Empire Total War can be an enjoyable experience. However, if you've spent as much time on the game as I have, you'll quickly come to realize that the campaigns on the very hard setting are a completely different animal than on normal or even hard. In general, while the ai in battle will still behave really stupid, and the ai in diplomacy will be irrational as ever, they will receive borderline unfair bonuses that make even minor nations an absolute nightmare to go up against. Seeing as only 1.1% of players have unlocked the strategic genius achievement, I figured I'd explain how I was able to get this and finish a very hard campaign on ETW as quickly as possible.

Getting Started:

Before I get into explaining how one can go about this tough task, it's best for you to know what it is you're exactly getting into. On the very hard difficulty setting, this will be essentially 1337 mode: every nation in the game is out for your head, regardless of military alliances or relations. They will all declare war on you as quickly as they can in the early game, whether or not it suits them to focus their efforts on you. It will not be just your nearby neighbors that are out for your blood either. If you're Poland Lithuania and don't understand why Morocco is moving a fleet up to the baltic region, it's time to start recruiting line infantry.

It only gets worse from here however. It isn't just that the ai is incredibly hostile, but they do some of the most outrageous cheating I've ever seen in a total war game. Nations will have unlimited funds to build themselves several doom stacks of line infantry and 18 pounder canons, while you're still struggling to recruit 4 units of militia. Even nations like Hannover or other minor nations will somehow have the resources to construct themselves 5 world conquering armies within a turn or less, and will continue to send stack after stack at your regions until they've depleted you of your soldiers before they could be brought to full strength or recruit more.

In both land and naval battles, every unit the ai uses, no matter how trash, will never rout regardless of the situation. Ai town watch will fight to the last man against your five guard units and inflict heavy casualties on them as if they were commanded by Leonidas himself. Every battle that should normally be an easy siege will end up being a pyrrhic victory as you end up suffering far more casualties than you anticipated, possibly putting your plans on hold.

So with all of this said, why would anyone attempt to play this game at the hardest setting? The achievement of course! Now lets get to work.

Your first moves:

To make this painfully unfun slugfest slightly more bearable, I suggest doing a short campaign. At this level of difficulty, you will really only be able to hold a certain amount of territory, as you will need to make peace with nations quickly after getting your required regions, due to the fact that your replenish costs are significantly more expensive than on normal, and you risk being overrun by several different factions with stacks of line infantry.

For the easiest faction to play, I suggest either Prussia or Austria for a few reasons. Both nations are right in the middle of Europe so their required regions are not far away.

Austria starts out with a decent sized empire, friendly relations with nearby catholic regions, a large starting treasury, and a weak Ottoman empire to your south. You have time to build up your economy and swallow up the Ottoman's European regions before you need to actually build up a serious army.

You have two major problems however with Austria. Your line infantry are subpar despite having 200 men. If you reorganize them into 3 lines, and they have a few levels of experience, they can be pretty good. However, without this, they will need to be used in a more defensive manner than other nations line infantry as they have a meagre 6 morale. Your second problem is Prussia. Prussia is the scariest thing you will ever see in your entire life on very hard. Take every advantage I mentioned earlier with morale boosts and aggressive behavior and give it to the nation who's line infantry have 8 starting morale and 35 reloading speed, and you'll understand why Prussia's ai swallow's up half the map in two turns. I mention this as you need to take their regions for Austria's short campaign and this is not easy at all. You will need several stacks of experienced armies, and will need to strike when you absolutely know you have a numbers advantage. If you manage to take Prussia out, or at least their required regions and sue for peace, after this, you can expect smooth sailing as long as your borders are secure.

Prussia starts out with two isolated regions, but possibly the strongest starting army in the game, with a few stacks of line infantry in Brandenburg and East Prussia, along with a great army minister. Unlike Austria, you will have an easier time conquering regions, as even in very hard, your armies will be superior in most circumstances. However, you risk being at war with everyone in Europe within a few turns if you're not careful. Expansion will be limited once you've taken your required regions.

How to cheat back:

At the start of your campaign, give unlimited military access to everyone. Yes, I'm serious. Every nation in the game at some point will declare war on you, but if they have military access, it messes with the AI's programming and they will never declare war on you, even if they border your nation. You might see this as an exploit, and yes it is, but if you don't, you risk being at war with everyone within five turns, and trust me, you will not have the funds or armies to keep up a world war conflict on very hard.

With that settled, your next move should be to sell any technology you have available for any price you can get, to build up a decent surplus of money. Make trade agreements as usual, and research empiricism, as it will speed up your research speed, which you will seriously need to compete with the AI.

Once you've started making decent income and are improving buildings, start building walls on all of your settlements. Regardless of troop quality stationed there, your soldiers if defending against a siege, will never rout and will fight to the last man, regardless of numbers. This will counter the ridiculous morale boost ai troops get, as they will eventually rout after taking too many loses. Once you're at war, this will be a blessing financially, as you will not have to station large stacks in every region you conquer to hold off invasions. Again it's another silly exploit that should have been patched, but it never was. And along with the military access bug, it's the only real thing that makes any attempts at very hard difficulty remotely possible. SAVE before every hard battle or siege if you plan to autoresolve. You will save (pun intended) yourself a lot of grinding and frustration

Final thoughts:

With these tips in mind, you should be able to get yourself a win on Very Hard. Note; you will have to set both campaign and battle AI to very hard for you to unlock the strategic genius achievement.

Good luck!!