Question about difficulty levels

[StavrosMelb]

OK, I've been playing Conquests for the last few weeks, so I started out on Chieftain. Anyway, I've managed to win a few games on that level so I decided to start a new game and thought I wanted to pick a harder level, so I picked the next level on the bar, Emperor.

I've been trying to find out if this really is the next level up from Chieftain? It looks like it's Emperor, but I am almost convinced this is not the next level up, it feels a lot harder than I thought it would be!

What order does the level of difficulty go from? Easiest to hardest if anyone could be bothered listing it. Tried looking using the search function but I couldn't find anything so sorry in advance if its been answered countless times.

Thanks in advance guys. Love this game

 

[MangeTonChapeau]

The level after chieftain is Warlord. Emperor is a lot more difficult than Chieftain : in chieftain, the AI suffers lots of penalties, whereas in Emperor it gets production bonus, more units support, faster science...
I suggest you to try regent, a level on which you are roughly on par with the AI, and then try moving up.

 

[White_Knight]

The order of difficulty levels is as follows:

Chieftain - Warlord - Regent - Monarch - Emperor - Demigod (C3C) - Deity - Sid (C3C).

This should be the order they appear on the setup screen, unless you've been screwing around with one of the text files that contains all the text labels.

 

[vmxa]

I would say that if you are not sure of the levels, your probably are not ready for emperor. You could skip Warlord and play Regent as was suggested. That is a good place to see how you are doing and if you need some pointers.

 

[Mathias]

For sake of accuracy, the AI does not get faster science on higher difficulty levels. On levels above Regent, the human player suffers a disadvantage in research costs.

 

[StavrosMelb]

Thanks for the answers, guys.

I'm actually winning this game, I've learnt a lot from reading this forum over the last month, mostly going for a conquest victory since leading by diplomacy and peace is a lot harder when the AI's tend to multi-attack you.

Another question. Is it normal for the AI to attack you once you complete a certain wonder? in this game, I just finished the Apollo program, then quite literally the next turn I had Arabia and the Hitties turn up with literally 50 (each) guerillas and other units on my border cities. I don't think it's a co-incidence.

must say it is really challenging, I am enjoying the constant struggle to keep up with the AI's, what's the point in playing and always being ahead?

 

[vmxa]

That is not a given, but they sometimes do as they understand that Apollo leads to a launch and the end of the game.