Hard Mode
CK3 lacks in challenge. Paradox has given up the method used in many games such as Civ6, EU4, Stellaris to increase difficulty by giving AI bonuses since CK3. So I created this mod, using the level of AI bonuses from the above game as a reference, and applied similar bonuses to the AI in CK3. I‘ve done 2 playthroughs with the highest difficulty of this mod, the early to mid-game is more challenging and interesting, AI will often declare war on you and you can really lose, but as long as you make enough alliances, the game won’t be too overwhelming.
There are 5 levels of difficulty: Hard, Very Hard, Extremely Hard, Immortal and Deity. Listing them all is too much, so I‘ll just mention Hard and Deity. The difficulty increases linearly, so if Hard is +10% and Deity is +50%, the three levels in between are +20%, +30%, and +40% respectively.
+0 AI boldness
-10% cost in many ways
+20% monthly prestige and piety
+4% legitimacy gain
-4% legitimacy loss
+2 court grandeur
+4% development growth
-4% building construction time
+5 general opinion
-5% short reign duration
-10% tyranny gain
+10% dread gain
-5% stress gain
-10 personal and hostile scheme phase length
+10 enemy hostile scheme phase length
+5% monthly control growth
+4% monthly lifestyle experience
+20% cultural fascination progress
+10% AI war chance
-10% AI war cooldown
+1 men at arms cap
+1 men at arms limit
+10% levy reinforcement rate
+20% garrison size
+1 number of knight
+40% knight effectiveness
+4 levy damage and toughness
+10 maa damage and toughness
+20% maa pursuit and screen
+20% maa siege value
+35 AI boldness
-50% cost in many ways
+100% monthly prestige and piety
+20% legitimacy gain
-20% legitimacy loss
+10 court grandeur
+20% development growth
-50% building construction time
+20 general opinion
-20% short reign duration
-50% tyranny gain
+50% dread gain
-25% stress gain
-50 personal and hostile scheme phase length
+50 enemy hostile scheme phase length
+25% monthly control growth
+20% monthly lifestyle experience
+100% cultural fascination progress
+50% AI war chance
-50% AI war cooldown
+5 men at arms cap
+5 men at arms limit
+50% levy reinforcement rate
+100% garrison size
+5 number of knight
+200% knight effectiveness
+20 levy damage and toughness
+50 maa damage and toughness
+100% maa pursuit and screen
+100% maa siege value
The AI bonuses seem outrageous, but since vanilla game itself is too easy, I’m sure if you’ve played ck3 for about 100 hours you’ll easily play the highest difficulty of this mod.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
