De Gods! What a learning curve! Options

[GreyArea]

After playing the mod for about a week and a bit, possibly more, I have come to the conclusion that this mod is the hardest I have ever played and really making me think. This is a very good thing as I enjoy a challenge, but some of the fights I just cannot win (mainly Druid Grove currently but I expect more to come like WH with Fiircragg and others like the Suni party at first when I go back to Ath.

This isn't party compo related for the toughness for me, it's me getting back into the game again after such a long time and not remembering what such and such spell does or the true uses of other spells that i sometimes see as 'poxy' or 'crap' were in reality they may be the best things since sliced bread.

So pretty much I am asking this:

Should I consider playing through on the un-modded game for a little bit to get my head around some tactics and such or just set the difficulty down to normal (I always run on Core Rules as it's the neutral middle ground difficulty IMHO) and see how I go? I really want to get the enjoyment out of this seemingly stable and exciting mod (yes, getting my ass handed to me for the Nth time in a row is fun, I learn from the enemies tactics and my mistakes). I also enjoy the idea of the new critters to bash my head against so that will also be fun to see coin golems and gem golems amongst others.

In the un-modded game I did have some trouble with certain locations, though that may of been due to low level party for the location, and I expect to get bogged down in them when I get to the enhanced versions. I am just going to hope tat i can get to a high enough level to be able to take what they dish out at me and manage to get the gear needed to beat them down.

Ok that got off topic a bit.

This pretty much boils down to thus:

Returning to BG@/ToB after a longish hiatus is it recommended to start up with the normal un-modded game and go from there and get the skills back up? Or possibly a less intense mod to warm up with before plunging into IA?

OR

Dive into IA and learn everything on the fly? (not everything, but advanced tactics for starters and proper party compo/spell usage etc....)

Thanks for your time reading these musing

[rbeverjr]

From what you describe, you are at the easiest stage of the game. If you are becoming frustrated and reloading a lot now, then it is probably best not to continue. If you really don't mind reloading many times and fighting the same battle over and over (something that I can't stand), then go ahead and persist - you will learn. Otherwise, I would suggest a game with the SCSII mod. After that, try to get an old Improved Anvil version - perhaps version 3. Once you've done that game, you can decide if you are ready to jump back to version 5.

I haven't had the hiatus that you have had and have played a little IA. I can do version 5 and without too many reloads (for most of SoA; not been to ToB), but sometimes it takes so much mental focus that I forget to have fun. (But I do have fun, more as my skills improve!) I find IA5 to be much harder than IA4.1 which was much harder than IA3. I don't recall IA3 much and never played a complete game of that mod, but the improved battles of IA4.1 are much harder than the SCSII battles which are themselves clearly more difficult than the unmodded game.