Best settings for the most realistic campaign

[kc87]

Anyone care to share their settings for the most realistic/hardest campaign playthrough with a challenging AI?

[RebelYell]

There are several threads discussing this.

You need some luck that the AI has a good game and you need to keep from exploiting it.


Best game is against a human and is totally different, you cant really speak about the same game, a human will exploit the game engine and your mistakes.

[GraniteStater]

Depends on what side you're playing, too.

Union: I give Athena good detection and plus aggressive. <=+1 Activation .

CSA: Athena has to squint; Plus aggressive. +1, +2 Activation.

Colonel can kick your brass. Lieutenant is OK. Putting the AI on Colonel when playing the CSA - I've never tried. I've beaten Athena on Colonel as the Union.

But I haven't played the AI in quite a while. Prefer PbeM. Note that PbeM cannot give any advantages like LT or COL. It's straight up, no extra speed for Jackson. So, in a way, the AI can be its own challenge.

[Gray Fox]

As the South, I just crush the Union ASAP, so I usually play the Union versus Athena as the CSA. I use the following settings for AI: Colonel, "Use all Behaviors" on, Normal activation bonus, the recommended low detection with normal aggressiveness and "Give AI more time" on. She was able to fight well into 1863. I then switched to her side and moved the capital from Richmond. She was able to continue as the CSA, but her units were no longer coordinated in a defense. I don't know if that would fit your definition of realistic, but Athena put up a good fight for Cairo with lots of battles. Good luck!

[Jameson]

I have been messing with the traffic setting, does anybody use it and know the levels and amounts of troops it takes to go through a single province before they start taking COH damage?