MTW Difficulty Levels
There are 4 difficulty levels available when starting a campaign: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. These levels are separate from the degree of difficulty the Faction choices state, as they affect the combat engine and campaign map above and beyond the faction's starting position.
Campaign Map Differences
The difference with the various difficulty levels on the campaign map is the starting cash. On Easy, there is plenty to go around, while on Expert the well runs dry pretty quickly and new buildings and upkeep costs squeeze the treasury.
| Starting Treasury | ||||
| Campaign Start | Easy | Normal | Hard | Expert |
| Viking Campaign | 8000 | 6000 | 4000 | 2000 |
| Early Era | 10000 | 8000 | 6000 | 4000 |
| High Era | 10000 | 8000 | 6000 | 4000 |
| Late Era | 10000 | 8000 | 6000 | 4000 |
These values can be modified per faction in each of the era's startpos .txt file, these are in the "Medieval - Total War\campmap\startpos" directory. Look for the SetTreasury lines.
Battle Map Differences
On the Battle Map, the difficulty level affects both the performance of your troops, as well as the tactics used by the AI during the battle.
Stats-wise, on Easy your troops get a +4 Morale bonus, making them less likely to rout. On Expert, the AI's troops get this +4 Morale bonus. There is some speculation that this actually makes it harder on the AI, since it's troops will not run, it will lose more men and inflate the valour gained by the player's troops if the players battlefield tactics are sound. On Hard difficulty, the AI units get a 15% combat bonus (attack and defence?) to their stats, while on Expert the AI units get a 30% combat bonus.
The AI tactics get smarter as the difficulty level increases. On Easy, the AI is pretty brain-dead, several common sense tactics are ignored. The AI:
- will not skirmish,
- will not try ambushes,
- will not consider going into loose formation to avoid being shot at,
- will not consider outflanking, double-envelopment, or stop-and-shoot tactics,
- will try to hide rather than flee if the battle is going badly,
- will not try the 'appear weak' battle plan,
- will generally attack rather than defend, and will not consider withdrawing for a much longer time,
- won't move troops out of the way of castle walls that may be about to collapse
- may come out of a wall breach to chase you if you attack and are repulsed.
On higher than easy, the AI will specifically consider shooting at your artillery ,and will check to see if it's marching into enfilade fire when attacking your main body.
On hard and above, AI skirmishers will try to avoid being pincered.
As the difficulty increases, the AI is more likely to deploy in the woods, and more likely to scout for hidden units if it can't see your entire army.
TBD - Is ship combat affected by the difficulty level?
