Aug 28, 2019

Field of Glory II - Sharon

Hi guys,

We have updated Field of Glory II with a new version! Below the changes of the new patch:

• Field of Glory: Empires:
o Added option (in More Options in Settings in FOG2) to use FOG2 Difficulty settings for Empires battles. This is off by default. If it is turned on, Empires battles will use FOG2 difficulty settings. This means that the conversion ratio for the enemy units will be adjusted according to the same scale as used in FOG2 Campaigns – so they will get more FOG2 units on higher difficulty levels. In addition, on Deity level unit quality is adjusted slightly in favour of the enemy, and on Centurion level unit quality is adjusted slightly in favour of the player. If the default setting is selected, no FOG2 difficulty adjustments will apply.
o Added option (in More Options in Settings in FOG2) to adjust the size of Empires battles between 50% and 150% of the default conversion ratio.
• Sandbox Campaigns:
o There is now a toggleable button in the Sandbox Campaign set up screen that allows you to define the focus of the campaign:
 Default: Campaign may involve other enemies as well as the main protagonists and their local allies.
 Focused: Campaign may involve historical allies local to both main protagonists, but not attacks by other enemies.
 Duel: Campaign will only involve the main protagonists. (Although the player may get the option to seek troop contingents from his local allies)
o Campaign allies are now matched against the enemy army list (and enemy allies’ army list) by date as well as geography if the Date filter is on. This eliminates a few anachronistic alliances that could sometimes occur with the previous version.
• Gameplay:
o Improved consistency of how a unit being Fragmented affects different forms of movement.
• Army Lists:
o Anglo-Danish army list side name changed to Anglo-Danish (instead of Anglo-Saxon).
o Later Breton list divided into 580-931 and 936-1049 lists. After the destruction of the Breton Kingdom by the Vikings circa 931 AD, the newly formed Duchy of Brittany assimilated to the Norman military system.
o Rejigged Polish 966-1057 AD list. Added unarmoured cavalry units, pre-dismounted armoured and unarmoured cavalry units, and replaced slingers with javelinmen.
• Allies:
o Byzantine 963-987 AD allies added to Arab (North Africa) 789-999 AD list.
o Arab (North Africa) 789-999 AD allies added to Byzantine 963-987 AD list.
o Viking (Ireland) 900-1049 AD allies added to Scots 851-1051 AD list.
o Scots 851-1051 AD allies added to Viking (Ireland) 900-1049 list.
• AI:
o Improved AI for AI reserve cavalry.
• Manual:
o Correction: Pike units cease to be rated as Shock troops once the entire back rank of models has been lost. This means that they once they have suffered 25% losses, they no longer follow up enemy that fall back from them.
• Bug Fixes:
o Fixed various minor army list date range issues.
o Tweaked height of dismounted armoured Muslim lancers slightly.
o Fixed bug that could sometimes cause Threatened Flank CT modifier not to be applied for CT tests following automatically resolved melees.
o Fixed issue of allies not showing correctly in MP Lobby for battles using user created custom battle modules, such as TT Mod and Silk Road.
o Fixed bug that could show a string from the Epic Battle module in the tooltip for the No Allies line in the allies list box.
o After an Empires battle, the GOG version of FOG: Empires should now open automatically if it was the last version of Empires used.

May 30, 2019

Field of Glory II 1.5.12 Update - Allies Feature!

Field of Glory II - SlithFox

Field of Glory II has been updated to version 1.5.12, and it's massive!

Check the Changelog below.

v1.5.12 Changelog

Field of Glory: Empires:
• When Field of Glory: Empires is released, it will allow battles to be exported to be played out in FOG2. After the battle, FOG2 can be automatically closed and Empires opened, and the results of the battle imported into Empires.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1011390/Field_of_Glory_Empires/

Allies:
• It is now possible to choose to have allies from a different army list in custom battle armies. The main army list will provide the majority of the troops available for selection, the allies will provide a smaller proportion.
• The permitted allies are specified in the ArmyList file – as previously used for sandbox campaigns - based on known historical alliances. For historical reasons, where a small country and a large country were allied historically, the smaller country will be specified as an ally for the larger country, but often not vice versa. This is when it is deemed historically unlikely that the larger country’s troops would form a minority of the army, even if, for example, it sent a force to assist a client in regaining his throne.
• When the Geographical and Date filters are turned on, the list of permitted allies is also filtered for geographical proximity to the enemy state and date compatibility with both the enemy army list and any enemy allies list.
• Allied troops in custom battles are not required to deploy together under an ally general. This is not entirely historical, but is a “quality of life” game design decision, to avoid issues with deployment and group moves.

UI:
• Cohesion test details, with a list of all modifiers that applied, are now shown in the combat log and detailed close combat reports.

Gameplay:
• Hotseat Custom Battles now allow manual force selection for both sides.
• Mediterranean, North European, Middle Eastern and Tropical Marshy terrain maps added.
• In random maps, vegetation has been added to marshes to make them easier to spot.
• Slings can now shoot overhead from higher ground.
• Lancers now get +50 Impact POA in open terrain vs steady, non-charging Pikes, Offensive Spearmen or Defensive Spearmen. (i.e. their normal +100 POA is only half cancelled against these).
• Cataphracts now get +50 POA for swordsmen capability vs steady Pike, Offensive Spearmen or Defensive Spearmen unless these are defending an obstacle. (i.e. their normal +100 POA is only half cancelled against these).
• Removed various “tells” giving away the position of hidden enemy units when they Fall Back, Form or Leave Square, Rout or Retreat. However, we have deliberately left in the notifications for units returning to the battlefield or rallying, even when these units are not visible, because otherwise players might think that the AI is cheating when these units reappear.
• Reduced number of additional generals available in tiny battles – this is primarily for very small Field of Glory: Empires battles.
• Xystophoroi now use a wedge formation of 5 figures. This is purely a change to the visual representation, because it looks cooler; nothing else has changed. The overall effects of their abilities and formation was already taken into account in their previous grading. Note that we are aware that some other historical units (e.g. Thracian heavy cavalry) also used wedge formation, but they share units with armies that didn’t, so we have left their formations unchanged.

AI:
• Flank charges against enemy that are not yet in combat moved to second AI pass so that other friends have the opportunity to engage the enemy first.
• Made retreating AI light troops do so on first AI pass even if Disrupted or Fragmented.
• Evady Cavalry/Camelry/Light Chariots will no longer allow themselves to be pinned by a light horse charge if they are also threatened with a possible flank/rear charge by non-light troops this turn. This was an unintended consequence of the previous change to prevent Cavalry/Camelry/Light Chariots from automatically evading from flank/rear charges by Light Horse. Note that it is still possible to pin them with light horse that start the turn in an adjacent square if the heavier charge threat is frontal.
• AI or pursuing cavalry will now never charge elephants unless the elephants are already Fragmented.

Multiplayer:
• Simplified retry process when sending End Turn or Save and Exit data if internet connection down or server does not respond. It is now only necessary to click the Proceed button on the "Failed to send the game to the server. Please check your connection and try again." popup to trigger the game to attempt to resend the data. Previously it was necessary to hit End Turn etc. again to trigger the resend, and there was a bug preventing a resend of a failed Save & Exit.
• Bugs affecting Mirrored MP challenges fixed. Mirrored Epic Battle challenges should now work correctly, but the fix only works for new challenges, not challenges created with previous versions of the game.

Campaigns:
• The AI side in “Ditch” battles, as found in Belisarius and Ashurbanipal campaigns, will now start advancing immediately.
• Campaign scoring now takes into account whether the campaign is being played on “Progressive” difficulty.
Campaign Design:
• TWEAK now works for all decision types except: 1, 2, (15, 18, 19 - these should not be used in custom campaigns anyway).

Units
• Massed Greek Peltasts unit added - for various army lists.

Unit Cost adjustments:
• Expert Armoured Horse Archers (and equivalent units) – reduced from 72 to 66 points.
• Armoured Horse Archers (and equivalent units) – reduced from 57 to 52 points.
• Byzantine Flankers – reduced from 52 to 48 points.
• Persian Improvised Camelry – reduced from 60 to 56 points.
• Byzantine “above-average” lancers & archers – cost reduced from 55 to 54 points.
• Zealots – increased from 51 to 57 points.
• Veteran Samnite Foot – increased from 63 to 66 points.
• Veteran Dailami Foot – increased from 54 to 60 points.
• Mediocre Legionaries – reduced from 60 to 54 points.
• Imitation Legionaries – reduced from 54 points to 51 points.
• Early Imperial Roman Auxilia – reduced from 48 to 42 points.
• Legio Comitatenses - reduced from 54 to 51 points.
• Thorakitai – reduced from 54 to 51 points.
• Well-Armed Slaves – reduced from 46 to 44 points.
• Cretan archers – reduced from 42 to 39 points.
• Balearic Slingers – reduced from 36 to 33 points.
• Assyrian-style Mixed Medium Foot (Protected) – increased from 42 to 44 points.
• Assyrian-style Raw Mixed Medium Foot (Protected) – increased from 30 to 32 points.
• Assyrian-style Mixed Heavy Foot – reduced from 60 to 56 points.

Army Lists:
• Major revamp to the Thracian army lists, based on the authoritative work of Chris Webber (aka vakarr) as in his Mercenaries and Allies Mod. The new main-game versions of his lists contain only vanilla units, but remain extremely interesting from a historical and tactical point of view. There are now 11 different Thracian army lists covering the different Thracian groupings from 700 BC to 46 AD. For further reading, consult Chris Webber’s works: “The Gods of Battle: The Thracians at War, 1500 BC - 150 AD” (Pen & Sword Military) and “The Thracians 700 BC-AD 46” (Osprey Men-at-Arms series).
• Jewish 167-111 BC list divided into 167-164 and 163-111 lists. The latter gets some xystophoroi and raw pikes. Increased number of pikes available in 110-64 BC list.
• Greek Armoured Cavalry added to Roman 105-25 BC list.
• Added alternative 272-273 AD Palmyran army list for those who take the view that Zenobia would not have access to any local Roman troops in the war against Aurelian.
• Palmyran army lists changed to use “Eastern” archers.
• Massed Eastern archers added to Achaemenid Persian lists.
• Increased number of pike units available in many Hellenistic armies.
• Split Ptolemaic 320-167 BC list into separate 320-218 and 217-167 lists.
• Roman 285-424 AD custom/campaign battle auto-deployment changed to non-chequerboard.
• Added Libyan 549-301 BC list and changed start date of following list to 300 BC.
• Added Kyrenean 321-276 BC list.
• Added Dacian (Carpi) 107-380 AD list.
• Removed built-in Sarmatian allies from Dacian lists. They can be fielded by using a Sarmatian ally. Also added some Superior warbands to Dacian lists.
• Added Greek (Mercenary) 460-281 BC list. (Xenophon campaign changed to use this for Anabasis phases).
• Indian 545-599 AD list changed to use Indian-style lancers.
• Massed Greek Peltasts added to various lists.

Editor:
• Units in Editor will now consistently show banners – red for side 0 and blue for side 1 (if vanilla banner textures are in use). Default sidenames switched to match.
• Units with Editor-placed generals will show long banners.
User Content Creation:
• Added ReSkinReinforcementUnit(id, reverse) function that can be used to reskin scripted reinforcement units with side-appropriate textures. Must be called once for each reinforcement unit after it is created in the scenario script. reverse == 0 means use usual side colours, reverse == 1 means use reversed side colours.

Manual:
• Slings can now shoot overhead from higher ground.
• Addition to Impact POA Chart: Lancers: (in open terrain only) +50 POA vs steady, non-charging Pikemen, Offensive Spearmen or Defensive Spearmen.
• Addition to Melee POA Chart: Mounted Swordsmen: +50 POA if Cataphracts vs steady Pike, Offensive Spearmen or Defensive Spearmen unless these are defending an obstacle.

Bug Fixes:
• Fixed bug that could sometimes cause group Undo to give extra AP to units that were blocked from moving in the group move. Note that the fix adds a slight (1-2 second) delay to the Undo icon appearing in group moves where a unit was blocked from moving.
• Fixed bug that could sometimes prevent a “Leave Square” move from being Undone.
• Plugged exploit where a unit blocking shooting could be moved out of the way so that the unit behind could shoot, and then Undo used to move the first unit back into its previous position.
• Fixed bug whereby a unit set as “Cannot Control”, and hence which could not be given single unit orders, could get included in a Group Move.
• Fixed issue of mixed units not showing all spearmen and archers in correct positions for a couple of seconds when first deployed or redeployed.
• Fixed bug that could cause game to crash in the few user-created Epic Battles scenarios using non-scripted reinforcements.
• Hopefully fixed rare bug where a dispersed unit sometimes continued to have a “ghost existence” – being invisible but targetable and blocking access to the square.
• Fixed two bugs affecting mirrored MP games. The fixes will only work for newly set up challenges, not for ones set up with the previous build.
• Fixed bug preventing resend of MP Save & Exit data if internet connect was down or the server did not respond on the first attempt.
• Fixed issue of very long MP chat messages getting truncated in the chat message display.
• Fixed bug that could prevent MP challenge from being created if player’s comment included the “/” character.
• Fixed MP bug that sometimes caused group turn made during side A’s deployment to be undone by Side B’s replay.
• Fixed disappearing shadows bug affecting Epic Battle maps with some sub 0 height level tiles (Granikos and Issos).
• Fixed team allocation (for player group moves) errors in Frigidus scenarios.
• Fixed bug that could sometimes prevent AI unit from turning to avoid being flank charged.
• Fixed bug that caused indecisive (nightfall) campaign victories to be listed as defeats in campaign score report.
• Fixed remounting bug on large units of dismounted noble lancers and armoured noble lancers. (They should not have been able to remount).
• Fixed bug that could show troop quality incorrectly in Multiplayer Skirmish setup Army List previews if game difficulty level set to Centurion or Deity.
• Fixed bug that prevented the map width from being reset to the appropriate narrower width when a smaller campaign battle follows a larger campaign or custom battle.
• Fixed bug that could allow pursuers to pursue off the map edge through terrain they would not normally pursue into.

May 28, 2019

New units in Wolves at the Gate - A Preview

Field of Glory II - SlithFox

Wolves at the Gate adds 55 new units to the game. Here we are going to focus on just a few of these.

Vikings
The archetypal Viking battle formation was the shieldwall (skjaldborg), comprising men armed with various combinations of sword, axe, throwing spears and thrusting spears. Archers, if present, would form up in the rear ranks. The overall effect of this formation is represented by the Offensive Spearmen close combat capability.

Huscarls are the well-equipped hearth-companions of the Viking jarls. They are armoured and of Superior quality. The famous two-handed Viking axe came into use from about 900 AD. Before that date, Huscarls’ combat capability is rated as Offensive Spearmen, after that as Heavy Weapon.

The ordinary Viking warriors mostly lack armour, but derive protection from the overlapping shields of the shieldwall.

Berserkers were a class of warrior who habitually worked themselves up into a frenzy in battle, becoming immune to fear and fighting with the strength of madmen, heedless of wounds. They were often used as chieftain's bodyguards or placed in the front of the shieldwall, but sometimes fought as a separate assault force. Such Berserker units are represented by small but Elite wedges of Impact Foot, Swordsmen.

Vikings often rode to battle on horses, but usually, though not always, dismounted to fight.

Carolingian Franks
By the reign of Charlemagne, lancer cavalry formed the most important arm of the Frankish army. Many were armoured, although there were still plenty who lacked armour. In some of the eastern provinces, cavalry still fought in an older skirmishing style, so have Light Spear instead of Lancers capability.

The role of infantry spearmen was now purely secondary, so they are rated as Defensive Spearmen. When needed, however, the cavalry could and did fight on foot - they are rated as Offensive Spearmen when doing so.

Nikephorian Byzantines
In the reign of the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, the Byzantine army was reorganised and went on the offensive.
The permanent standing Tagmatic army was greatly expanded. The Tagmatic cavalry fought in mixed units of lancers and horse archers, softening the enemy up with archery prior to a fierce charge with lances. Part-time Thematic units were organised similarly.

The elite of the army were the Klibanophoroi, who usually fought in one or two wedges, designed to break into the enemy formation, even if this was a spear-armed Rus shieldwall. The men on the outside of the wedge were fully armoured cataphracts. The ones at the front fought with heavy maces. In the middle of the formation were archers.

Skirmishing cavalry were obtained by hiring nomad mercenaries.
The proportion of archers in infantry units was greatly increased, so we rate them as 50% Defensive Spearmen (skoutatoi) and 50% archers.

In 988 Vladimir I of Kiev supplied the Emperor Basil II with 6,000 Varangian (Rus) mercenaries, to assist him in a civil war. The best of these were subsequently formed into a permanent Imperial Guards unit, the Varangian Guard. In a later period these were to become famous for their use of two-handed axes, but in this period they fought as spearmen.

Fatimid Egyptians
The Arab Fatimid Caliphate arose in what is now Algeria in the early 10th century AD. In 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as their new capital. Following this they advanced into Palestine and Syria and came into conflict with the Byzantines.

Their initial forces had relied on armoured lancers and Berber light horse, but by 978 they had begun to field large numbers of “slave-soldiers”. These troops were recruited as slaves but then trained up as soldiers.
Ghilman, though recruited from Turkish or Caucasian slaves, were highly trained armoured horse archers of high status in society. ‘Abid-al-shira, recruited from Sudanese slaves, were trained as heavy infantry fighting with javelins (Light Spear) and swords.

However, the Fatimids still fielded large numbers of Arab lancers, Arab spearmen (rated as Defensive Spearmen) and archers, and Dailami infantry. The latter fought in their own distinctive fashion with heavy javelin and sword – they are rated as Medium Foot, Impact Foot, Swordsmen.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1004260/Field_of_Glory_II_Wolves_at_the_Gate/

May 24, 2019

FOG2 Grand Wolves at the Gate Tournament

Field of Glory II - SlithFox

The world is crumbling. Arab conquerors have set foot in Spain, quickly overthrowing the Visigothic rulers. Viking raiders are scourging the shores of England and Ireland. Their rapacious appetite seems as unstoppable as their armies. Byzantium is fighting to the last man in order to regain control over its Mediterranean lands.

So many enemies and so little time to fight them all!

Welcome to the Grand Wolves at the Gate Tournament! Anyone who has Field of Glory II can enter. You do not need to own any DLCs to enter.

We are pleased to announce another Field of Glory 2 public tournament. This will be played using the normal Field of Glory 2 Multiplayer system and our automated tournament system.

The new "Allies" feature is in place!

Anyone who has Field of Glory II can enter. You do not need to own any DLCs to enter.

To enter, go to the tournament page here:

http://www.slitherine.com/tournaments/tournaments.asp

The general tournament rules can be found here:

http://www.slitherine.com/tournaments/rules.asp?aPage=1&filterStatus=

The first round will commence on Monday 3rd June 2019 at 10.00 am GMT. No further entries can be accepted after the tournament has begun.

Specific tournament rules:

This tournament will involve five rounds. The battles will be medium-sized custom battles.

1) Arab (Umayyad) 685-750 AD vs Frankish 600-750 AD. Between 717 and 732, when they were decisively defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Tours, Umayyad forces from recently conquered Spain campaigned into southern France. Mediterranean Agricultural.
2) Viking 790-899 AD vs Frankish 751-887 AD. In 845 AD a Viking fleet sailed up the River Seine, defeated King Charles the Bald’s army in battle and sacked Paris. North European Agricultural.
3) Scots 851-1051 AD with Viking 900-1049 AD allies vs Anglo-Saxon 871-949 AD. Following an unchallenged invasion of Scotland by King Æthelstan of England in 934 AD, in 937 England was counter-invaded by an alliance of King Constantine II of Alba (Scotland), King Olaf Guthfrithson of Dublin and others. They were defeated by King Æthelstanat the Battle ofBrunanburh, somewhere in northern England. North European Agricultural.
4) Byzantine 988-1041 AD vs Fatimid 978-1073 AD. Between 995 and 999 the Byzantine Empire and Fatimid Caliphate fought over control of Syria. Middle-Eastern Agricultural.
5) Arab (North Africa) 1000-1160 AD with Byzantine 988-1041 AD allies vs German 933-1049 AD. Following the defeat of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II at the Battle of Crotone in southern Italy by Aghlabid Muslim forces from Sicily in 982, Muslim and Byzantine forces cooperated in recapturing Apulia from the Ottonian forces. Mediterranean Agricultural.

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 12 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.