Another “Difficulty” Experiment…
This test is not definitive proof, but an example of one of the problems that prevent the human player experiencing sufficient challenge when playing the game on its hardest settings.
What I did was start a game as Sicily on VH/VH, took all my force over to Ajaccio, captured the settlement. and then changed it to a city. I then allowed my un-garrisoned starting settlements of Naples and Palermo to rebel leaving me with just one settlement. I disbanded my navel. The garrison was adjusted to maintain PO and keep my finances below 50,000. The only interaction I had with the game was with my starting Princess Matilda who negotiated trade agreement, alliances and swapped map (did not sell map) with my neighbours
I then kept pressing end turn.
The purpose was to see how the AI coped on its own and who, if anyone would win.
I used the faction ratings graph, set to territory” and “top 5” to monitor the AI faction’s progress.
Results
Number of turns, followed by faction (territories owned).
40 = Poland (9), Egypt (8), France (7), HRE (6), Turks(6)
60 = Egypt (11), Poland (10), Denmark (9), England (8), Hungary (8)
80 = Egypt (12), Poland (9), England (9), Hungary (8), Spain (8)
100= Spain (10), Denmark (10), Hungary (9), Poland (9), Egypt (8)
120= Mongol (17), Denmark (13), Hungary (13), Spain (7), Venetian (7)
140= Mongol (23), Denmark (15), Hungary (12), Portugal (10), Venetian (8)
160= Mongol (22), Denmark (14), Portugal (12), Venetian (8) Scotland (7)
Initially all of the original factions expanded into rebel owned territories then started squabbling amongst themselves. With no faction taking much of a lead.
By turn 100 Egypt had been the most successful faction, by taking over 9 other territories before being knocked back by the arrival of the Mongols.
The Mongols took over their first territory, Antioch, in turn 97 then quickly expanded to all the surrounding settlements. They were the only faction that looked like they had a chance of achieving the victory condition. But then by turn 152 the Timurids had arrived went to war with the them and things started to go downhill for them.
The promise of these two strong factions taking over the world was not to be as they dissipated their initial strong position by fighting each other.
This experiment illustrates one of the main problems that the human player has when looking for a difficult campaign. There is no strong opponent to challenge him.
CA did too good a job when balancing the various factions.
The computer factions waste a lot of time and resources fighting amongst themselves, with no faction able to develop their empire to a size large enough to offer a threat to the human player.
The best results were achieved by the Mongols, who’s empire got to 23 territories, (twice as big as anyone else had achieved) before the Timurids arrived.
But this was after about 160 turns. Human players that tend to blitz would own most of the map by this stage.
Players that take a slower “turtleing” approach would still have a far bigger and better developed empire by (turn 160) and would have the infighting between the Moguls and Timurids to help weaken their enemy whist they sat and waited.
I’m not saying that the game does not any challenging times. The start of any campaign when you have few resources and many enemies can be quite hairy at times. But if you don’t make too many mistakes, even these usually just slightly delay rather than prevent your inevitable victory.
Fighting the Mongols and Timurids is a challenge to even the most experienced player. If the other AI factions could field, regularly, this level of force, the game would really get interesting (in M1TW they did, by the re-emergence of destroyed factions well behind your front line). Yet they don’t, and these invasions occur too late and geographically too close to offer a serious threat to any well planned campaign.
Slightly off topic - a few tip-bits
The moors were destroyed by turn 90, Turks by 110, HRE by 120 and France by 130.
Occasionally the Moors, Venice and Portugal (ally) landed a small force on the island but never attacked.
Princess Matilda was sent to the monastery at age 40 after forming alliances with Spain, Milan, Scotland, Byzantine, Portugal, Poland, Papal Stated, France and HRE. My reputation with each of these was “very trustworthy” and my power “supreme” (despite only having one settlement with full stack and no navy).
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