moderate too easy, hard too hard for me

[saiyamond]

moderate is too easy but on hard I keep loosing, try to make archer rush but the enemy always recovers and once it builds up later in the game it is not beatable for me anymore

[Kinvadren]

Try playing against more than one Moderate AI. Or do a team game with you and an AI vs 2 or 3 teamed up enemy AIs. I find having another "player" to gang up on you isn't as big of a game breaker as increasing the difficulty level of the AI.

Also, you might try going against a Moderate HD AI or different level CD AI. Those two versions of the game had different AI. Choose the AI type by clicking the drop down box on the AI and selecting the type to use.

Hope that helps you find a more balanced game :)

The other option is to just keep learning and practicing and hopefully getting good enough to take on a harder AI. But when the disparity between Moderate and Hard seems so large, it's unclear how much you can actually learn when Moderate isn't much of a challenge.

As an example, I've been playing semi-casually for years and despite watching tutorials and practice and having a pretty good build order, I've still not improved enough to do well against the Hard AI. It just doesn't seem to be in me. But I still enjoy the game.

[sinsro]

Try using pause (F3) to be able to give orders more efficiently. This way you can establish more complex strategies, like attacking the enemy from two sides at a time, and you don't need to worry about giving wrong commands in the heat of the battle or to be unable to have time to manage your idle villagers at the same time as you fight.

[Kinvadren]

Originally posted by sinsro:

Try using pause (F3) to be able to give orders more efficiently. This way you can establish more complex strategies, like attacking the enemy from two sides at a time, and you don't need to worry about giving wrong commands in the heat of the battle or to be unable to have time to manage your idle villagers at the same time as you fight.

Ohhhh good idea. I'll try that :)

[Ëvïlnïck8 ゴゴゴ]

I am having the same issue, moderate AI rarley builds up a large army late game while hard AI is already the doorstep during castle age with a bunch off knights or archers with pikemen. And even in in 3v3 or 4v4 with AI allies the individuel AI's just build the same small army late game, so its still not much off a challange.
I have not yet tried to switch the different AI versions but I will try to play vs HD AI next time I play, I geuss you could try it aswell, The other 2 AI's are not as good as the new AI.

[Kinvadren]

Originally posted by Ëvïlnïck8:

I am having the same issue, moderate AI rarley builds up a large army late game while hard AI is already the doorstep during castle age with a bunch off knights or archers with pikemen. I have not yet tried to switch the different AI versions but I will try to play vs HD AI next time I play, I geuss you could try it aswell, The other 2 AI's are not as good as the new AI.

Yup I find the same thing. Looking at the timeline charts of games vs the Hard AI, I see that they're already building an army once they hit Feudal and they're pumping units to attack by the time castle comes around. I've got an okay build order but not good enough to defend against that. I think the advantage AI has is that it can micromanage all its villagers and buildings and armies at once, so it's able to continue building its economy even while attacking while you're just struggling to survive.

Though even vs a Moderate AI yesterday I was having an awful time because it was spamming Onagers with Spearmen against me. I had a score of 20,000 and he had 12,000. I had 3 or 4 times the army he had but he had 8 Onagers with 3 or 4 spearmen each blocking and taking down my cavalry. I did eventually win after 3 hours, but it was really painful.

[BIG E.]

Originally posted by tavren_elkair:

Originally posted by Ëvïlnïck8:

I am having the same issue, moderate AI rarley builds up a large army late game while hard AI is already the doorstep during castle age with a bunch off knights or archers with pikemen. I have not yet tried to switch the different AI versions but I will try to play vs HD AI next time I play, I geuss you could try it aswell, The other 2 AI's are not as good as the new AI.

Yup I find the same thing. Looking at the timeline charts of games vs the Hard AI, I see that they're already building an army once they hit Feudal and they're pumping units to attack by the time castle comes around. I've got an okay build order but not good enough to defend against that. I think the advantage AI has is that it can micromanage all its villagers and buildings and armies at once, so it's able to continue building its economy even while attacking while you're just struggling to survive.

Though even vs a Moderate AI yesterday I was having an awful time because it was spamming Onagers with Spearmen against me. I had a score of 20,000 and he had 12,000. I had 3 or 4 times the army he had but he had 8 Onagers with 3 or 4 spearmen each blocking and taking down my cavalry. I did eventually win after 3 hours, but it was really painful.

I took down moderate pretty quick with byzantine cataphracts but yeah hard AI is a bit more faster then moderate. The best improvement i made against hard AI was surviving raiding groups and loosing a castle age battle, i was so close tho. So maybe if you try to focus on early military or walls to defend yourself against raids maybe you can do it. Well you will beat it eventually i was struggling with moderate same way before getting stuck at hard. Btw if you can beat first castle age army from hard AI next battle will be quite big because AI will spam UU(unique units).

[Kinvadren]

Originally posted by Icefrog:

Originally posted by tavren_elkair:

Yup I find the same thing. Looking at the timeline charts of games vs the Hard AI, I see that they're already building an army once they hit Feudal and they're pumping units to attack by the time castle comes around. I've got an okay build order but not good enough to defend against that. I think the advantage AI has is that it can micromanage all its villagers and buildings and armies at once, so it's able to continue building its economy even while attacking while you're just struggling to survive.

Though even vs a Moderate AI yesterday I was having an awful time because it was spamming Onagers with Spearmen against me. I had a score of 20,000 and he had 12,000. I had 3 or 4 times the army he had but he had 8 Onagers with 3 or 4 spearmen each blocking and taking down my cavalry. I did eventually win after 3 hours, but it was really painful.

I took down moderate pretty quick with byzantine cataphracts but yeah hard AI is a bit more faster then moderate. The best improvement i made against hard AI was surviving raiding groups and loosing a castle age battle, i was so close tho. So maybe if you try to focus on early military or walls to defend yourself against raids maybe you can do it. Well you will beat it eventually i was struggling with moderate same way before getting stuck at hard. Btw if you can beat first castle age army from hard AI next battle will be quite big because AI will spam UU(unique units).

Thanks for the tips. I do probably wall up way too late. And I definitely take too long to start building any kind of military. VS Moderate its fine because they don't usually rush much.

[Jon_ChaewonHK]

Have you competed the challenge mode (Sunzi) all in gold?

[Kinvadren]

I haven't done any of the tests or challenges. I probably should, do get a better read on exactly where I'm already strong and where I still need a lot of work. It's awesome that the game now has such a system where you can test and practice specific strategies and builds.