Roll Call: what version of EB, Difficulty, and why

[bigmilt16]

so medium campaign difficulty actually does nothing to slow the AI's expansion?

Also, I guess I finally figured out Alexander's use of naval invasions. The AI will only ship troops by sea when overseas territory is threatened, but when it is, they ship efficiently and cruelly. The retraining in Alex.exe really makes for some tough battles, because for the first time, I must go against "elite" stacks of well experienced troops and not just guys fresh outta boot camp.

[polluxlm]

I'm convinced.

Alex.exe on the way to my mailbox.

[Tyrfingr]

Alex.exe with VH/M. The AI is raping me...

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not really, but I'm far more impressed by the Alex-AI than the original RTW and BI-AI. Alex even launched a couple of naval invasions against me. The greeks were reduced to Rhodos and landed at Mytilene with 6-8 decently good units and a FM and it was pretty fun.

Otherwise, I don't mind the abscense of naval invasions, since they were very rare during the antique.

[Marcus Ulpius]

1.1 EB version, only RTW installed. I'm playing on M/M because I think that EB was designed with that setting in mind. I also don't like unrealistic difficulty which only have the goal of making a game more difficult for you, sacrificing the balance and logic (like all AI factions hate you, or AI militias fight better than your professional soldiers).

[Ludens]

EB is designed for VH campaign, M battle. I personally play EB1.1 at H/M, because diplomacy is a bit more reasonable at this difficulty level (i.e. factions won't refuse to make peace when you've taken all but their last city). Currently, I have no mods installed, although I am considering the VC and formation mods. I used the latter with every previous version of EB, but wanted to see how the formations shape up this time.

Similarly, I am playing with RTW.exe and considering using ALEX.exe. I played EB1.0 with BI.exe, but the irrational naval invasions put me off. I prefer it when the Romans are capable of invading Africa and taking out Carthage, but this is not going to happen when they'd rather send small stacks to annoy me. That's why I want to try ALEX.exe, however I've been told many times that a new mod really improved A.I., and always ended up disappointed.

[Skandinav]

so medium campaign difficulty actually does nothing to slow the AI's expansion?

There is a noticeable difference in the beginning of a new campaign when the AI has yet to build up its economy but this impression is soon replaced by a behaviour very similar if not (nearly) identical to the dreary, endless warring on the Hard setting and as far as I can tell - and I monitor the AI in every turn - settlements change hands as frequently, although through the means of smaller armies.
Rebels besiege settlements on Hard aswell by the way which I have yet to see on Medium.

But as some have pointed out Medium difficulty could be a good choice for a smaller faction, whereas my Medium romani campaign was a failure my swêboz worked pretty well as I restrained my expansion.

Some say that the difficulty are also influenced by which version, BI, RTW or ALEX, of EB you are playing.

[Skandinav]

EDIT: My last post was copied somehow, sorry about that.