Hard mode Byzantine Empire is nuts

[Fading]

So long story short, started my Armenian campaign as King Ashot in 867 to restore Greater Armenia. Have been playing only hard mode(2 100-120 year playthroughs since patch) but all quiet far from ERE and noticed that ERE is always enormous and very powerful. So this campaign was initially set up to be hard but i've never expected to be THAT HARD.

Depending on the emperor they can raise from 20 to 50k+ MaA and usually have 10k+ gold, so even if i defeat them at suitable terrain/castle holding 2-3 times they will raise 10k mercs and i'm doomed.

That's probably the longest campaign i've ever played in ck3 ever cause preparations like taking traditions and stacking MaA modifiers takes awhile.

Even this is not enough. I can almost stackwipe Arabian Empire's 30k+ armies but fights with Byzantine are still close with even numbers.

Got incapable trait so i'm not gonna continue this campaign anyway(game also goes very slow at this point, so no fun). I need probably 30+ years of preparation and many more culture innovations to be able to win at least 1 war anyway. Even with very bad Emperors they are still able to run me over, 6+ mercenaries hired doesnt solve this problem cause they are able to hire x2 times minimum.

Couple more screenshots to provide more info:

That's one of the least wealthy emperors in awhile, his predecessors had more gold at the start of reign(that's his treasury after white peace war with me. He started with 300 gold so i took my shot), but anyway with income like this they will get to 10-20k+ gold stacked in 5 years.

Idk how many wars i got against them, but i feel that i'm fighting against Roman Empire during pax romana.


Writing this post to get some help. I need advice(maybe i'm dumb) or mods, preferably mods compatible with current game version to nerf this end game crisis just a little bit/make it more historic.

 

[Cyhort]

The way you nerf it is by not playing on hard. Devs said hard/very hard was going to be super unbalanced.

 

[Stoner_Saint]

I like this it forces you to actually think about what to do next its a challenge. It gives you a reason to submit and become someone's vassal, it may not be for everyone though I feel it turns the game from a medieval fantasy to a challenging survival game.

 

[Drakken]

Oh no, beating the AI on Hard is actually... hard.

 

[Fading]

The way you nerf it is by not playing on hard. Devs said hard/very hard was going to be super unbalanced.

The thing with hard mode is that it has a good balance imo except Byz. Playing far away from them is hard but manageable. Playing near them or trying to take something from byz is just too much, no one can raise 25k+ maa in 1100 and get 10k mercs. I dont want to play normal at this point, so i'm trying to fix the only issue that bothers me on hard.

 

[Fading]

Oh no, beating the AI on Hard is actually... hard.

Beating any ai on hard is relatively easy except byz

 

[X_FloW]

The way you nerf it is by not playing on hard. Devs said hard/very hard was going to be super unbalanced.

Byzantines are op with or without hard difficulty, they need a nerf either way

 

[Cyhort]

Byzantines are op with or without hard difficulty, they need a nerf either way

They tend to implode in about half my games so I wouldn't say they're inherently OP. In some games? Sure, they spread everywhere. But in others they're lucky to hold onto Anatolia.

 

[strattonthebard]

They tend to implode in about half my games so I wouldn't say they're inherently OP. In some games? Sure, they spread everywhere. But in others they're lucky to hold onto Anatolia.

Honestly I see all these posts about how OP Byzantium is but this is much closer to my experience, they lose Anatolia in most of my games and I often see them get completely eradicated

 

[Benismann]

The way you nerf it is by not playing on hard. Devs said hard/very hard was going to be super unbalanced.

People have been pointing out how OP admin is EVEN FOR AI before hard/vh were a thing, that's not a new issue

 

[AchedTeacher]

 

[Fading]

Honestly I see all these posts about how OP Byzantium is but this is much closer to my experience, they lose Anatolia in most of my games and I often see them get completely eradicated

They are too stable on hard, 0 chance that they can lose anything to AI. Frankokratia is not the big deal for byz either and in my experience even on normal there are rarely enough troops joining splintered crusade to defeat byz

 

[Fading]

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Fair meme but imo that's exactly the problem. Hard difficulty should be split in bunch of sliders for example recruiting courtiers through marriage is very op, it shouldnt be baseline on normal for sure. On the other hand -30% ai merc recruitment cost is just unnecessary, ai is rich enough already.

Adding more tuning/flexibilities for harder difficulties would make more ppl satisfied with game difficulty.

And dont forget that normal doesnt provide any challenge at all, so players are currently stuck between 0 challenge mode and hard/very hard, no in-between. Out of all paradox games(that i've played) stellaris does it best, commondore difficulty setting is just great.

 

[The Shacks]

Turn the Dark Ages mod on too so that the game is constantly demanding you spend all your money or get hit by massive maluses And you randomally die cos someone is p*** off at you fr no reason.

 

[Benismann]

Turn the Dark Ages mod on too so that the game is constantly demanding you spend all your money or get hit by massive maluses And you randomally die cos someone is p*** off at you fr no reason.

Hey that's my criticisms of it, dont steal! :Р