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To elaborate.... for example I sometimes get events saying that AI characters have fabricated claims against me, but not once have I experienced the AI actually declare war on me, except for a couple of times muslims fight religious defence wars, and of course rebelling vassals... but never an external AI war.
 
To elaborate.... for example I sometimes get events saying that AI characters have fabricated claims against me, but not once have I experienced the AI actually declare war on me, except for a couple of times muslims fight religious defence wars, and of course rebelling vassals... but never an external AI war.

I haven't noticed much of a difference in difficulty either, but I have to disagree with you on the fabricated claims thing... the AI is always fabricating claims on me and pushing those claims against me. Atleast in France, and the HRE. I've never been bothered in Iberia or Ireland, or Scotland.... and I haven't really played anywhere else.
 
The AI will push fabricated claims like any other, after first considering the amount of resources required to do the job, the allies a potential foe has, the advantages it stands to gain, and the diplomatic level of its association with a possible target. I've had games where a nearby monarch had a fabricated claim and never pushed it, and others where the claim was used within a very short while.
 
I can tell you exactly what each difficulty does:

Very Easy-
Player gets: +50% Fertility and +50% Land Morale.
AI gets: -25% Land Morale.

Easy-
Player gets: +25% Fertility and +25% Land Morale.
AI gets: Nothing.

Normal-
Player gets: Nothing.
AI gets: Nothing.

Hard-
Player gets: Nothing.
AI gets: +25% Land Morale, +25% Navy Morale, +25% Global Tax Modifier, and +5% Levy Reinforcement Rate.

Very Hard-
Player gets: -25% Land Morale
AI gets: +50% Land Morale, +50% Navy Morale, +50% Global Tax Modifier, and +10% Levy Reinforcement Rate.


Hope that helps
 
I haven't noticed much of a difference in difficulty either, but I have to disagree with you on the fabricated claims thing... the AI is always fabricating claims on me and pushing those claims against me. Atleast in France, and the HRE. I've never been bothered in Iberia or Ireland, or Scotland.... and I haven't really played anywhere else.

I didn't see it in either my France or HRE game, but maybe that's just luck.

In my latest game as Harold Godwinson I did have a de-jure claim pressed by Scotland, and I had to surrender because I was very depleted after defeating both invasions. I've taken the county back now though, and more.
 
I haven't noticed much of a difference in difficulty either, but I have to disagree with you on the fabricated claims thing... the AI is always fabricating claims on me and pushing those claims against me. Atleast in France, and the HRE. I've never been bothered in Iberia or Ireland, or Scotland.... and I haven't really played anywhere else.
The greatest change in difficulty comes from AI nations building up their counties much, much, quicker than your own due to the +50% tax on very hard. This leads to significant differences in the amount of manpower available on a per province basis for much of the game, but is particularly noticeable in the middle game when the AI nations will have ramped up most or all of the income buildings and many of the army buildings in their provinces [at the tech level they are at], while your own vassals are likely to only have a few income buildings and army buildings in their provinces.

Additionally, the significant boosts to AI morale means that AI armies seldom flee before they are nearly eradicated while the hit to the players' armies morale means the player needs to take care to stack odds a bit more in their own favour or risk destruction in the pursuit phase, because they'll break much easier. But since players always try to stack the odds in their own favour anyhow and since this is usually easy to do, it isn't very noticeable.

I'll certainly agree that the "very hard" and "hard" labels are nothing of the sort, but they do significantly stack the odds against you - it is just that the game is so very, very, easy at heart. (In singleplayer)
 
I usually change the files to add a -10 general opinion modifier, change the stewardship bonus to demesne size so I can never have more than 6-7 even at high legalism and add a -25% global income modifier for the player. That helps a bit towards making the game more of a challenge.

Oh and difficulty is changed in gameplay options before you start a game.
 
This topic induced me to respond. I play on hard, and have had multiple claims fabricated on me yet never pushed.

To be fair I was strong at these times, and the fabricators were way too little to be screwing with me. (land and militarily)
So I am assuming the AI takes into account how bad you can thrash them?
 
This topic induced me to respond. I play on hard, and have had multiple claims fabricated on me yet never pushed.

To be fair I was strong at these times, and the fabricators were way too little to be screwing with me. (land and militarily)
So I am assuming the AI takes into account how bad you can thrash them?

If there is an issue, I think it is that the AI doesn't seem very good at deciding where to fabricate claims. Tiny counts fabricate claims on large duchies etc. They sensibly don't push them, but they probably shouldn't be fabricating claims in the first place.

I've not found any issue with a stronger AI being unwilling to fight me. Depending where you start you can get a whole game where that sort of situation never happens, but other games I've had to fight for my life.

Edit: I play on normal.
 
I've played first game on hard, 2 others on very hard (still in patch 1.04). And I am always attacked by someone. France and HRE like to attack me, even together. My last war (1400 - 1423, vh) I had against them was the most massive war in Europe - HRE (with Africa, Mauretania, Aragony, Norway territory), France (with Portugal and al-Andalus territory), Byzantium against me (realms within 8 kingdoms in Europe), Poland, England / Scotland and Denmark / Castille. Also Sweden which was fighting alone against HRE and France (so I was supporting a bit from Finland ;) ). In the same time we were also involved (me, Rus, Poland, Croatia, Denmark / Castille) in a conflict with Golden Horde and Shia who owned Seljuk / Mesopotamia / Persia. Armies which were against each other were truly huge. Easiest to say - when France attacked my Kingdom of Leon 10 my provinces there were besieged in the same time. Also Shia besieged my Jerusalem - that looked ridiculous - I gathered 100.000 in 3 coastal provinces and they besieged other 10 my provinces there and keep sending additional forces... ;). The only territory on map which stayed out of our conflicts was revolting Ireland and Hungary. That was really fun, but hard. Whenever I missed my army it was crushed by someone ;) So I had to be really carefull while fighting it... ;)