Ok, I've always played on Hard or V hard Campaign. Today, I started a Ptol Campaign, and I'd never tried them before, so wasn't sure which direction to go. Quickly combined/Built a very basic 10 stack, and went and took Syria. Fine so far. Then suddenly out of nowhere a virtual full stack of Seluk appears, which I just about beat, by using some very cheesy tactics which I hate. Then a turn later another 12 stack appears, and I spy 15 units in Damascus, where last turn there was 3!! Now virtually all of these troops were mercs.

Call me what you want, but Im sick and tired of just because I the player border a warring ai, it will spend all of its scripted cash on mercs. It ruins the game/balance in the early days for me, and that's not the purpose of its scripted cash. I have absolutely no qualms about fighting stack after stack, once the ai has built up in MICS and actually recruited the troops, its just the early mercenary spam...How on earth are a stack of 10 base lvl troops supposed to hold of 45-50 decent mercs that early on, with no infastructure etc...it just annoys the heck out of me, even if I use every cheesy tactic to somehow just hold them off, I don't get any sense of accomplishment...

Anyways, so to the point of this thread:-

I restarted, but opted for medium campaign...and It was like a breath of fresh air. I did the same (took Syria), and this time the ai didn't recruit any mercs (I'd heard this was true on Medium lvl). Instead, it waited and then attacked further down the coast with a homegrown 15 stack, at a lesser guarded city. The Syria stack had to rally to save the city, and just arrived in time...they achieved a heroic victory, with no cheesy tactics...in short it was fun :) Since then, there have been sporadic attacks, but no inst-full merc stacks.

It also allows for much more roleplaying, and allows the player to just sit and grow for a while. Hard and Very Hard campaigns almost force you to super-blitz early on (with nearly every faction-Rome and Carthage excluded), just to survive the ais insane early advantage. Which to my mind, goes against just about everything EB stands for.

Any thoughts?