Er...is this game too easy for anyone else?

[unmerged(4344)]

Try a game as an American nation. Or Zimbabwe.

For that matter, try a game as Granada. Your goal is to take over the Iberian peninsula. If you can do it one time in ten, you're better at this game than I. Very hard, aggressive, 1.08.

Try a game using the latest beta. I guarantee you it will be harder for your style of play. You will learn to respect BB.

Try a game where you have greater goals that just controlling Europe. Try a WC. Try a World Colonization, or World Citification, or World Conversion. Try a game where your goal is to unify Islam with the Shi'ite faith. Try a game where your goal is to unify all of Europe under Islam.

 

[unmerged(25633)]

...Or playing as Spain, beginning in 1492, adopt the goal of extirpating (meaning conversion as well as conquest) the Islamic, Reformed and Protestant Faiths on the Very Hard/Cowardly setting...

[Would love to read an AAR for that!]

Best,

The Corsair

 

[unmerged(42005)]

Yea I play the same as you do always taking over shit it's fun. I usually play the Ottomans though and have not played sweden yet. Try the Prussians they are fun to play with a lot of enemies everywhere but if you really want a challange try Albania.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Well, I haven't tried playing as you do, I usually play more conservative. I like playing as Portugal in Age of Exploration and just trying to clonize the Americas. In an MP LAN game with my friend I was Portugal and he was Spain. We allied and agreed on where we would get to colonize but I kept losing stability from attacking all those American nations. The only American nations left are the Huron, the Dakota, and the Inca. We are planning on exporting it to Victoria when we're done. If you really want a challenge, try playing more conservative then exporting to Victoria (if you have it I mean). Anyway, one of my favorite games is where I am Muscovy in GC vanilla 1.08. I immediately cancelled my vassalization with the Golden Horde, declared war on them, and fought a 9 year war with them in which I gained about half their territory.

 

[unmerged(7823)]

Try any of the Balkan states, and tell me it isn't hard.

 

[Justinian_A]

Yeah...playing just to conquer with a European province is too easy, and it's boring. I prefer to set goals for myself...last one I played was as Austro-Hungary. My goals were threefold- Unite Germany as AH, keep the title of Emperor of the HRE, and vanquish protestant and reformed religion from my empire. I didn't worry about Islam since I force-vassalized all non-state cultures. (Although, I did have a couple orthodox/sunni provinces to convert in the Slavonic Balkans.) It was alot of fun, and I eradicated the final protestant holdout (Brandenburg) just a few years before the game ended.

 

[ProfCC]

It certainly can be easy, as many are stating, because the AI is simply not astute enough compared to a human. By all means go with Daywalker's mod or some other AI mods. But in the end, its still a computer. THus, as some are hinting, you have to add your own kind of limits to make it more challenging. You certainly must play on the hardest setting. The BB thing has no point without that since (AFAIK) the BB wars are only on that hardest setting. And you need the AI set at coward or worse to ensure historical accuracy and to protect the AI from killing itself.

Do that. It won't become so hard as to be unplayable and in the end, as with most of us here, you should easily be able to paint the world your color. But a WC isn't really the point of this game (though it can be for you--the joy of this game with absolutely NO CLEAR victory goals---and the points are useless as a guide), so it becomes much harder when you are limiting yourself in some ways hinted at, or perhaps make yourself stay somewhat historical with a minor group.

 

[Storey]

Anyone play as the Mameluks? They seem pretty interesting.

They are interesting to play. You start off with Shiite as the state religion but all your provinces are Christian, Sunni or Orthodox. So when your first province converts to Shiite you have four religions to balance. Makes for a fragile situation when you’re at war for as little a two to three years.

Joe

 

[unmerged(5205)]

They are interesting to play. You start off with Shiite as the state religion but all your provinces are Christian, Sunni or Orthodox. So when your first province converts to Shiite you have four religions to balance. Makes for a fragile situation when you’re at war for as little a two to three years.

Joe

I think if you could deal with that than the Mamelukes could be a strong nation to play since your armies have a morale bonus. Combine that with good domestic policies and you'll have a pretty good army

 

[unmerged(1047)]

Note that carlec's point about BB points is misleading - yes, the true badboy wars only happen on Very Hard, but even on lower difficulty levels, a high BB score will cause AI's to be unusually aggressive toward you and mess you up in a few other small ways (diplomacy, stability costs, etcetera.)

 

[Storey]

I think if you could deal with that than the Mamelukes could be a strong nation to play since your armies have a morale bonus. Combine that with good domestic policies and you'll have a pretty good army

Quite true. What was a problem was if I fell below +1 stability I had a plus 1 revolt risk in several provinces and this was without tax collectors. Once you add tax collectors then add a war lasting for a few years, stir in a few stability events and soon your around +10 or higher revolt risk in all your provinces. Since you're a large country it takes a long time to recover stability so you have some hard choices to make. However if you're careful and ally with Persia there are some great opportunities for expansion. A difficult country but not by any means impossible.

Joe

 

[DSYoungEsq]

I'm going to break my self-imposed silence here simply to confirm the OP.


Yes, the game is much too easy. For all its complexity, it is not challenging. The fun is in the permutations, and in learning about the history of some new nation. But even with the most difficult starting scenario you can imagine, good play will result in complete domination because the AI provided with the game simply cannot keep a human of moderate skill from winning.

Hence, the fun of MP, where you end up challenged by wars that you can, and do, lose.