Having trouble winning

[MVP7]

Problem with putting up the difficulty to a level where you get close battles is that if your playing a campaign you get penalised further because you're probably going to go over the 15% casualty rate meaning you won't have as much to spend on the next battle, I wish this could be toggled off.

There’s no harm keeping preferred campaign difficulty and skirmish difficultly different. That’s what I do.

Yes but I want challenging close fought battles in a campaign, it's too easy on anything less than Governor. Maybe with an increase in the 15% threshold on higher difficulties so you don't get that additional hit to your carry over force. Can this be modded?

But isn't the lower difficulty challenging enough if your goal is to keep your losses below 15% and the army growing rather than just achieving a Pyrrhic victory? You could start the campaign at Legate with progressive difficulty so the campaign would first be about building the army and finally escalate into the Governor level battles where the high losses won't matter any more or start the campaign with static Governor difficulty and see if you can keep going through the entire campaign despite the worsening situation of your army.

[Barrold713]

Here is another plug for the excellent multi-volume videos Michael did on YouTube. There is a new one detailing a Round 1 match from the recent Holiday Tournament...so glad I was not the opponent. I have recommended them for anyone interested in learning stuff that is not apparent even from reading the manual closely.
As for practicing and improving there is a point to getting the basics from the AI. Getting to play other in MP gives the chance to establish some trusted contacts with whom you can play against in practice rounds. Gorrick and I had many preview matches after being opponents in an early round. I won't claim I helped his competitive edge but I clearly benefited from the practice and his efforts.

[bodkin]

But isn't the lower difficulty challenging enough if your goal is to keep your losses below 15% and the army growing rather than just achieving a Pyrrhic victory? You could start the campaign at Legate with progressive difficulty so the campaign would first be about building the army and finally escalate into the Governor level battles where the high losses won't matter any more or start the campaign with static Governor difficulty and see if you can keep going through the entire campaign despite the worsening situation of your army.

Yes playing on progressive difficulty in campaigns is probably the best option for me, I always thought it meant the difficulty went up one level after each battle but after reading the manual again it seems you are correct.

[ahuyton]

I think that playing against the AI is fine for learning the basics, and trying out different deployments and manouevres. However, it is important to remember that a good human intelligence will probably play in a different way and anticipate more.

Playing against good opponents allows you to learn a lot, as I am doing at the moment in an interesting game of Greeks v Persians against stockwellpete. He is using his Iranian armoured cavalry (bows) to great effect, almost as skirmishers, and they are a real nuisance to my plodding hoplites. Very instructive. Also I would recommend to try to use the comments a bit to discuss the game a bit with your opponent. Not only does this make it more friendly but you can get and give some comments on what is happening, without of course giving too much away, but even then I don't think this matters too much in a friendly game.

[Geordietaf]

I think that playing against the AI is fine for learning the basics, and trying out different deployments and manouevres. However, it is important to remember that a good human intelligence will probably play in a different way and anticipate more.

Playing against good opponents allows you to learn a lot, as I am doing at the moment in an interesting game of Greeks v Persians against stockwellpete. He is using his Iranian armoured cavalry (bows) to great effect, almost as skirmishers, and they are a real nuisance to my plodding hoplites. Very instructive. Also I would recommend to try to use the comments a bit to discuss the game a bit with your opponent. Not only does this make it more friendly but you can get and give some comments on what is happening, without of course giving too much away, but even then I don't think this matters too much in a friendly game.

Don't be fooled by this modest front. He keeps beating me handily