Hello,

I've just bought this game, done the tutorial, and i'm ready to play.

But I don't know which level of difficulty to choose? Average or Hard?
I'de like to start a long campaign and I wonder if the HARD game is playable.

What is the main difference between Average and Hard game?

In the manual, it says that the difficulty level affects starting conditions, such as alliances, feuds, trade partners, etc...
Does it only affects starting conditions? nothing else?

If this is your first time playing this game, I REALLY suggest you try the Easy mode first. This game has a steep learning curve, so take your time to learn how it works before trying a higher difficulty. You will fail a lot in the beginning, so don't get discouraged, it's part of the learning process. And it's actually fun to fail in this game. :)

Play at the easiest level. Really.

I will :)
.....start on average.
Because I have an advantage : I read the manual!
It's been years I haven't read a manual. But this one is well written and the game seems so interesting.
They've combined the story and gameplay; I mean really combine, the story isn't just here for background.

I have read on another site that the diffculty level only affects the starting conditions, making it tougher but only at the beginning. Making games longer, basicly.
I'll tell you how it goes for me on average.

Reading the manual is an excellent idea. But it doesn’t change the fact that the difficulty labels were not really labelled correctly.

Difficulty does in fact impact more than just starting wealth.

Indeed. The labels should have been "Hard", "Very Hard", and "Brutal". :)

I kid, but the game is indeed very hard, even on the lowest difficulty setting. And I can't even imagine playing it without reading the manual first (which is a good thing, in my book; I love reading manuals first ^^).

My advice, try to adjust your mindset as much as possible from "trying to win" to "trying to have fun".
Because you'll inevitably lose, no matter what difficulty you pick.

No, for the GOG version that’s about right. This is one of the things we got wrong, and adjusted for the iOS version. (There, the lowest setting is called “Normal” to try to remove the stigma of playing on Easy. And we did various types of tuning.)

For what it’s worth, 90% of iOS players play on Normal (the first setting), and about 5% at each of the harder levels. Which is kind of what I always expected.

I'm playing the game on AVERAGE and I'm having a blast.
After reading the whole manual, the gameplay is very hard indeed. But what a blast! I've never seen a game like this.

And not all is explained in the manual. The rules aren't really covered, there are no stats displayed in the game, and the manual, even if it's well written, just only gives indications on how to play the game.

Fascinating.