Recommended diffuculty? (SFO)

[Ξx⊂ΞLLΞ∩T]

First time playing sfo,experienced total war player.Thinking of pumping up the difficulty in campaign.I just dont want my elite units losing to peasant bowmen and for the diplomacy to not work at all. Thats why I thought I should go for hard/hard but idk.Do you guys know whether or not legendary makes the game less immersive by making AI spam stack after stack like in rome 2 dei? Are the battles making you furious because your elite cavalry cant defeat skavenslaves(Im exaggerating of course for everyone to understand what I mean) May I have your input?Thanks in advance!



TLDR: Want challenge yet I dont want to be cheated on

[David McMurdo]

I'm a Total War veteran too and after two hundred hours I'm still playing on Normal/Normal. It's possible that I just suck, but I'd recommend trying on that. You can always restart if you find yourself steamrolling the enemy, but if this is your first time playing then I highly doubt that.

I have heard players complaining about doom-stacks on legendary, but I know for sure that even many Total War: Warhammer veterans still keep the battle difficulty on Normal due to the ridiculous bonuses that the AI gets on anything higher.

[Ξx⊂ΞLLΞ∩T]

Originally posted by David McMurdo:

I'm a Total War veteran too and after two hundred hours I'm still playing on Normal/Normal. It's possible that I just suck, but I'd recommend trying on that. You can always restart if you find yourself steamrolling the enemy, but if this is your first time playing then I highly doubt that.

I have heard players complaining about doom-stacks on legendary, but I know for sure that even many Total War: Warhammer veterans still keep the battle difficulty on Normal due to the ridiculous bonuses that the AI gets on anything higher.

Τhank you so much for your support! Do you know if Legendary campaign difficulty breaks the diplomacy? I like some challenge because in late game in every total war game I just steamroll the AI.I dont like being cheated in battles so im going for normal.

[wrought82]

i think mostly campaign difficulty gives bonuses to AI economy so it affects how strong and (especially) how many armies AI can field, so my difficulty of choice is very hard/normal, and i wish i could improve ai campaign strength even more, im currently trying out a slow strategy to see how the game feels when you only have ~5-10 provinces turn 100/200. I feel battle difficulty affects early game too much and im already not too keen on the early game. I wish there as a way to start with 3 full provinces and 3 armies, thats usually the part i enjoy the most.

[3 Ducks In a Man Suit]

I play with Hard or Very Hard campaign difficulty and Normal battle difficulty. The battle difficulty doesn't affect the AI, it just gives them stat boosts, which I consider to be "fake difficulty."

[Madi92]

Op said he's playing with SFO wich is totaly different then vanilla.
Veris said once that sfo is one step harder. So vanila hard is normal in sfo.
But that was a long time ago. You can find full changelog about sfo including difficulty changes.

[kekkuli]

Hard/hard is pretty good for sfo. Vh/vh can be pretty tough depending on many factors.

[DEAD RaNgEr 888]

hard/hard should provide a decent challenge.

[Hieronymus]

SFO removes battle bonusses AI get, instead enemy lords start on higher levels and units get free XP. Play on legendary.

[Re degli Ebrei]

Originally posted by Hieronymus:

SFO removes battle bonusses AI get, instead enemy lords start on higher levels and units get free XP. Play on legendary.

Yes and no. SFO removes MORALE bonuses for all difficulties, the others (charge bonus, melee attack an defense, weapon strenght and reload speed) are still there, as in vanilla, 10% for hard and 15% for very hard.

However, the morale stat paired with a bigger debuff to morale for being attacked in the flank or rear (flank: 6 vanilla, 10 sfo, rear: 14 vanilla, 20 sfo) makes so it's actually possible to rout the AI on very hard difficulty.
Lastly, in SFO magic is way more powerful, and since the AI has no idea how to use it, this gives the player an other huge help.

I usually play VH/VH, or H/H if I want to chill. I rarely go Legendary just because I get mad in 40vs40 battles without the possibility to slow down the game. I also play with factionwide caps to avoid retarded doomstacks and cheesing my way to the victory.

SFO description is outdated, don't look at the "SFO is more difficult than vanilla, so choose a difficulty level lower", if anything having more viable options in campaign does make you use your brain a little more (like the defense building spam in vanilla which has basically no downside), and if you use unit caps, which I would suggest, that effect is amplified by a lot.

Go for what you use in vanilla IMO as a first try, or 1 level higher if you want a challenge.

[Homuya]

The higher the difficulty, the more broken the game becomes. Your choice.

Hard is already enough to make people not trade with you despite 250+ relations or factions sniping you across the map while the basic buffs always remain (AI not using gold, insta rebuild armies and such)

[Lampros]

Why not ask on the SFO forum?

[✪︎DΞ︎AD_iwnw]

SFO disables a lot of the AI cheats so play on legendary.

[CRAGNAR]

I have SFO and a total of 92 mods I am running.

Add in Brutal Battles and Overpowered Magic, it really makes charges what they should be. And really forces you to manage your formations against artillery and spell casters.

On Very hard campaign and normal battle difficulty it is tough if you don't immediately start taking 1 province ASAP. Your first 10 turns should be calculated and strategic, and you need to start building a 2nd army immediately by turn if not turn 3.

AI gets massive cheats. Turn 35 or 50 if you review the data, some AI factions have 350K income. HTLF is that even possible? It's not. You will get attacked by large armies, you will fight 20 v 60, it will be a slog in the beginning at times, but play smart at the start, don't be someone's ally unless they are crushing it. Keep your rep high and others will like you.

Above all, the AI keeps to base tactics when it fights battles. Send in a Legendary Lord that can take a beating and tie enemies up. Flank hard. Handgunners are the absolute best thing ever if you have them. Arty is your friend. Magic Pwns. Melee defense makes the world a better place.

I currently play on Legendary Campaign and Either hard or very hard battle difficulty. Thankfully SFO removes a lot of the BS leadership and combat cheats the AI gets. Focus those units you can rout and the rest of the army will soon follow. Unbreakable units just need to be tied up.

Biggest challenge is the money cheats the AI can still achieve. But at the same time, I do have things set up so a ton of armies is normal. By end game it's not unrealistic to have 30 or 40 full stack armies and it isn't necessarily enough.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Originally posted by CRAGNAR:

I have SFO and a total of 92 mods I am running.

Add in Brutal Battles and Overpowered Magic, it really makes charges what they should be. And really forces you to manage your formations against artillery and spell casters.

On Very hard campaign and normal battle difficulty it is tough if you don't immediately start taking 1 province ASAP. Your first 10 turns should be calculated and strategic, and you need to start building a 2nd army immediately by turn if not turn 3.

AI gets massive cheats. Turn 35 or 50 if you review the data, some AI factions have 350K income. HTLF is that even possible? It's not. You will get attacked by large armies, you will fight 20 v 60, it will be a slog in the beginning at times, but play smart at the start, don't be someone's ally unless they are crushing it. Keep your rep high and others will like you.

Above all, the AI keeps to base tactics when it fights battles. Send in a Legendary Lord that can take a beating and tie enemies up. Flank hard. Handgunners are the absolute best thing ever if you have them. Arty is your friend. Magic Pwns. Melee defense makes the world a better place.

I currently play on Legendary Campaign and Either hard or very hard battle difficulty. Thankfully SFO removes a lot of the BS leadership and combat cheats the AI gets. Focus those units you can rout and the rest of the army will soon follow. Unbreakable units just need to be tied up.

Biggest challenge is the money cheats the AI can still achieve. But at the same time, I do have things set up so a ton of armies is normal. By end game it's not unrealistic to have 30 or 40 full stack armies and it isn't necessarily enough.

Fair warning, the overpowered magic mod doesn't actually do anything.

The pac file has a section for % changes to spell cost, cd, and miscast chance but the values by default are all zero. Meaning it changes the SFO defaults by zero percent.

This is easily fixable with a decent mod manager and a PFM but by default it does nothing.

[Venris]

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Guy:

Fair warning, the overpowered magic mod doesn't actually do anything.

The pac file has a section for % changes to spell cost, cd, and miscast chance but the values by default are all zero. Meaning it changes the SFO defaults by zero percent.

This is easily fixable with a decent mod manager and a PFM but by default it does nothing.

That is not true. For example in SFO spells have +50% cd value so in submods its value of 0. Making it -50%. Basic modding things :). Values of same effects replaces each other, do not stack. So if you would do -50% in submod it would mean you have -100% in fact because base SFO value is +50%.

So it all works in campaign as intended.