I had a game last night against English Hardest AI 1vs1 as a Rus. It took more than 2 hours for me to beat him until we both ran out of resources on Hill and Dale Map.
My strategy with English or French seems not to work with Rus against English Hardest AI becoz the resource production seems slower. Getting Tier 3 (500) Bounty seems long. It seems food and lumber takes a while to get to massive numbers where I cant overwhelm the Hardest AI army early that rushes seems hard. So I have to resort to slow/defensive strat.
I also cant do Stone Wall abuse with AI as Rus dont have Stonewalls. You know where you put OP Stone towers and also put Range units above it. AI seems stupid to die on those. ROFL. But Rus dont have Stone Walls.
Without Early Rush and Stone Walls, you cant abuse the stupidity of Hardest AI. With this, I have to play it normally without a big advantage. ROFL.
Many times the AI put Wonder and even occupied 3 Sacred Sites forcing me to suicide my army just to avoid the AI to win on those. So with my suicide units, I have to rebuild them over and over. That’s why it took me more than 2 hours to beat it. Oh I have to complete the Rus Mastery too while on it. ROFL.
Also the AI is clever on putting Scouts and Rams so when you just Attack-Move against his army, you would see your knights chasing scouts or your infantry attack the Rams. Hey stupid army of mine, attack his Cavalry and Infantry. And I have to micro my Horsemen/Knights to run around and attack the AI’s Range and Siege Units… It’s micro intensive… not an Attack-Move becoz of the ROFL game mechanics.
Anyway, I am not complaining. It’s so fun to play against Hardest AI as Rus especially when the AI keeps on sending massive units. Maybe I suck as Rus but so far the Hardest AI is 10/10 for me. I am having fun and having a blast.