Field of Glory II: Medieval News

After the Christmas holidays, the moment to see what happened in the WTC semi-final has arrived.
The plan was for there to be two very intense and interesting challenges:


Right-hand semi-final

Furor Gallico vs Hell on the wheels, France vs USA.


The Gallic warriors against the Americans, this match seemed to be very balanced and oriented towards being a tough battle to the last man. However, the blues with an extraordinary performance carried out a brilliant 3 to 1 victory! Their motto represents exactly the spirit of the french team, "Impossible, not for (the) french"!

The after action report written by the captain of the blues, random27 (Arab) who was playing against Kharvon (Navarrese), went as follows: “His sportsmanship is significant". “At the beginning of the day, the Arabs couldn't see all the Navareese army. A big hill overhung the middle of the battlefield. The Arabs sat on it and the irregular Navarrese awaited them in a big forest on the left and in hills on the right.”
“In front of the forest, a big force of light troops scared the Arabs and stopped their advance. Once again the dailami wanted to fight and decided to attack troops in the forest in a maybe-too-optimistic charge. They saw that they were outnumbered too late and were taken from the flanks. Despite that, they managed to continue fighting for more than ten turns.

The second part of the Navareese army, consisting of unmounted horse lancers , launched their attack and tried to outflank the Arab army. They were repulsed and since the Arabs were too numerous on this side, Dailami knew then that they would die. Their sacrifice gave the victory to Gallico.
Thanks for the great game, the win could have gone to either side".

Left-hand Semi final

Armchair Heroes vs Qin, UK vs China.


This battle was a dramatic and epic clash of arms. The result of the challenge was a perfect draw, with 2 victories for each side. This means the final result was decided by the percentage difference, which was just 6% in favour of the British team.

In this battle the hero was Ericdoman1, with a crushing victory (10% - 43%). This created a big gap that was impossible to fill. The second victory was won by Captainwaltersavage, here is the after action report written by the British player:

"A very strange battle. It was like fighting in a mirror. We brought very similar armies, though I brought more lights and cavalry and the other side brought more dismounted knights. The main feature of the battle was a deep stream that was dividing the battlefield. The most significant other terrain was a large tract of rough ground on my right on the other side of the river.
I went right, as there was a slight bend in the river that gave me a chance to sneak into the rough ground. I felt I was going to get destroyed in the open and felt the battle came down to how well I could hide and battle in the rough ground whilst avoiding the mounted and dismounted knights.

The Chinese Germans came on in a very efficient formation that drove my left and centre back. My right had all the success and their greatest triumph was when 4 units surrounded a unit of dismounted knights and eventually dragged it down like a pack of hunting dogs on a lion. It was all down to the timing, and the battle ended just at the point that the heavy units of the Enemy were about to crush my centre."
Regarding Qin, there is no doubt that the level and skills of the team and the talent of the Chinese players, was worthy of the finals with the british. There is a stone in the Egyptian desert and some very apt words were chiseled into the stone by 7th Bersaglieri Rgt, that represents very well the spirit of the Qin team: "Mancò la fortuna, non il valore" "it lacked luck, not valor".

The program of the finals includes:

1/2 Final
Furor Gallico vs Armchair Heroes

3/4 Final
Qin vs Hell on the Wheels

It was a very intense and exciting quarter final, we had some huge surprises and also confirmations about the potential candidates for the final title. Let’s see what happened:


Righthand knockout Games



Furor Gallico also knonw as “The blue Celts” won the challenge versus Inglorius Brits, the result was 10 to 6 for the French team, 2 victories, one loss and a draw gave the green light for the semi-final to the Celts.
Vercingetorix is proud to see his warriors prevail against the romans… ops there is a mistake, Brits were also Celts…. In this case, instead of Vercingetorix, may Napoleon inspired the Blues.
The heroes of the turn were, ramdom27 and Sennacherib, interesting to read the short report of the battle wrote by Sennacherib:

“Polish army was happy to find a good defensive position on his center and right flank that the inglorious Wellington will have approved !
Murabits were cautious a few turns before lauching a massive attack on the polish left flank, after hard fight and some bad moves the principal attack was repulsed, Polish take the offensive and manage to destroyed the infidels.
Ianiow you deserve to be a French on this one! “

In the second quarter final there was the challenge between Cry Havoc and Hell on the wheels, the red coats vs the american rebels, in this case the history did not change: the american rebels gained their indipendence from King George. It was a real balanced challenge, the result was also influenced by the game not finished between pbuck77 and Triarii. In the end the americans won thanks to score advantage percentage.


Lefthand knockout Games



The most interesting quarter final in the lefthand was the challenge between the Russian battleship and the Armchair heroes, to be honest we thought that the russians were favorite but….. we know the valor of the red thin line…. Wellington would have been proud of his ladies, with a brilliant victory 12 to 4 the red coats sunk the presumed unsinkable Russian battleship.
Eridoman, lydianed and Captainwaltersavage with 3 brilliant victories made the difference, the honour for the Russian was saved by the unbeatable Nosy_Rat.
Here the battle report written by Ericdoman, the drama of the moment is evident in his words:

“The map was once more quite open and once more we deployed on the opposite sides. The first heroic defence of the game was from some Etruscan armoured hoplite, who did not rout until a few turns had passed and slowed down my advance on the left. If it had routed my elephant general would have probably pursued into a close order superior warband. Which leads me onto the second heroics. The elephant gen did not and the superior warband charged a pike general of mine in the flank. The Pike general only disrupted and was now fighting 3 units. He held and until a Thureophoroi unit charged into the flank of the imitation legions fighting the pike unit and the combination, finally routed them which fragmented the loose warband unit facing the pike gen. The pike gen finally routed but had held on long enough for me to be able to attack Questar's main line in the rear and win the game. A tough game and a bloodbath”

The second quarter final was between the Chinese Team Qin vs Europe 2, the brave European players did their best but was not enough, the superiority of the Chinese dragoon crushed the enemy defense, final score 11-1 for Qin Team. The short report written by Wzfcns about his battle vs Blagrot is of significance.

The heavy knights overwhelmed the Baltic's right flank and center with a devastating charge, but the Baltic stubbornly resisted and rally several times leaving the battle heading towards confusion for a time. The German City Knight returning from behind the Baltic lines delivered the final blow that ended the battle.

The program of the semifinal includes:

Furor Gallico vs Hell on the Wheels, in other words France vs USA
Armchair Heroes vs Qin, UK vs China

Storm of Arrows is the new DLC for Field of Glory II: Medieval.



The one and only tactical strategy game with “tin digital soldiers” set in Medieval age, reaches the golden era of the mighty heavy knight charge and the longbow with Storm of Arrows DLC, set in the 100 Years War.

This new DLC will include:

- 95 more army lists
- 45 new 14th and 15th century units.
- 8 more historical scenarios covering key engagements of the period on an epic scale: Courtrai 1302, Laupen 1339, Crécy 1346, Kulikovo 1380, Aljubarrota 1385, Castagnaro 1387, Grunwald 1410, Agincourt 1415.
- 5 more historically-based campaigns covering major leaders and conflicts of the era: Hundred Years War (English), Hundred Years War (French), Sir John Hawkwood, Henry of Trastámara, Władysław II Jagiełło.
- Sandbox campaign expanded to include all the new army lists.
- Time Warp modules expanded to include all the new army lists.

The new DLC will be available on February 10th, 2022.

We are pleased to announce another Field of Glory II: Medieval public tournament.

The “Christmas in Constantinople” Tournament



This will be played using the normal Field of Glory 2 Multiplayer system and our automated tournament system.
Anyone who has Field of Glory II Medieval can enter. You do not need to own any DLCs to enter.


To enter, go to the tournament page Here:
The general tournament rules can be found Here:

The first round will commence on Thursday 16th December 2021 at 10.00 am GMT. No further entries can be accepted after the tournament has begun.

Specific tournament rules:

This tournament will involve three rounds, set in the reigns of the Byzantine Emperors Alexios Komnenos, John Komnenos and Manuel Komnenos. Each round will last 14 days. The battles will be Medium-sized custom battles:

1. Epirus 1081 AD: Byzantine 1072-1154 AD vs Italo-Norman 1072-1154. Mediterranean Agricultural. Open Battle.
2. Cilicia 1137 AD: Byzantine 1072-1154 AD vs Armenian (Cilicia) 1100-1154 AD. Mediterranean Plain. Open Battle.
3. Pannonia 1167 AD: Byzantine 1155-1204 AD vs Hungarian 1155-1199 AD. North European Plain. Open Battle.

Games are paired, so each matchup will be played both ways. Each player will be able to choose his forces using the normal force selection system. In each round, all players will be playing on the same randomly generated map for both games.
First round pairings will be selected randomly, subsequent rounds using the Swiss Chess system. Nobody will play the same opponent in more than one round.


The scoring system is as follows:

- If a game runs to the turn limit, each side scores points equal to the enemy % routed at the turn limit. If the game times out, adjustments may be made, depending on how far the game has progressed and who took longer over their turns – see below.
- If one army breaks, the victorious player scores 60 points plus the difference between the enemy % routed and his own % routed. The loser scores points equal to the winner's % routed.


Examples:

1) If Ben defeats Tamas's army, and has inflicted 45% routed on Tamas, and Tamas has inflicted 15% on Ben, Ben will score 60 + (45 – 15) = 90, Tamas will score 15.
2) However, if Ben defeated Tamas’s army by inflicting 62% routed on Tamas, and Tamas had inflicted 56% routed on Ben, Ben would get 60 + (62 – 56) = 66 points, and Tamas would get 56.
3) If the game is unfinished (or it reached the turn limit) with Ben inflicting 20% routed on Tamas, and Tamas inflicting 10% routed on Ben, Ben would score 20, and Tamas would score 10. (Provided that between them they have played at least 24 turns in all – see below).

Note that this system rewards aggressive play over desultory skirmishing. If you rout an enemy unit then hide for the rest of the game, both players will get extremely low scores - lower than if they played hard and lost.

Byes:

If an odd number of players sign up for the tournament, one player will get a bye in each round. In the first round this is random. In subsequent rounds it will be the player with the lowest score. The score for a BYE is 75 points for each game.

Round times and timing out:

Each round will last 14 days.

Any battles that are not completed by the end of the round will be timed out. The player who has had the game in his “My Turns” box the longest overall will be the one who is deemed to be timed out. This will not normally incur any penalties, unless insufficient turns have been played: If the timed-out player has played less than 18 turns, his score will be reduced proportionately, and his opponent will be granted the BYE score if it exceeds his current score. If the timed-out player has played less than 6 turns, he will not be included in the draw for the next round. This is to prevent someone else’s enjoyment being spoiled by being drawn against someone who has apparently dropped out of the tournament.

We’ve been gripped by the Field of Glory II: World Team Championship, but just in case you missed any of the matches in the first knockout phase, we have a recap of all the action below:



Righthand KO results:

In this part of the bracket there were some interesting matchups and the Civil War between “Hell on Wheels” and “Pershing's pikes” brought us the first surprise result.

Pershing's veterans klayckles, ulysisgrunt, ratprince and harveyl were defeated by Hell on Wheels. They lived up to their name by unleashing hell on their opponents as if they were general Maximus Decimus Meridius himself.

Some honor for the pikemen was saved by harveyl, however, who denied a 4th win to add to Hell on Wheel’s 3 solid victories.

“Inglorious Brits” easily won their challenge vs the Serbian team, with 4 victories. Better to say glorious! Honors of war for the Serbia team, they did their best but it was not enough.

Another brilliant performance for “Furor Gallico” vs “Terror Australis”, Gallic warriors have been directly inspired by Vercingetorix! Random27 with his decisive victory vs CheAhn made the difference, as his Arab spears and Daylami impact infantry crushed the Byzantine line.

The last match of the righthand part of the bracket was dramatic, with “Cry Havoc” facing off against “1st Continental Legion”! The result of this challenge was a near perfect draw, with the British prevailing with just 2% less casualties in 4 battles!

Tyronec confirmed again his talent and skills defeating Nyczar 8% - 41%, the second victory was provided by Triarii: veteran soldiers never fail their task! For the “American legionaries”, there were great victories for Geffalrus and snooky51 and they received Phalerae (roman military decoration) for their distinguished conduct in action.



Lefthand KO results:

Team Russia confirmed once again that it has quality and skills, with 4 brilliant victories vs team New Zealand. As this Russian steam-roller is one of the favorites for the title, let's remember them as "The Fantastic 4" (more appropriate team name, we think): Questar17, El_Tomato, Nosy_Rat, Chherif.

Regarding the kiwis, they have a good chance to grow and aspire for some of the glory. They come from the country of the All Blacks, after all, so they were born to fight!

China’s “Qin” team defeated the “Polish Companions” and this challenge was very exciting. The final result could have been very different, but unfortunately, GenNikolaj was not able to play his challenge and lost the game under the rules. In the Polish ranks, a special mention to CyberHetman is due: he won all the games he played and is a top player.

“Armchair Heroes” confirmed their valor, with 3 victories and a draw. They won against “No Nonsense Norse” who struggled to hold them back. This makes them the third UK team qualified for the quarter final. Perhaps they are inspired by Arthur the Hero of Post-Roman Britain, but if they wanna change the course of history, and they have the possibility, they must defeat the next opponent - Team Russia!

No Nonsense Norse lost their challenge but not their spirit. They are in Valhalla for the moment.... waiting for fate and the next WTC.

A special mention is warranted for the match between team Europe 2 and “World's Condottieri”. It was a great victory for the European team captained by Mr Cholo. Blagrot was the hero of the challenge and here a summary of his battle:

"A crushing infantry brawl, on my right some camels found their supporting foot swept away by baltic elites and were trapped in rough terrain, on the left concentrated fire from archers and crossbows broke camel units and left the Tuareg foot exposed to be ground down by spearmen. My centre had a rougher ride but kept it together long enough to be reinforced by the flanks!"

World's Condottieri deserves war honor, the team provided outstanding results in the qualification phase. Bravi Condottieri: Morkinthefree, phlewis, Zawzgrzyt, gort7078.



As the WTC enters the quarter finals, it promises some intense battles between the very best. All the challenges will be very interesting to follow and we are very excited!