Level of difficulty and why?

[bigmilt16]

I do M/M, with BI.

On my Romani campaign, I can institute house rules easier without the worry of the AI blitzing me with countless stacks. The diplomacy is not ridiculously one-sided towards the AI (I couldn't get the Iberians to make peace, even after beating them down to one settlement, and instituting an embargo).


For those of you that want a bit more challenge in Battles on M/M:

TURN OFF FATIGUE. It is the perfect balance because the AI receives no combat bonuses, but every battle is fought with MUCH more intensity. You will no longer win every battle, and no more ridiculously lopsided victories for the human either. The general in the army makes all the difference! If the AI has a great general, then you will certainly have to fight to the last man. That will encourage players to assassinate the enemy general!



Here's my philosophy on M/M and BI:


I still get a good challenge though. Rebels still attack my forts and trade routes. Moreover, playing with BI seems to help make up a bit for the lack of AI challenge on vanilla EB. With BI, the AI appears to spend its money on better quality troops to send against you.

Furthermore, the AI will give me a real run for my money in terms of a naval war. Carthage and the Greek Cities were invading my shores with troops! This forced me to build a navy; and thus, better manage my budget because of it. I could not longer blitz with the Romans because I needed to establish a strong economy at home with good roads, and farms (to support my growing navy) as I expanded, and that took REAL TIME. But is more satisfying to know that the denari will keep flowing as I go to war with huge ships, and build a full stack consular army.

For those who are scared or turned off by BI's naval invasions, or think that the AI will mindlessly keep invading the same province, must simply learn naval strategy. I am at nearly 230 BC, and have not experienced a single Carthaginian naval invasion on Corsica! Why???? Because I built a strong homeland economy, so I can build a strong navy, so that I can sink any Carthaginian boat that crosses Sicily. Normally, you can spot the AI attempting to make an invasion with about a turn or two to make your move and sink their boats. Also, I don't just turn the other cheek either; instead, I actively make sure that I have boats constantly blocking their shores to cut off Carthaginian Grain, gold, animals, and oil. This will also hurt their navy building capacity.

[Hooahguy]

you are a real strategist, bigmilt16.

[conn madigan]

Hi guys, i play as Sweboz at VH/VH difficulty.

The battles are... well, very hard. The Gaesatae are very powerful indeed. I fighting against the Aedui, won 110, lost 35 battles. Its fun to not win every battles like in the vanilla campaign.

But i dont recommend the VH battle setting, not because the difficulty, because its unrealistic. Next time when i will choose VH/H, i think the hard battle difficulty is much more realistic, and fairly hard.

Sorry for my bad grammar...

[Hax]

Grammar is fine. Doesn't matter if there are some mistakes here and there, lot's of people aren't native English speakers. As long as y00 d0n't sp34k 1337. :P

I play on VH/M

Very Hard for the campaign. I like the AI expanding, gives me a more realistic feel.

M for battles, because..well...never thought about it. It just is recommended :P

[Midnj]

The problem I see with turning fatigue off is that it affects your armies too. So you have zero net change and all that is really accomplished is you make battles more bloody without making them more tactically challenging.

On top of that, if you play as the Romani - who somewhat rely on attacking in depth largely with exploiting fatigue in mind, you pretty much remove that entire aspect from tactical considerations.

But I guess on the other hand it does reduce the huge AI crutch that is defending siege battles when they run around like idiots. But then 90% of the time this seems to be caused by humans using ranged attacks against enemies behind walls. I usually "fix" this deficiency by not allowing my ranged units to attack anything behind a wall (even a pallisade) as its not terribly realistic for skirmishers/slingers/archers who are ground level to shoot at something nobody in your army can technically see.

[bovi]

With fatigue: AI troops mill around and get exhausted for no good reason, human troops preserve their strength.

Without fatigue: AI troops mill around and stay fresh, human troops stay fresh.

The net change is evening out the odds. And a loss in realism, of course.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I usually exhaust my cavalry and pay the price in nearly every battle. If I turned off fatigue, I would gain a whole lot from it and my stupid overuse of cavalry would go unpunished. That is the main reason I leave it on, dispite AI milling around.