settings.

Ive found a good way to have a harder game and that's to mod the game so all the factions have maximum money the AI then spams out units like there's no tomorrow it makes it really challenging.

[OMGLAZERS]

See now, whats the exact definition of "blitz"?

I don't think i've ever really blitzed anything. I of course will start attacking rebel factions right away (Or the Moors, as Portugal/Spain) but is that really blitzing?

With the mods I use, the AI will do the same, making it not an advantage but a nessecity.

[Zenicetus]

I wouldn't call taking nearby rebel territories a blitz. In most cases that's just common sense, to ramp up your early economy and deny the province to neighboring factions.

For me, a blitz is pushing beyond that point as early as you can, or even attacking a neighboring faction right away if it's weakly defended, and in the path of your planned expansion. Then keep going until you're over-extended and don't have enough units to garrison the newly captured territory so you're forced to pause for a few turns. This can be funded in the early game by swarming the map with diplomats selling map info and trade rights, and by sacking the first cities you take to keep the cash flowing.

Basically, I think you're blitzing if most of your effort is going into forward momentum, at the expense of building up your economy and defending your existing borders.

[BigTex]

See now, whats the exact definition of "blitz"?

I don't think i've ever really blitzed anything. I of course will start attacking rebel factions right away (Or the Moors, as Portugal/Spain) but is that really blitzing?

With the mods I use, the AI will do the same, making it not an advantage but a nessecity.

Going after nearby rebel provinces sometimes isnt a "blitz". But in some cases it will severely weaken the AI's faction. Example, taking prague before the HRE does as poland will severly weaken the HRE. Going out as france and taking all the provinces available is pretty much a blitz also.

Going out in the first 20 or so turns to go for the jugular in an AI faction is also a "blitz". Taking out Venice in the first few turns will nearly destroy the venetians, granted though it's simple. Same goes for milan. Start no war's for the early game and you should end up with a robust AI later on.

[katank]

I define blitz as sending all available forces to go on an all out assault on a faction in the early game. This includes bypassing hard to take rebel settlements such as Edessa, Kiev, etc. and instead focus on killing your neighbors. Declaring war before turn 5 or destroying a faction before turn 10 are classical symptoms of blitzing.

This is comparable to a RTS rush where if your attacking forces are destroyed or your base comes under attack, you may well have lost then and there.

[Basileus]

I never try to destroy ai factions early on, i just grab rebel provinces and let the ai build up and the battles i tend to fight are usually with an ai with elite troops. I dont play the game to get 50 provinces now that got boring for me after the 2 first finished campaigns. My games are more like GA (Glorius Achivements from MTW), i set some goals before i start and that is usually my goal.

[Wizzie]

1. Autoresolve all battles so you will be on par with ai on the batlefield.

Autoresolving sieges usually gives you less casualties than if you tried to manually fight the siege anyway. Or at least that's what I find.

2. Don't change the cities into castles or castles into cities since the computer never does this.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the AI change castles to cities. It only happens very early on though.

3. No killing agents by surrounding them with troops.

This is an exploit anyway. You shouldn't be complaining that the game is easy if you use this exploit.

4. No fort building since the ai doesn't do this.

Again, the AI do build forts.

5. No cheap stuff with merchants like putting 20 of them in forts on top of silks to make like 20K a turn or having them defended by military troops.

Another exploit. See the comment above ^

6. No quicksave and quickload when something bad happens.

I don't think many people do this. Anyway, for any who do, it always makes the game much more interesting when a bad result throws a wrench in your plans. Also, how is the game easy if you have to have second and third chances to get things done right?

7. No disbanding units nor destroying buildings since i'm pretty sure the ai doesn't do this.

I definetly think the AI disbands units. It probably doesn't destroy buildings as it would not have built them in the first place if they did not rank highly on the priorities list.

Anyone come up with an agreed set of ironman rules yet?

[Dutch_guy]

There is no doubt that the game is incredibly easy seeing that I am at turn 37 with Sicily with 30 provinces on vh/vh, but I have thought of some ways that is guaranteed to make the game harder.

1. Autoresolve all battles so you will be on par with ai on the batlefield.
2. Don't change the cities into castles or castles into cities since the computer never does this.
3. No killing agents by surrounding them with troops.
4. No fort building since the ai doesn't do this.
5. No cheap stuff with merchants like putting 20 of them in forts on top of silks to make like 20K a turn or having them defended by military troops.
6. No quicksave and quickload when something bad happens.
7. No disbanding units nor destroying buildings since i'm pretty sure the ai doesn't do this.

If you can do all of this, then beating a long campaign on vh/vh will finally be kinda impressive. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Well, to be fair one shouldn't state the game is to easy (as others have said) when one uses exploits and tricks like those listed above.

That said, number 1, 2 and 7 I don't quite see as exploits. Battles are, as said, a major part of the game - and I don't think the AI is that bad to have to autoresolve every battle.

Number two isn't an exploit either, the AI does do this, although not as often as a human player might (a player, who unlike me, does actually change between the two). But it does happen, even if it happens at the far corner of the map.

Number 7 can actually be considered a realistic option, armies did (at times) simply raze entire cities to the ground - as you probably know - so if one wants, if one needs the cash, then this is a good and viable option. Nothing wrong with it, it's just as acceptable as exterminating or sacking a city.

As for the other options, exploits that is, are a simple way of beating the game. With as little enjoyment as possible, in my opinion. One should give not considering those exploits a try, and find the game is a whole lot more fun.

[Satyr]

Let's see, maybe only allowing yourself 2 offensive spies, no assasins, 3 diplomats and no merchants. No forts, no blitzing, no grab and burn, no crusading unless the pope calls for it. What else would you do to make the game harder. I pretty much do all these now except I play on M/VH so that the AI doesn't have so many squallor problems and doesn't get the cash bonus'. I have gone entire games starting as far back as MTW-VI where I autocalced every battle to make it harder.

[TevashSzat]

For whether to fight battles on the field or not, I do agree with you guys that autoresolve sometimes help you out in sieges, but I find it sad on vh/vh to beat 1200 kinda decent militia army with 3 star general from Byzantine with just 300 troops of cavalry and only 40 losses.

I kinda forgot about blitzing but yea you should stop doing it since you can win a long campaign at around 50-60 turns easily with a good planned out blitz.

I also thought up of another thing is to not bribe the pope with tributes so he is happy. You can sign an alliance since the ai does this too, but no bribing so you can't go on a kiling frenzy with your catholic neighbors.

I don't know if the computer uses huge squads of priests to convert a non christian settlement, but if they don't then stop using that would make the game harder. You can easily get lots of cardinals by trying to convert all of the Levant with like 10 priests.

[Musashi]

If you're russia, even taking all the available rebel provinces is kind of a blitz... Played wll you could have what, 10 territories in 20 turns or so?