Difficulty level and AI performance

[gchristie]

Hi,

In Das24680's Let's Play videos he increased the difficulty level from normal to hard and in his sixth video he says a couple times that he believes that the AI more competently manages its forces. He's speculating and hoping that is true and from watching the videos it seems to me that the AI does a better job of keeping their forces together, retreating rather than getting annihilated, and trying to move their siege weapons forward.

I've only been playing on normal so I will give hard a try.

My question is does increasing the difficulty help the AI perform better on the tactical level?

The manual needs fleshing out, here is all it says, "Settings: This will open up a panel that allows you to modify the settings that your game uses, including Screen Resolution, Sound Volume and How many tips you wish to have displayed.

Note: The Difficulty Level is also found in the Settings Panel. The default is Normal. Harder difficulty levels give the AI realms bonuses to unit strength and production."

From what I've seen from the developer responses the AI also pays less upkeep on harder difficulty.