Very Hard experiences

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 02-22-2009, 22:26

What have you guys seen with the AI on Very Hard?

To change the difficulty in XP

I played the Brandywine battle, took my army to the unprotected ford except for my light inf and dragoons. I used the light inf to shoot the closest battery across the river and then pulled them back and left them behind the starting hill.

I expected to fight the two rifleman units and did indeed engage them with my Hessians and horse arty. However, the AI threw in both units of dragoons this time, which wasn't expected. I still repelled them, but suddenly was dealing with two more Yankee line infantry units. The AI threw in almost all of its line infantry and its minutemen onto the first hill beyond the ford. I was forced to commit more and more infantry in a messy, grinding battle. I defeated their line infantry, though I lost 2/3 of my Hessians and British line (my elite infantry only lost a handful, mostly Highlanders.

It was at that time that I decided to try and force the protected ford with my dragoons. There was a unit of light infantry in addition to their artillery, but I figured I might get away with it. Unfortunately, the AI had a second unit of light infantry hidden and both shot down my dragoons. So much for that ford. :/

The AI deployed what was left of its forces next to the court house - the general, the two light infantry units and a unit of surviving long rifles. They also stretched out the stakes from the light inf, which was a good move. I brought up my horse arty to shell the court house and advanced my line. I took further casualties but flanked their infantry and rolled them up. My Hussars smashed the rifles and the General who were either in front of the stakes or (I think) I moved them around. All that was left was mopping up the artillery. At some point those hussars managed to run into the stakes anyway, and retreated with 4 guys left.

Still, it was a close victory, and I had 4 line units and a dragoon unit chewed up really bad. If the AI had kept its units together in greater strength I probably would've lost.

Does anyone else have any experiences with the AI on VHard, either on land or sea?

**Monk** · 02-22-2009, 22:38

My experiences are much more mundane since I decided to forgo the other ford and hit the Americans head on with my first go at VH. I was impressed though, because the AI was a lot more cohesive in its formations under this setting and didn't break up into smaller groups.

I'm gonna try again once I tinker with graphics options some more and see if I can force them into some more elaborate stuff, or if they are just scripted to a fault and you have to go the other ford to get them to do much.

**Megas Methuselah** · 02-22-2009, 22:44

So does the AI get any stat bonuses that you guys can see, or is the AI just being a smarter commander?

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 02-22-2009, 23:03

I couldn't tell, Meth. They didn't seem to have particularly higher or lower morale.

**Mailman653** · 02-22-2009, 23:14

Wow, that stuff is sure hidden in there. I noticed there is something that determines unlimited ammo as well, wonder how that would play into the game.

Update:Sweet, just tried it and everyone has limited ammo except cannons. I hope it applies to the enemy as well.

**ratbarf** · 02-22-2009, 23:49

Cannons already have unlimited ammo it seems. Though I think it would play in better with your grenadiers and possibly light inf as they should be doing the most shooting out of all the other units.

**Megas Methuselah** · 02-22-2009, 23:53

Originally Posted by Mailman653

Update:Sweet, just tried it and everyone has limited ammo except cannons. I hope it applies to the enemy as well.

Isn't that how it started out in the first place?

**Mailman653** · 02-23-2009, 00:23

Never checked to be honest

**Arifel** · 02-23-2009, 06:01

Nice find!

The naval combat mission is way too easy by default. I lost a ship on the first try, and hasn't lost another ship thereafter.

Putting the difficulty at -2 gave me a really tough fight. I think the two groups of enemy ships sticked together better and formed one big firing line. They intersected my line and took bowside raking hits. In return, they gave my rear ship some stern side raking hits. I lost my 4th rate rear guard in the first run but did manage to wrestle the wind from them. With wind on my side I was able to switch around ship orders to spread out the damage. Then manually controlled the individual ships's firing arcs to focus auto-fire on one enemy at a time and sank them all. In the end, my Namur's hull was in the red on one side. Prince was lightly damaged. The other three ships afloat have hull in the red on both sides. If the French fleet had just one more ship I probably would've lost the majority of the ships. This difficulty setting makes it much more interesting, although I wish for a way to add more ships into the mission.