Making SP harder

[MaxWilson]

I've been playing with --comptrn on lately and it really is a lot of fun, but the problem is that the computer is really horrid at picking good troops, even with the BI mod on. So you get these horribly large chaffy armies, and they have a couple of big battles and lose a lot of guys fighting each other, and then the fun is over. Not to mention the carnage that happens when you-the-human start chucking thugs and SCs into the mix, destroying those stupidly large armies utterly.

I have a longer-standing policy to always play with a HouseRules.dm mod open, and it turns out that it increases entertainment value vastly if the computer is using decent troops and summons. The easiest way to do this is to find a large army that he already has, and change one of the worthless troop types into something better with #copystats. In my current game, all of Lanka's Atavi Infantry have become Rakshasa Warriors, the Bandars have become Danava's with extra regen thrown in on top, and the Bandar Commanders are now Mandehas (which come for free with PD 1), all of them with gcost 5. The computer is still relatively poor at building them, but battles are a lot more interesting. EA Ermor has a bunch of trolls and war trolls mixed in with their legionnaires, and MA Mictlan has mostly jaguar and eagle warriors plus devils. You can still keep it generally thematic--trolls fit in with the Ermorian motif of solid infantry sluggers--but it sure makes battles a lot more entertaining. Increasing magic paths for everyone might be a good idea too.

The thing is, you don't have to do this all at the beginning. If one nation is too weak you can give it boosts as time goes along. That's why Lanka got the Danavas this time...

-Max