Battles easier on VH?

[Sid Arthur]

I mostly played M2TW on E/E or M/M because 1) I consider myself a casual player, and 2) I have the almost mutually exclusive traits of loving the HRE and loving to turtle. Mid-game can easily turn into a 7-front war if you're not careful.

Anyway, I was perusing the stickied FAQ up yonder and noticed the section on battle difficulty. It says the battles are more realistic, and especially that morale and fatigue are more important. Now, on easy or medium, an even battle with the AI could usually produce almost equal casualties, typically 60-40 or 70-30 at the extreme. I remember seeing all those screens of people killing off a thousand men and only losing a hundred, and wondered what I was doing wrong.

So I started a new campaign with VH battle difficulty, and I'm just amazed at how much easier it is. Simply holding an infantry line and flanking with cavalry can usually produce that 90-10 attrition rate that I kept seeing. On the flip side, just heaving my mass of forces all willy-nilly at the enemy proved fairly disastrous on my part.

It seems that on easy, the battles are much more like the arcade style battles of RTW, where units just kind of fight it out and you don't have to worry about routing. But if you set it to VH and use proper tactics, standard battles seem to go a bit easier due to the effects of routing.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[sapi]

Yeh - while you can rout your enemies easier on vh with a good use of tactics, the reverse is also true; your forces have a tendancy to fall apart if one unit routs/the general dies

[Fookison]

I find the AI to play much more realistic tactics and not be so passive on VH. On E or M the AI can be crunched. As noted in the message above, your armies are not so dominant on VH. They are more vulnerable to your decisions made and the results on the battlefield.

[Zuraffo]

on VH it's either a (near) total win or (near) total rout. When I first switch from medium to VH I charged my general into a group a spearman and saw my armies rout (after my general died) faster than I can press stop. I learned better since.

[Fate]

I havent played MTW2, however, on RTG (total gameplay mod), as the ilberians, i was able to stave off thousands of angry romans. My armies generally consisted of lots of missile troops, lots of cavalry, and a small contingent of infantry; because with effective missiles, and good cavalry, i didnt even need to use the infantry!

I know this is not the same as MTW2, but its just my two cents.

[TevashSzat]

I am pretty sure that on vh the effects of morale are significantly enhanced for both you and the ai so something like flanking can make a really big difference in a attle

[Marquis of Roland]

on VH it's either a (near) total win or (near) total rout.

This would be historically accurate

[Zuraffo]

This would be historically accurate

Yeah. I have been playing on VH/VH since. :D

[Bijo]

Interesting. I think I'll give M/VH a try. Actually, I've almost stopped caring about the campaign map, so I might even do E/VH, though I wonder about the difference between difficulties on campaign map.