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

[Sikret]

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

The duel with Faldorn in Druid grove is not easy (depending on who is fighting with Faldorn). If you read my own walkthorugh, you will see that 3 of my total 9 reloads happened exactly during this particular battle. shadan (who is a good tactician) also won that battle after a number of reloads. So, it's not supposed to be an easy battle and you should not be disappointed of your skills.

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?

Playing on an easier difficulty setting can be a good idea. Playing the unmodded game or other tactical mods will not help you much.

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....)

Yes, go for the second option. Continue playing IA (on an easier difficulty setting) and draw the learning curve.

I hate to sound like a fool but what is SCSII? Were can I find it and all of that jazz?

SCS2 is a tactical mod you can find in G3 site. But playing SCS2 will not help you learn how to win IA's battles, because the game's rules are much different when you play each of these two mods. For example, in IA, multiple SIs don't stack and SI:abjuration grants immunty to all abjuration spells, while in SCS2 neither of these rules apply. As another example, protection removal spells work much differently in these two mods; in SCS2 (unlike IA), spells such as Ruby Ray of Reversal can even be cast on invisible targets. In short, playing SCS2 may even lead to confusions for you, because it has very different rules compared to Improved Anvil.

If you want to learn useful tactics for IA, you will have to learn it while playing IA, because you need to learn helpful tactics which correspond with IA's rules.