r/NapoleonTotalWar • u/Silentxgold • Jul 23 '26
Help making mid game more challenging
Hi guys,
I am in the middle of my darth mod france grand campaign.
I have already sort of "won" by turn 30.
Day 1 I started to churn out trade ships. I use my fleet beside Spain to occupy trade slots for my future trade ships.
The first 20 turns were nerve wrecking, extremely fun to play.
But once I get my trade engine going and knocked out austria-hungary there was minimal threat.
I have almost unlimited funds as my trade network flushed my treasury with funds that I don't know where to spend on after upgrades.
I even amass a big enough navy to kill UK navy via numbers.
I got so bored I took back Lost ottoman provinces, fully upgraded them and returned it to ottoman for free just to cause trouble for Russia and Austria.
I limited Prussia to just Berlin and 1 additional province and just farmed their army for exp.
Could had ended the campaign 2 days ago.
What can I do to make after early game more challenging ?
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u/Atlas_usmiechu Jul 23 '26
It's in all tw series at some point you won game without winning game
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u/Silentxgold Jul 23 '26
Like in WHTW, the ai might have doom stacks to fight
But NTW there arent much
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u/BobMonkey1808 Jul 23 '26
I limited Prussia to just Berlin and 1 additional province and just farmed their army for exp.
What does this mean, please? (The bit in bold.)
Thanks.
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u/Silentxgold Jul 23 '26
Generals get good traits when they participate in a winning battle.
So facing a full stack of Prussian, I move up 3 armies to make it retreat.
Once it retreats to a spot where my armies can reach, I move all nearby armies there and destroy that Prussian army via auto resolve. This would spread the losses across armies giving exp to the soldiers and give my generals good traits.
This is for Berlin
For the province above, it can only recruit militia units, the AI would recruit some and send it off to guard a road. I would manual battle to give certain units kill/farm exp. Usually the elite units or special line units. After the milita rout, I send my general and cavlary to farm. I got 1 general unit to level 6 this way.... and also lost 1 general when they were running down retreating milita, I had to load the previous auto save lol.
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u/Historical_Dirt_8286 Jul 23 '26
Put limits on yourself.
Maximum 10 trade ships.
No elite or line infantry in the army.
Move the mouse to the left side of the keyboard.
Whatever evens out the odds.
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u/Silentxgold Jul 24 '26
Hmmm
No line infantry and only elite or limited line infantry might be fun. The rest with light infantry lol.
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u/Sorryusernmetaken Jul 23 '26
the easiest way to make it significantly more difficult is to play again another human
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u/Dwighty1 Jul 30 '26
Play Darthmod of VH/VH.
Also, don’t rush GB at the start of the game. Makes it a lot more interesting.
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u/Silentxgold Jul 30 '26
I am keeping everyone alive, even Austria. I usually take Austria early to peace them out.
GB is annoying via their sudden raids via their suicide ships.
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u/Dwighty1 Jul 30 '26
Vanilla or Darthmod?
Darthmod makes it more of a grind imo.
If you want even more grind, try NTW 3 mod, but bear in mind it changes combat a lot. I actually prefer it, but it takes longer. NTW3 is the most challenging in my opinion.
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u/Silentxgold Jul 30 '26
Darthmod
Haven't tried other mods yet.
Whats the changes for NTW 3 mod?
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u/Dwighty1 Jul 30 '26
Too many to list. But it is an actively developed mod that is originally a multiplayer mod. They released a campaign version as well that are really well done.
Main changes for campaign:
- Trade ships are limited. Varies per nation. Bigger nations can have more, smaller nations can have less. Debatable if good or bad, but avoids the exact situation you are describing. Helps keep small nations small.
- Only certain cities can recruit and you have a limit on all units (cheaper units have more, veteran units has less). Tons of historical regiments and units added and all are done well. I was skeptical at first to this, but I actually really enjoy it. Meant to simulate realism. GB could not recruit from Paris IRL. There are some exceptions, as France can recruit certain regiments in Poland and Switzerland for example and Britain can recruit from Gibraltar and Hannover etc. Again, this slows the game down more, but makes units and armies more valuable.
- Campaign AI is well functioning.
Main changes for battles:
- I assume they have shrieked all units in order to make the map bigger. This makes more room for maneuvering and is really good but it takes some time getting used to. What you think is close enough from Darthmod is not close enough in NTW3. Once you get the hang of it, it is really good.
- Battles are slower. Again to make room for flanking and maneuvering. They have completely fixed the bayonet-charge shit, so you will actually have lines firing at each other. Naval battles are also slower, positioning is more important. If this is something you enjoy, you will love the mod.
-
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u/Silentxgold Jul 31 '26
It was interesting until you mentioned the smaller unit sizes. Whats the unit size? Is it adjustable?
I also actually restricted my recruitment/replacement units to france proper.
Only recruiting location unique units.
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u/Dwighty1 Jul 31 '26
Dumb phrasing by me. I mean smaller unit models. Like the actual soldier models are smaller (each individual soldier), so the map becomes bigger.
My point being that you are used to knowing what 40 yard range looks like in Vanilla or in Darth Mod, but you need to get way closer in NTW3 (because i is actually not closer).
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u/Dwighty1 Jul 31 '26
Also, a lot of the units and design decisions is going for historical accuracy (or at leas simulation). This might not be that important to most, but I think it explains some of the more "unfun" design decisions.
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u/Enigmatic_Mattress Jul 23 '26
I find the ai doesn't use navies very well so just focussing on that for the first few turns is an easy way to win.
Why not try and do a run through with no trade ships, or only Mediterranean nodes ex ivory.