Game too easy? Yeah right.

[Quickening]

I can't believe the number of people who say this game is too easy. Surely they must play it on Easy or Normal.
Im playing a French campaign on Very Hard/Very Hard and Im getting my arse kicked majorly. The Scots, English, HRE and even bloody Sicily are all coming at me with everything they've got. Doesn't help that the Pope tells me to stop attacking them as though to give them the advantage. In fairness he does excommunicate them when they attack me but by then Ive lost a city havent I? Bastard.

Not just this game either. My last English campaign on Very Hard/Very Hard was nails when the Scots, French and Danes were banging down the door. But when Portugal landed a full stack in Ireland and attacked Dublin I just gave up.

Im far from a bad player. Dammit strategy is my genre. How anyone can say that Medieval 2 without mods on Very Hard/Very Hard is too easy is just beyond me. It's hard as hell.

I only completed one campaign and that was only because I went the Scots who start in a nice corner of the map. Even then it was a short campaign and I only had like five turns left by time I finished it and I only succeeded by taking some regions from the hapless natives of the Carribean.



Sorry, Im in a bad mood today and I had to vent. BUT IT'S STILL TRUE!!!

EDIT: Language ~sapi

[Von Nanega]

I hear you! I played the English, and thought all was well when I picked off the french. But then Milan, HRE, the Danish and everybody else decided I was meat for their dogs. It was hard and interesting game and I enjoyed it hugely.

[Quickening]

I do love a challenge. It's just frustrating fighting through it

But something great has happened in this game. Early on I got an alliance offer from Hungary for no apparent reason. I accepted thinking "why not?".
Many years later the Pope launched a Crusade against Jerusalem and by pure chance both Hungary and myself arrived there at the same time. They lay siege to the city and I joined them and together we took the place.
They got it since they attacked first but that didn't bother me. I then used my ex-Crusading army to take some of the neighbouring regions. Basically securing the East for myself and my ally Great stuff!

JUST AS WELL TO SINCE IM GETTING DESTROYED IN EUROPE

[edyzmedieval]

You serious? Milan attacked my Bologna, 1300 vs 850, and they got beaten soundly... I even managed to keep 350 men, and they barely got away with 100, and with 700 made prisoners.

This is with HRE, about 1235, and on VH/VH.

So please, this is easy.

NOTE: I am very low with cash, having about -30000 per turn, but I still have top notch units, and I attack constantly.

[Quickening]

You serious? Milan attacked my Bologna, 1300 vs 850, and they got beaten soundly... I even managed to keep 350 men, and they barely got away with 100, and with 700 made prisoners.

This is with HRE, about 1235, and on VH/VH.

So please, this is easy.

NOTE: I am very low with cash, having about -30000 per turn, but I still have top notch units, and I attack constantly.

I don't know about the HRE. I don't like their scattered beginnings so I don't play as them. How do you find the French on VH/VH?


EDIT: Another thing, I may be making life harder for myself a bit since I always set taxes to low and release all prisoners. Im trying to honourable in short.

[edyzmedieval]

Ah, then this might be it. I made alliances at the start with everyone, and the AI was smart enough not to attack me. I concentrated on developing Frankfurt and Nuremberg to the extreme. I quickly took Magdeburg, Stettin and Prague, and this proved very useful. After a brief war, I took Hamburg too, and luckily, Antwerp and Bruges. Innsbruck and Staufen have been upgraded, and after that, Bern and Metz have been conquered.

When I fight, I ALWAYS execute the prisoners, and I set taxes as high as I am allowed too, without the fear of a rebellion.

I haven't fought the French because Milan, Venice and Sicily are a constant threat. They attack me with stacks and stacks, but I always repell and destroy their armies when they come to take my cities by force.

[RickooClan]

I played on VH/VH with France as well and honestly i think it is easy[at least not difficult], especially you could hardly lost a battle with the current battling AI.

Plus, i apply these iron men rules on my game:

1. You can only recruit troops or build if you have a general in province.
2. You can NEVER adopt any generals, all of them must be royal blood.
3. Only General can leading an army to attack other city/army.
4. You can NEVER attack another Catholic faction unless they attack you first.
5. NEVER get your kingdom excommunicated.
6. NEVER reload the game for your favor.

[Quickening]

.
3. Only General can leading an army to attack other city/army.
4. You can NEVER attack another Catholic faction unless they attack you first.
5. NEVER get your kingdom excommunicated.
6. NEVER reload the game for your favor.

Yeah I adhere to all these to. Especially the last one since it's blatant cheating.

[edyzmedieval]

I've never ever used the last one in M2TW. It demonstrates that the game is very manageable.

[HoreTore]

Well, the thing is, you just haven't cracked the game yet. For those of us who have, it's easy. The problem with the difficulty in the game, is that the upper limit isn't high enough.

Compare it to Civ4. The higher difficulties are simply insane there. It's not in this game. You only have to crack a TW game once, as the difficulties are so similar. In Civ4 however, you have to crack each difficulty level, as you have to apply a completely different strategy when you bump up the difficulty a level. A good example of this, is that even a complete newbie can start at the highest difficulty in this game. You don't have to fight your way up the difficulties like you have to in other games. And once you crack that difficulty, there isn't more challenge to it, unless you mod the game to make it harder(which I have).

[FactionHeir]

Well, the thing is, you just haven't cracked the game yet. For those of us who have, it's easy. The problem with the difficulty in the game, is that the upper limit isn't high enough.

Compare it to Civ4. The higher difficulties are simply insane there. It's not in this game. You only have to crack a TW game once, as the difficulties are so similar. In Civ4 however, you have to crack each difficulty level, as you have to apply a completely different strategy when you bump up the difficulty a level. A good example of this, is that even a complete newbie can start at the highest difficulty in this game. You don't have to fight your way up the difficulties like you have to in other games. And once you crack that difficulty, there isn't more challenge to it, unless you mod the game to make it harder(which I have).

Pretty much what he said. Except for the civ4 part. I don't play that :D

[edyzmedieval]

I quit CIV because they smacked me waaay too hard. :P
Although I loved some things like the nuclear rocket.

[Quickening]

Thing is though, the Civ games cheat to the max on higher difficulties and they don't even try to hide it. Med 2 does not, or so CA say. Must be much harder to make a game difficult when the AI is always on a level playing field.

But that... is another topic.

[HoreTore]

Well, I play Civ4 for the challenge, and I play M2TW for the looks and "coolness"... Although I've made the game a lot harder by tweaking the files...

I just wish they could include an higher difficulty level, with basically the only change is that the AI gets insane bonuses in battle mode. Like +5-8 attack, defense and missile attack. That would make things a lot harder. The AI doesn't have to be smart at all when they have supermen fighting for them.

EDIT: I do wonder, was it a coincidence that the shuffle on winamp chose to play Guns n Roses - It's so easy as I wrote this?

[Quickening]

I just wish they could include an higher difficulty level, with basically the only change is that the AI gets insane bonuses in battle mode. Like +5-8 attack, defense and missile attack. That would make things a lot harder. The AI doesn't have to be smart at all when they have supermen fighting for them.

For some reason that reminded me of Streets of Rage 2 for the Megadrive/Genesis. That had a secret "Manic mode" which was just insanely hard.

Yeah, that would be a good idea. Not for me though :p

[FactionHeir]

You could set them to get more money per turn (I think I posted a topic on that somewhere) or simply start with higher level buildings (the ones further away from your starting position of course). Or modify the units they or you start with.

[HoreTore]

Yeah, I did that after reading your post about it. Made things better, but I still want my superman enemies...

[FactionHeir]

Well in that case duplicate a few entries in the unit file and make those new units only available to the faction you are not playing and the original only available to your faction. Then make similar amends in the buildings file.

Its very tedious though. You probably could write a program to do that for you but I wouldn't know how to.

[Shahed]

Yeah, I did that after reading your post about it. Made things better, but I still want my superman enemies...

DO you have link handy ?

[FactionHeir]

DO you have link handy ?

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=82786

Are you trying to get me to achieve my 1000th post today or what? :p

[rvg]

Maybe it all depends on a faction. I usually play on VH/H, sometimes on VH/VH. Both the Byzantines and the Venetians are ridiculously easy, but at the same time I struggle when playing as Portugal.

[Brutal DLX]

While I can win on VH I do not enjoy it. Playing on such level just increases stress for me, not enjoyment or challenge (it's no challenge if you know you can do it, just with more of an effort to get basically the same result). I just want a relaxing, fun campaign and as I'm not a rusher anyway, I'll eventually face nice AI armies, shame the tactical AI is bad at any difficulty level.. so I usually play on H/H so that alliances have at least a chance to work.

[edyzmedieval]

Multiplayer is basically the challenge you need. If the player is smarter than the AI...

[Quickening]

Multiplayer is basically the challenge you need. If the player is smarter than the AI...

Nah my real life Total War opponents are rubbish

[Quickening]

Sigh. There's another campaign abandoned. The Moors attacked me as well.

[Monarch]

Nah my real life Total War opponents are rubbish

Try going into the gamespy lobby. The battle AI for Medi2 is abysmal, if it was good then the campaign would be awesome.

[Quickening]

Try going into the gamespy lobby. The battle AI for Medi2 is abysmal, if it was good then the campaign would be awesome.

Ive tried but they are mostly 2 vs 2 games. I just want a one on one battle.

[TevashSzat]

In RTW, some of the ai was given a clear advantage like in the battlefield they would have attack modifiers so their cav would do near impossible things such as charge straight onto a unit of hoplites in their spear formation and still not die

[TB666]

Well the game was way too easy with 1.0 and 1.1 mainly because of the passive AI.
On the campaign map it did ok but once it got on the battlefield it didn't stand a chance.
However with 1.2 the game is alot tougher mainly because it is not longer passive and is trying to win.
It has really change the game atleast in IMO.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Well the game was way too easy with 1.0 and 1.1 mainly because of the passive AI.
On the campaign map it did ok but once it got on the battlefield it didn't stand a chance.
However with 1.2 the game is alot tougher mainly because it is not longer passive and is trying to win.
It has really change the game atleast in IMO.

Its also a lot harder now to keep on the good side of the pope playing VH at least

Too bad the AI is still passive.