I'd sure like to hear specific strategies / tactics that allow you or others to have an easy time beating the enemy on hard / nightmare. Unless you are using some exploit. I have browsed the forum on similar topics, and so far what I've read has only had posters who either find it impossible, or find it rediculously easy even on nightmare. No specific tactics are ever given. Which leads me to believe that those who find it easy know some AI exploits.

When I play it doesn't take long for the enemy to be several levels higher than my team, and soon the enemy DGs are impossible to harm enough to kill while my team and myself are killed in seconds. The cash and XP you get are very, very poor, further making it impossible to keep up with the enemy. They dominate the map in short order; they keep getting bonuses / rewards while your team fails to hold the line, let alone make progress. The match is a downward spiral from start to finish.

This is in stark contrast to normal difficulty, which rewards your team with a constant stream of cash and XP. You could win a normal difficulty tournament without ever leaving your base.

Something is wrong with how large a jump it is from normal to hard difficulty.

Try playing some games against a team of Nightmares with a team of Hards on your team. You still have one level of difference between the difficulty of the AIs (Hard vs. Normal), but you'll be playing against Nightmare AI, so they'll have a large difference compared to you.

Then win. The Nightmare AI rarely gets citadel upgrades and instead tends to get item-whore then you can gank them in combat. This lets you learn how the AI fights, while still being able to win just by out-pacing them by getting Currency I, Priests... etc. Then play the Tournament. Completely destroy Hard.

I usually play nightmare to learn a new DG or build, and it is far from impossible. However, when playing the campaign you have to realize that it is not a normal game. In nightmare, you will have to do all the work. Your teammates will only feed the enemy, you cannot stop that. Early game you can solo against the enemies, but they will quickly get super items from feeding and the fact that they get more gold and xp. Because of this, you have to win the game before you up against a team at level 20 full of artifacts. You will get so much gold from killing AI. How you spend this gold is key. The only mode that is almost default loss is slaughter where your allies die so fast that you have to really kill them alot very early to have a chance. Good luck

Hard is easy.

Nightmare is a bit challenging, though, if you're not familiar with your chosen demigod and winning strategies.

It's true, you'll never be able to outlevel your opponents but it's still possible to get a conquest and domination victory even when you're lagging 5 levels behind.

Slaughter on Nightmare is a problem, though and nightmare Unclean Beast tends to get the highest favor score.

Lol. For me hard is hard to win but possible. A friend of mine dominates hard. But I dominate him .

Tournaments are a bit different because your allies are WAY dumber than the enemies particularly in the Nightmare tourney.

I keep trying, but it's awful every time.  I'm not a bad player. This hard difficulty tournament simply stacks the numbers heavily against you. I've won plenty of games against human players, but have won a hard difficulty tournament level only a few times, and only as Regulus sniping fleeing DGs.

I need to see some footage of hard difficulty tournament games to truly believe it can be done. It sucks because the normal difficulty basically hands the win to you. I'd like a challenging game, which is somewhere inbetween...

If only it were that simple.

The tournament deliberately puts the AI with the lowest favor points on your team and gives them retardo AI.  So it is always going to be a battle with the second place AI to the end.

So far I think winning a hard tournament isn't that hard as you'll be able to get usually around 100 favor times even when your team is loosing. As long as your team will win at least half the games you'll still win the tournament. Key is killing the enemy DGs as fast as possible. Get the best gear possible and when you'll manage to kill the AI fast enough your team mates won't die that often and keep leveling up.

One thing I noticed in my last game though is that long games can be frustrating. Either the AI can buy several of the same artifacts or it is not limited in the amount of items it buys. I was Reg and the enemy team had a beast that was getting kills insanely fast. At the end it did have 11k+ hitpoints, 70%+ damage mitigation, full speed, full attack speed and incredibly damage (other DGs seemed to get these stats later on).

Even with Ashkandor, Slayers Wraps, Mageslayer, Bracelet of Rage (activatet) and All Fathers ring I wasn't able to get any kills. The game kept on until the other enemy DGs would get to max speed and 11k HPs as well when they were able to storm the citadel.

You guys are crazy. The Hard tournament is so easy. I haven't tried a Nightmare one yet, I don't like cheating AI.

I'm a mediocre online player and I can just steamroll through the Hard tournament with any of the DGs that I play regularly. If you find the hard tournament extremely difficult you shouldn't be playing online.

I was also in the 'hard is too hard' camp a while back. What I suggest is that you play online a lot and sharpen your teeth there. Before you know it you have learned so much tricks and such tha you will have an easy time slaying the enemy once you go back to single player.

You should keep in mind that you really need to check the AI yourself because your teammates just die a lot. Once the AI becomes too powerful the game is over. With a little practise you should learn what your build can and cannot handle.

If you want to have it like in tournament, you have to set your allies to easy and enemies to nightmare.