Slitherine

I've been playing this game off and on since December and I am really impressed with the AI. I am a huge fan of the time period, especially the English Civil Wars. I've played a number of different wargames both at the tactical and strategic level. I have played Field of Glory, and was pretty good at least against the AI. My issue with Pike and Shot is I basically cannot win, and even playing the tutorials has not helped much. I like that the AI is more challenging than in FOG and is harder to flank, but this is getting ridiculous. From Breitenfield to Marston Moor, Newbery to Adwalton Moor, Tutorial 3 to Stratton, and Lutzen to Naseby I've lost every historical battle I've played though I did come close a couple times. I couldn't even win the first battle in the Thirty Years War Campaign... I'm playing on the middle tier difficulty (Sargent Major)

One big issue I have is with the way firing works. I like the fact that the infantry fires during the other players turn (or residual) but this seems to cause me way more problems than the AI. Oftentimes when attacking a majority of my infantry will be disordered and yet when I am defending the reverse does not happen. For the cavalry I am struggling badly to get flank attacks and yet the AI seems to get a ton on me... usually due to a unit or two in a line falling back at a bad moment. Should I space my cavalry out more, or is that going to make things worse. Artillery seems... useless. A couple of the battle briefings tell you to relay on it, but in most of my experiences artillery doesn't do that much disordering damage to the AI. AI's sometimes does real damage to me, but oftentimes not.

I understand why the game puts the player on the weaker side for most battles, but I do find that makes it a little more difficult to learn. In FOG or any historical tactical game like it (Civil War Generals 2 anyone?) I'd load up a historical battle I'm interested in that the side I'm playing had the advantage (Say Nasbey as Parliament or Adwalton Moor as Royalists) to learn... but since I cannot do that, I'm open to any tactics, strategy, or tips you guys have for me.

Final question... is there any way to speed up the game? I have game speed at 100% and I still find it takes way too long to play. One battle takes up an entire evening of playing and then some. While I have no problem playing longer games (RE: AGEOD) I'm not so sure I want Stratton to take up over two days worth of free time.

Firstly, the default setting is Colonel so maybe you are making things hard on yourself playing on Sergeant Major General level before you start winning games. Secondly, it is worth training yourself up on Skirmishes where you are usually at less of a disadvantage in points. (Almost none at Colonel level). The constructed scenarios are designed to be reasonably challenging, because once you have beaten them you may not want to play them repeatedly. Many of them also take rather longer to play than skirmishes because the armies have to get into position before fighting.

There is advice on how to beat various scenarios here: viewforum.php?f=320

Artillery does not usually cause heavy casualties, but always creates a morale test modifier even if it causes no casualties. For best effect you need to shoot at the enemy with some small arms as well.

Sadly the game cannot be speeded up beyond 100% for reasons connected with the engine.

The default difficulty is definitely the middle setting. Am not near the game atm, but I'm pretty sure that's not Colonel.

Waldorf wrote:The default difficulty is definitely the middle setting. Am not near the game atm, but I'm pretty sure that's not Colonel.

Strictly speaking, you are correct. However, if you play any of the tutorial scenarios, the difficulty is set to Colonel. Hence Colonel is the effective default setting unless you elect not to bother with the tutorials when you first install the game.

The historical scenarios were originally designed to be mainly played at Sergeant Major General difficulty. However, several of the beta testers felt that the starting difficulty for new players should be Colonel. Hence the tutorials set the difficulty to Colonel.

Once you change the Difficulty Level, however, it will stay at whatever you have set it as unless you replay one of the tutorial scenarios (in which case it will revert to Colonel).

I genuinely do not think that is the case unless you changed it in a patch. I played all the tutorials before starting the TYW campaign, have never changed the difficulty, and am at the middle setting.

There is a chance I could have started a single historical scenario to have a look, then played all the tutorials, then gone back to the TYW, but then if it works as you describe then I should have been shunted back to Colonel when I started the tutorials.

I don't think this is worth worrying about, but I think unless a patch changed things, new players can at least choose a combination of starting games that will leave them on the middle setting without changing anything. Like I did.

Waldorf wrote:I don't think this is worth worrying about, but I think unless a patch changed things, new players can at least choose a combination of starting games that will leave them on the middle setting without changing anything. Like I did.

It appears so.

The engine does default to the middle difficulty (Sergeant Major General). The tutorials reset this to Colonel difficulty, but only if the player has never previously set the difficulty level. Setting the difficuly level would include clicking on the current difficulty button without changing it.

However, the real point is that the OP should not feel any shame over reducing the difficulty level until he feels confident enough to raise it again.