How does the difficulty setting effect the game?

[Komutan]

I could not find the answer either in the game or in the manual. What does higher difficulty do? More enemy units? Enemy units with better stats? Better AI?

[VPaulus]

I could not find the answer either in the game or in the manual. What does higher difficulty do? More enemy units? Enemy units with better stats? Better AI?

Better AI, there are two levels of AI. Probably it's more aggressive.
Enemy units have more strength.

[Kaiser]

That's a good question. Does anyone else have more details on this? I would like to know how the AI changes at each level. thanks.

[VPaulus]

Sorry, I just checked, it's not 2 levels of AI, but 3.
The first two levels use the basic AI level, Colonel plays on intermediate, and all the higher levels use advanced AI level.

[Komutan]

Enemy units have more strength.

Can you elaborate?

Thanks for the info by the way.

[VPaulus]

Enemy units have more strength.

Can you eloborate?

Thanks for the info by the way.

Consider the strength has being the number of unit effectives. That number under the unit designate the strength.
In higher levels, that number is bigger than 10.

[TheGrayMouser]

Enemy units have more strength.

Can you eloborate?

Thanks for the info by the way.

Consider the strength has being the number of unit effectives. That number under the unit designate the strength.
In higher levels, that number is bigger than 10.

So in effect at higher AI levels, the AI units are "overstrengthed" . Um, does this overstrengthing correspond to their experiance level? ie 1 star can overstrength up to 11 sp's, a 5 star up to 15 sp's ?

[Kerensky]

On Sergeant, all enemy units have a -5 strength modifier, some reduced AI ability, and the player has experience bonuses.
On Colonel, there are no strength or experience modifiers for each side, and the AI plays at an average level.
On Field Marshal, there are no strength modifiers, but the player receives a negative experience modifier, and the AI plays to the best of it's ability.

For anyone who thinks Field Marshal is still too easy... there's a surprise.

[staripas]

Field Marshal too easy? Haha. i lost 15 hours in pain to beat Field Marshal diff campaign. No chance, even when i save every turn. And i was playin PG for years. I cant achive victory on low countries ( 1939 campaign). Maybe i could do marginal victory, but decisive no chance. Wonder what suprise is, heh.

[SurajS]

Well what i want to say is that all depends on the levels of AI. in the Field Marshal i think AI are so gruelsome and with the negative modifier set in it. I think best of the gaming does comes from there only. http://forums.techarena.in/video-games/1418379.htm

[Regis]

On Sergeant, all enemy units have a -5 strength modifier, some reduced AI ability, and the player has experience bonuses.
On Colonel, there are no strength or experience modifiers for each side, and the AI plays at an average level.
On Field Marshal, there are no strength modifiers, but the player receives a negative experience modifier, and the AI plays to the best of it's ability.

For anyone who thinks Field Marshal is still too easy... there's a surprise.

And what about Lieutenant and General? Also - you should probably add some tooltips, explaining the difference in the nearest patch.

[MikeAP]

Is Leiutenant 0 strength modifier?

[Kerensky]

Lieutenant and General are the inbetween of the other 3.
The only modes with strength modifiers are Sergeant... and the bonus difficulty.

[Regis]

Lieutenant and General are the inbetween of the other 3.
The only modes with strength modifiers are Sergeant... and the bonus difficulty.

Well, to be precise - my point was "Is there any difficulty level, where AI plays at its best and has no advantages, or disadvantages", i.e. level of difficulty, where player and computer have the same capabilities, and the AI utilizes its intelligence to the fullest. That's why i asked about General. Sooo.. is there?

[MikeAP]

Lieutenant and General are the inbetween of the other 3.
The only modes with strength modifiers are Sergeant... and the bonus difficulty.

Well, to be precise - my point was "Is there any difficulty level, where AI plays at its best and has no advantages, or disadvantages", i.e. level of difficulty, where player and computer have the same capabilities, and the AI utilizes its intelligence to the fullest. That's why i asked about General. Sooo.. is there?

Sounds like General is the hardest it gets without an advantage

[Razz1]

The most difficult setting is a human in Multi player.

Go to Design Center thread to upload a couple of games.

[dshaw62197]

The most difficult setting is a human in Multi player.

I couldn't agree more. While the AI does a decent job, it's nothing compared to seeing just how different people plan and react in a scenario.

I'm not a big fan of MP games, but I've been pleasantly surprised by PzC.

[Longasc]

I think this needs some clarification:

I am not sure what exactly the difference between General and Field Marshal is.

But beating the CAMPAIGN (1939 - don't know if the others work as well) at Field Marshal level unlocks THREE extra difficulty levels named after famous Generals. These are Field Marshal+ = the same but you get a different penalty depending on which of the three extra-FM difficulties you chose.

Hint: You can cheat through if you want to unlock them right away. It's up to you!

[johndoe2]

I’m sorry but the AI is equally imbecilic on any level when it comes to attack. Italy and Overlord (I tried them in long campaign mode) are glaring examples. Italy doesn’t feel that bad because of the closed terrain so the units have no place to maneuver and have to clash regardless. But on the open terrain of Overlord it’s just painful to watch. I have restarted the game five times to check the behavior of the AI and find it was consistently ‘imbecilic’. The overwhelming superiority of the AI aviation is simply not utilized. The AI manages few uninspired attacks and settles all air units in the lower middle of the map doing absolutely nothing. It just sits there. And even when the big land push commences the skies remain empty, there is no support of the AI land units. There is no attempt to win any ground above Paris. Also the main attack comes on exactly same place - a very narrow front on the lover left of the map. I won’t comment on the idiocy of the wheeled units placed next to Tiger II’s because that apparently will be addressed. AI needs to ‘learn’ how to push trough, bypass, win ground rather than hit the anvil of the Tiger II’s. I haven’t played PG/PG2 in ages but I do remember this scenario being one of the hardest. To me Overlord is completely failed, so taking account how it was done in past might help getting it better now.
PS
By the way - where are the famous pathfinders in this scenario?

[Korrigan]

I think this has been asked somewhere before, but I can't find an answer:
Does the AI "cheat" (on FM or any difficulty) in combat "random rolls"? Its too much of a coincidence that I am getting worse results than average and AI gets better results...