Holy *add an explitive here* VH is very hard.

[Noir]

Originally posted by Cambyses II
The bonuses are the main problem. The AI armies are very difficult to rout which one may equate to greater difficulty. This is not the case. I've found that on expert I more often than not kill the AI general/faction leader before he routs and most AI units also refuse to rout until they're almost wiped out, all due to the morale bonus. Because of this units that go in on an all out bumrush, kill a lot and gain valour, such as Vikings or heavy non elite cavalry, are battle winners whereas other types of strategies that aim to break the enemies morale, fail. You can rack up some serious kills on expert and see your units valour shoot up. On Hard difficulty these units would mostly be routing after a certain number of losses and the valour gained for capturing them whilst they're running away is less than for killing them while they're fighting. Also there are occasions where the morale bonus can appear as blatantly false. It's not always obvious and in some battles you may not notice it. But there are particular battles where the artificial morale of the AI units has you shaking your head in disbelief. Such as your superior force being routed by some Urban Militia that just won't give up.

As Cambsyses II points out the bonuses make sure that the fragile balance that needs to be kept between various elements of the army (infantry/missiles/cavalry) matters not in expert as units will fight often to the last man - the match-up/flanking balance of the gameplay is disturbed.

The AI is in fact a very decent tactician assuming he's getting equal strength units as the player and that the maps are anything below hilly. From hllyand above the ground is so much higher that in the MP your opponent will deny playing it as it technically gives a unsurpassable advantage. It amazed me how i was thinking all these years (without having played multiplayer) that it is normal for the AI to play such maps as well as the fact that the AI was labelled "poor" as opponent.

In the Samurai Wars mod, army composition is fixed, and when you play in maps with reasonable bumps for both sides, the AI is really really tough in hard and quite a winner in expert i'm afraid!

Many Thanks

Noir