Zombies are coming to town, in this Field of Glory 2 Mod

[Daniele]

A dark age is upon us! But it's not the Dark Ages. Corpses are rising up from their graves with an insatiable craving for human flesh and blood. Can humanity stop them?

Fear the night!



In Field of Glory Z (FOGZ), players can fight with or against a new army: The Zombie Horde. They are unarmed and weak but they are numerous and do not flee.



During battle, half of the slain or injured humans will become infected. Once enough infected bodies are gathered, a new zombie unit will spawn.

The mod is meant to be played in single or multiplayer Custom Battle (Open Battle mode). The Zombie Horde army can be played by either side. Zombie vs. zombie is also possible.

Modified victory conditions are as follows: Humans win if they defeat all zombie units. Zombies win if they can rout the humans by the default rout thresholds.

When day finally breaks, the side with less rout % wins.



You can download the mod directly in-game. Launch FOG2 and on top of the Main Menu section click on "Community Scenario" button, you can then select the mod from the list.

Kudos to Jomni for this great Mod for FOG2!

[jomni]

Hi everyone, Jomni here.

I'm particularly curious about the balance for single and multiplayer. Feedback is much appreciated.

[zakblood]

single player and it seems somehow the zombies warped behind my lines

1.jpg (825.17 KiB) Viewed 9028 times

no saves to upload as it seems the game in custom mode doesn't make any?

but 100% sure there was no units there before the end turn, and as everything has been engaged, this is a new fresh unit, so do they grow from the dead?

oh lol just read they do, so forget the post, my bad for not reading again

3 games played as Rome and so far 3 defeats

[majgentob]

Jomni just ROCKS!

[jomni]

single player and it seems somehow the zombies warped behind my lines
1.jpg

no saves to upload as it seems the game in custom mode doesn't make any?

but 100% sure there was no units there before the end turn, and as everything has been engaged, this is a new fresh unit, so do they grow from the dead?

oh lol just read they do, so forget the post, my bad for not reading again

3 games played as Rome and so far 3 defeats

That is the magically spawning, infected horde. We didn't bother creating a message of the spawning unit.

[mst007]

Downloaded SP and MP versions of the MOD thankyou! I`m trying and struggling to find it in the custom army battle list. Is it listed as Zombie Horde? I`ve turned off date matching, geographical location etc.

[rbodleyscott]

Downloaded SP and MP versions of the MOD thankyou! I`m trying and struggling to find it in the custom army battle list. Is it listed as Zombie Horde? I`ve turned off date matching, geographical location etc.

On the Custom Battle screen you need to click on the small "Select Another Module" button on the top right and select and launch "Field of Glory Z"

The enemy army will default to Zombie Horde, but you can pick any army as normal.

For some reason the Zombie Horde is listed in the Us (I guess the sort code is "undead")

[rbodleyscott]

no saves to upload as it seems the game in custom mode doesn't make any?

Saves should work as normal

[Parallax]

I'm particularly curious about the balance for single and multiplayer. Feedback is much appreciated.

Hi! Thanks for great mod.
I found it is easier to beat zombies with small amries, cause you can put equal number of infantry to bind them in melee and start to rip them apart with cavalry or other infantry from flank and rear attacks, but it is much harder to do with large armies. (Maybe beacuse i still don't know how to play as cavalry armies )
PS. Maybe it is a good idea to give zombies chaotic formations? Cause, they are mindless zombies But horde is still ok

[Karvon]

I've played the scenario twice using the Normans. I opted for them as they are armored and have superior morale which I felt would be useful in dealing with mindless hordes and perhaps cut down on new zombies spawned due to losses. Games were at lvl 2 of difficulty so armies were about the same size in terms of points. In strict number of men, I was outnumbered by about 2 to 1. In terms of units, I think there were about 20 zombies vs my 18 or so Normans.

The first game I selected a narrow area between woods and partially along a ridge. I had my dismounted Normans fill that space with a couple of shieldwall units as reserves. I also placed a pair of mounted Normans to act as a mobile reserve. Half--a-dozen Normans horse I hid behind the forest on my right with plan of sweeping around the forest and taking the zombies in flank and rear once they were tied up with my line of foot.

It took a while for the zombies to move up and engage, so I didn't have time to kill all that many. I wiped out about a third of their force and lost 3 units of my own in the process by the time the dawn came. I was a bit careless a couple of times and initiated combat with my foot instead of waiting for the zombies to charge in. That led to units advancing with pushbacks into dangerous positions, which cost me 2 units in the long run. I'm not sure how many more zombie units might have been spawned, as woods and marsh bordered the fighting and sometimes units emerged from there; I don't think it was more than a couple though

The second battle, I didn't really have any major terrain to anchor my flanks, but there was a pair of slopes running across the field a little closer to my side, so I sent my spear line on the double to occupy that with my lancers in line in reserve behind them. As the zombies neared, I added a couple of lancers to my left flank to match the zombies front and avoid getting flanked. The rest of the horse I sent on a flanking move to my right to envelope the zombie left.

Fighting began much earlier and the weight of my horse on the zombie left vastly accelerated the zombie killing. I kept my foot in hand this time around, so no one when haring off into the zombie horde. I slowly but steadily rolled up the zombie line. In the main line, contact was uneven as the zombies fell back sometimes, so I couldn't always keep constant pressure on a single unit. On the other hand, I could put 2 or 3 vs 1 as the zombies didn't always have other units to plug in and sometimes held battered units back rather than immediately re-engage. I noted two instances of spawning in this battle, but it didn't really change the outcome; I wiped out about 75% of the zombies the second time around.

Some random thoughts and observations...

1. As the zombies don't suffer disruption or fragmentation, flank and rear attacks are much less decisive. For the same reason, I wouldn't bother with missile troops in such battles.

2. Given their supposed fearlessness, I'm wondering whether it's consistent to have them fallback due to losses. Not sure how easy that would be to script though, as pushbacks should still be possible I think.

3. You really want troops with good melee skills as you're not going to simply break them at impact. I think most horse are less valuable in such scenarios as they will often fall back, which reduces casualty rates and potentially exposes flanks of neighboring units.

4. I think less armored units are more likely to be worn down quickly so would require more care in using them.

5. For a bit of variety, and considerable more danger, consider adding a couple of undead elephants to the zombie army list as an option.

Anyway, it was an interesting experiment. Thanks for the work.

Karvon

[jomni]

Thanks for the report. Zombies that don’t break off make sense. It may also be a sure way of pinning the human troops and expose them for a potential cohesion reducing flank attack. Many occasions playing as zombies, I had trouble inflicting these cohesion drops because the zombies are bouncing off.

On the other hand the break off rule is tied to the follow up/ push back rule when shock troops initiate combat if I’m not mistaken. I like to keep those rules so that the human player must be cautious in the use of shock troops.

I encourage people to also play as Zombies. It can pose as a different challenge. A lot of wits and thoughtful sacrificing required.

[rbodleyscott]

Thanks for the report. Zombies that don’t break off make sense. It may also be a sure way of pinning the human troops and expose them for a potential cohesion reducing flank attack. Many occasions playing as zombies, I had trouble inflicting these cohesion drops because the zombies are bouncing off.

On the other hand the break off rule is tied to the follow up/ push back rule when shock troops initiate combat if I’m not mistaken. I like to keep those rules so that the human player must be cautious in the use of shock troops.

I encourage people to also play as Zombies. It can pose as a different challenge. A lot of wits and thoughtful sacrificing required.

It would not be hard to mod the break off code so that they still get pushed back but don't fall back if they would not be followed up. Talk to me about it.

[Geffalrus]

I second the undead elephant suggestion. Additionally, might I suggest an armored zombie option? Armored soldiers that died and were reanimated, obviously. Smaller unit size and maybe only a few selectable in the army list.

Zombie horses seem natural, but their military use is normally a bit too organized for zombies. They wouldn't use specialized heavy cavalry units in a formation. Maybe zombie horses would be similar to Prodromoi or Bedouins - light cavalry melee only units? As fast zombies, they wouldn't be fighting in a dense unit with the rest of the horde.

[zakblood]

won one

1.jpg (243.68 KiB) Viewed 8808 times

only managed one zombie respawn, but some minus also on the end screen

uploaded the save, as tbh there's a fun ending to it

SAVES.zip

(105.52 KiB) Downloaded 254 times

[pompeytheflatulent]

Tried a multiplayer game. The Zombies still suffered from cohesion drops for some reason.

[Parallax]

How about to add fast zombies? ) They are less numerous but have bigger damage and infection rates )

[jomni]

Tried a multiplayer game. The Zombies still suffered from cohesion drops for some reason.

Thanks for the report. This didn't come up during my test multiplayer. Can you mention the conditions?

[jomni]

I second the undead elephant suggestion. Additionally, might I suggest an armored zombie option? Armored soldiers that died and were reanimated, obviously. Smaller unit size and maybe only a few selectable in the army list.

Zombie horses seem natural, but their military use is normally a bit too organized for zombies. They wouldn't use specialized heavy cavalry units in a formation. Maybe zombie horses would be similar to Prodromoi or Bedouins - light cavalry melee only units? As fast zombies, they wouldn't be fighting in a dense unit with the rest of the horde.

The virus was thought to only affect humans. Fast zombies are interesting. Would they be equivalent to light troops?

[pompeytheflatulent]

Tried a multiplayer game. The Zombies still suffered from cohesion drops for some reason.

Thanks for the report. This didn't come up during my test multiplayer. Can you mention the conditions?

I didn't make the game so I don't have the details. Hendricus created the game, he was playing Babylonian and I was Zombies. He created a second game later where he played Zombies. In both games the Zombies suffered cohesion drops from shooting and flank charges.

[jomni]

Tried a multiplayer game. The Zombies still suffered from cohesion drops for some reason.

Thanks for the report. This didn't come up during my test multiplayer. Can you mention the conditions?

I didn't make the game so I don't have the details. Hendricus created the game, he was playing Babylonian and I was Zombies. He created a second game later where he played Zombies. In both games the Zombies suffered cohesion drops from shooting and flank charges.

Thanks. Will investigate.