Normal Ironman is way too easy. How is Hard Ironman? Does it slow down player?

[Artyom87]

I always play hard ironman

but I wouldnt recommend it with countries like novgorod which are in a very tough spot already. It'll just lead to frustration and restarts

 

[Zak Preston]

I always play hard ironman

but I wouldnt recommend it with countries like novgorod which are in a very tough spot already. It'll just lead to frustration and restarts

How about ironman Theodoro on hard with AI bonuses and hardmode? =((

 

[swm]

How about ironman Theodoro on hard with AI bonuses and hardmode? =((

Eh. Theodoro's start is really just luck based as it is. Also, you're so reliant on allies from the very start (Crimea will DOW you in less than one year, get Georgia and Cicassia on your side to not die) that I don't feel like AI bonuses would actually make the game harder (since your allies get those same bonuses, and your contribution to the alliance is relatively small).

As for difficulty, I don't know how to feel about it. I find the game easy now, but then again I play on normal and I don't feel any desire to increase the difficulty. I don't feel like just handing the AI a bunch of bonuses is really going to make the game more fun. At best it just delays the inevitable snowballing.

Really, the best way to feel more challenged is to set more ambitious goals or give yourself limitations. My Theodoro run would have been far harder had I actually decided to stay Orthodox, for example.

 

[hajutze]

Technically sometimes Crimea doesn't DoW you (because the GH DoWs them )

 

[lordelenath]

Past the first several hundred hours (wow, let's just think about that: how many games have you even played for 100 hours? I'm in my thousands already ...) simple expansion will lose it's challenge with every possible nation. If that is the only reason you play this game, I recommend that you look for something else, because it's not going to become more difficult once you've nailed all mechanics. The only thing you can do is make it more tedious or have your first decades more based on luck.

However it is possible to enjoy the game for almost endless hours (at least I haven't stopped yet) if you're making up your own rules and/or goals. As an example I'm currently playing Netherlands. Not exceptionally difficult at all in general, but I've limited myself to more-or-less historical borders in Europe. That means I'm very vulnerable (to a degree, I'm still the player and obviously better than AI) to the large European land powers even though I'm earning hilarious amounts of cash (1.500 / month in trade alone in 1650). There were some actually dangerous wars in the 16th century (whereas no war would ever be dangerous at that time if you just go all-in maximum expansion rate) because I had exhausted my merc pool and the AI was starting to carpet siege my European holdings. Pretty difficult to get back because I was almost unable to recruit new armies since I had mostly colonized America where I couldn't recruit men overseas (because CNs). One could say: "Well, that was badly played!" and from a game mechanic perspective it was - the difference being that I was aware of that and chose to do it because it's more interesting, challenging and plausible.

This is just an example, but you can aim for similar goals or self-restrictions in every game. Not necessarily making it more difficult every time but to have some sort of achievement past "grow as big as fast as possible". There are many interesting achievements PI added and there are hundreds more you can make up yourself and aim for. The challenge of sandbox games is to make your own rules and goals to enhance game-play and make every game different.

 

[awelltrainedfer]

I just want to say that the fact that there is absolutely no indication about this is silly: Until reading this thread, I was not even aware that you could change ironman settings. All this time I've been trying to get the hardest achievies with hard/AI bonuses, because I thought they were locked in once you select ironman. My god, all that time wasted. The difference in AE from normal to hard alone will make WC 1000x easier.

 

[Zak Preston]

I just want to say that the fact that there is absolutely no indication about this is silly: Until reading this thread, I was not even aware that you could change ironman settings. All this time I've been trying to get the hardest achievies with hard/AI bonuses, because I thought they were locked in once you select ironman. My god, all that time wasted. The difference in AE from normal to hard alone will make WC 1000x easier.

+50% FM, Manpower, -3 Unrestand sh1tload of other sweet boosts... I feel so silly now: I could have so much better starts and have so much less fails without AI bonuses...

 

[lordelenath]

To be honest it doesn't feel entirely intended anyway since you basically have to switch out of ironman to be able to change them at all, then switch back. I would prefer it to simply be possible while Ironman is active and only allow the current difficulty settings to be switched to. Would be more obvious and less complicated.

 

[Thrake]

In my book, AI advantage is much more punishing. OP mentionned Norway; it's not that hard to defend against Sweden with no AI bonuses; now however with AI bonuses and no cheese, Sweden will happily go above FL, end up with twice your army size; taking in account the +20% inf combat abilities and the fact that they have much more men than you and you'll feel as if you had a hudge target painted all over your body. Ofc, allies are powerful counters as they will also have the bonuses, but as a weakling, it's harder to get alliances, AI recovers much faster from wars (higher MP recovery, cheaper men and better economy for the AI), and if your old, powerful and loyal ally happens to break the alliance, then you'll feel terribly alone and will start sweating heavily 'till you get another ally, if you get one in time

Hard will definately slow you down unless you start as blobbo France, but it only slows you down, not decreases the BT limit where you can start bullying the whole world on your own.

 

[Dr. B]

In my book, AI advantage is much more punishing....
Hard will definately slow you down unless you start as blobbo France, but it only slows you down, not decreases the BT limit where you can start bullying the whole world on your own.

Thanks, just what I wondered about when I posted the first question.

Time for a long break from EUIV then. Too bad but when you reach a point where only the first 50-100 years hold any challenge then it is time to do something else.

A farewell drink for wishing that the devs can change the difficulty for the late game up in the future!

 

[Zak Preston]

Thanks, just what I wondered about when I posted the first question.

Time for a long break from EUIV then. Too bad but when you reach a point where only the first 50-100 years hold any challenge then it is time to do something else.

A farewell drink for wishing that the devs can change the difficulty for the late game up in the future!

Try AI bonuses in Ironman when you start as an OPM\TPM
Very nice to see how your 4 province neighbor has 10 FL and 14k army while you are limited with your 5-6k :angry:

 

[myrsl0ken]

So what does hard AI actually mean? Because if it simply increases player AE generation the tooltip is plain misinformation!