Probably "Master Scouts" & "Enchanters", with "Lucky" and "Defensive" thrown in.  The problem with the new ridiculous is that in addition to economy bonuses, unlimited money, and omniscience (which I all enjoy playing against) the AI gets the ability to stack tons of traits on its units, which makes my troops feel like clumsy conscripts with sticks.

Well, I always play ironman.  The thing is that the game has gotten a lot harder since Beta 3, where my sovereign was killing slags on turn 24 by himself.  I used to go into ridiculous with Ceresa, and expect that baring a bear landing 10 mauls in a row, I would win.

I had four losses on ridiculous in a row in .992, two of which (Karavox and Markin) came after I had actually started fielding my best possible troops... they were just not a match for a constant flow of 9 trait juggernauts.  On ridiculous, if you kill 20 enemy troops and lose an unit, you are losing.

As for insane, it's unplayable without sheer mechanics abuse. What do you do when on turn 30, Yithril declares war and attacks with troops with 52 attack, 24 defense and 117 hps? Well, you either use blind + fortify + dodge, and hope he rolls poorly, or you die.  And if you do happen to have the combo, you play until the AIs (which are all at war with you) outproduce you so badly that the 3% minimum chance to hit starts overwhelming your production capacity.

You cannot use much tactics when the enemy has stacked "Fast" traits on its triple hp, double "Ironskin", "Healthy" units.

I may have just talked myself out of playing on ridiculous, actually.

If you do a playthrough, please post the saved game on Turn 1 cuz I want to try it too.  Maybe we can get some others out there to try as well.

I just ragequit what was supposed to be a new playthrough.  No big deal, I was in my first war, and not doing that great (or one turn missed to autosave fuckupness would not have mattered all that much)

But let me tell you how ridiculous has changed:

1. All Trog units get "Bloodthirsty","Muscle","Ironskin","Rage","Shadowstrike". Yes, even the pioneers.  Pariden pioneers fight back, for some reason... I am not sure whether they actually inflict any damage, though.

2. At level 2, Warlord Verga had

Torg blood, Warlord, Death apprentice, etc... (for being himself)

"Bloodthirsty","Muscle","Ironskin","Rage","Shadowstrike" (from being a Trog)

"Strength", "Tough", "Brute", "Might", and "Merchant" (probably from ridiculous)

Strength (from the level up, I assume, and yes, it's a second one, and yes, it stacks)

He also had some rather sweet gear, with the very nice "Amulet of Haste" but I'll assume that he found that fair and square.

That's in addition to the previous 'ridiculous' bonuses like double hit points, unlimited money, and economy multipliers.

I love reading your playthroughs, Tuidjy, especially when they're written in-character.  I also like the idea of posting a Turn 1 save for others to play through, though there's no way I'd be able to stomach playing on Ridiculous.  Challenging is as high as I'm willing to go at the moment.

Frankly, it seems that how much I enjoy the playthrough depends on the challenge and on how much I enjoy writing about what's going on.  My last playtrough, I nearly ended early, and then I switched to in-character, and all was good.  Well, the problem is that it is hard to write anything in character in the beginning, because there's nothing much happening, unless you want to write about the romance between your sovereign and his first hero... and it's always a downer, because after the first few levels, they hardly ever meet.

All three of them? Hmm... sure, but then the play-through may read: "He sent a lavish congratulatory present to Lady Irane's ascension party, used the "Raise land" spell to seal off all approaches to Capital, and lived happily until his death from exhaustion."

OK, back on topic.  Now that I have won two in a row, I believe that I can make my final 'ridiculous' playthrough... with a decent chance of winning.

The settings are what you would expect - ridiculous world/AI, balanced/normal/default everything, and as overpowered a race/sovereign I can come up with.

Right now, I think the way to go is Krax/lucky/defensive/enchanters/master scouts/light plate and a wealthy fighter sovereign with Earth/Water.

Hey guys,

I would also be interested in accepting a challenge on AI world = insane, AI enemy = ridiculous, with my custom hero + race (NOT anymore with adventurer + betrayer )

The other settings could be discussed + we would start with the same settings. We could post the results after say each 30 turns.

Only issue i had is about Ironman, i would like to use save/reload, not after every move, but once per turn.

If you say ridiculous provides a tough ai, it should be a challenge nevertheless .

I am also open for any other proposol to play a similar TOUGH map/setting for survial .