The Rally Point

[Peterabb]

Hi all.

I am ready for the next round to start now!! When do I sign up ?????
I like to play multiple games all at once, checking at least twice daily for moves. (Maybe this is the reason why I make a lot of mistakes, rushing into battle and not learning from previous mistakes.)

[stockwellpete]

Hi all.

I am ready for the next round to start now!! When do I sign up ?????
I like to play multiple games all at once, checking at least twice daily for moves. (Maybe this is the reason why I make a lot of mistakes, rushing into battle and not learning from previous mistakes.)

Recruitment for Season 2 will open in the 2nd week of January 2014, Peter.

[Brindlebane]

Looking forward to getting involved in this.Still only have the starter pack but first module will be purchased this Thurs,DaF or IF probably(unemployed been saving the pennies) and then i'll be good to get some MP games under my belt.

[stockwellpete]

Looking forward to getting involved in this.Still only have the starter pack but first module will be purchased this Thurs,DaF or IF probably(unemployed been saving the pennies) and then i'll be good to get some MP games under my belt.

I have put you on the invitation list. Check your "new messages" at top left of screen during 2nd week in January 2014.

[Jonathan4290]

Speaking of map sizes: while the "picking a 400 pt army and fighting on a 500 pt map" may be difficult to implement, why was this season chosen to feature 400 pt armies as opposed to 500 pt armies? The smaller map makes it even more difficult to field horse-archer armies than it already is. I'm sure the decision was made consciously, I just wonder why.

[stockwellpete]

Speaking of map sizes: while the "picking a 400 pt army and fighting on a 500 pt map" may be difficult to implement, why was this season chosen to feature 400 pt armies as opposed to 500 pt armies? The smaller map makes it even more difficult to field horse-archer armies than it already is. I'm sure the decision was made consciously, I just wonder why.

LOEG has 500pt armies; The Slitherine Trophy has 350pt armies; so we opted for 400pts. The games can be played reasonably quickly a lot of the time and I think it is generally agreed that at 400pts most of the armies are at their most historically accurate.

[CharlesWayneRobinson1]

I like this idea. There is no sudden change and if things start to get tight, then you can stop at that point or back off one step.

[stockwellpete]

If we implemented this idea then the playing seasons for 2014 would be as follows . . .

Season 2 - 1/2/2014 to 26/4/2014 (12weeks)
Season 3 - 1/6/2014 to 17/8/2014 (11 weeks)
Season 4 - 1/10/2014 to 10/12/2014 (10 weeks)

[CharlesWayneRobinson1]

If we implemented this idea then the playing seasons for 2014 would be as follows . . .

Season 2 - 1/2/2014 to 26/4/2014 (12weeks)
Season 3 - 1/6/2014 to 17/8/2014 (11 weeks)
Season 4 - 1/10/2014 to 10/12/2014 (10 weeks)

I like the above idea. I wish we had more input though. How hard would it be to PM this idea to the players?

[stockwellpete]

I like the above idea. I wish we had more input though. How hard would it be to PM this idea to the players?

We shall be running some polls in the close season, Charles, so maybe this would be a suitable topic? What I will do is calculate a statistic after 10 weeks of this season to see what the overall completion rate is. Obviously if we had set a 10 week deadline from the outset then the completion rate would be higher than the figure we get this time, but it will give us quite a good indication of how fast people are playing.

[stockwellpete]

Just to let you know that there will be a new feature starting in December called "Talking Point", which will run at the end of each season into the close season and will focus on a particular aspect of the competition. The topic for discussion and polling in the first "Talking Point" will be army composition, including such aspects as "super armies", "horde armies" and "massed skirmisher armies".

In addition to this "The Rally Point" will be holding a more general discussion and polling about various features included in the first season of the FOG Digital League. Again, this will start in December.

[stockwellpete]

Not to be confused with The Rally Point which is available throughout the season for general comments, the Talking Point is a new feature that will take place (when required) between seasons to discuss a major issue that is relevant to the FOG Digital League. Players will be able to join in the discussion and they will be able to vote in the polls too.

The issue for the first Talking Point will be army composition and size and will focus on such issues as the so-called "super armies", "horde armies" and "massed skirmisher armies". The discussion will start on Sunday 15th December and will continue over the Xmas period into the first week of January. Recruitment for Season 2 will open on January 6 so our deliberations will have to be finished by then.

[Morbio]

So who will win Division A?

If consider Played, Won, Drawn, Lost, Points then it is most intriguing at the top. Considering the contenders....

Eric Doman is 7, 6 , 0, 1, 24. The match versus Sharkall still to post a result and his match against IanIoW in progress - two top players with Eric recently getting the better of his rival in the cup. Eric's only defeat was versus CheAhn.

Sharkall is 5, 5, 0, 0, 20 and is unbeaten but has matches versus Eric and Ian still to complete, plus a couple of others too, including a battle versus my Romans, which is close but if I were a betting man I'd want betting than evens for me to get the result!

IanIoW is 4, 4, 0, 0, 16 but still has a lot of matches to play including Eric and Sharkall.

CheAhn is 9, 6, 0, 3, 24 is an outside bet for the title, if Eric doesn't win his last game I'm assuming he will be ahead of Eric on the basis he beat him in his match, but it needs a lot of results to go the right way...

History says don't bet against Eric, but I can't help feeling this Sharkall chap is going to throw a spanner (wrench) into the works...

What's the feeling out there?

[ianiow]

So who will win Division A?

What's the feeling out there?

IanIOW all the way

[stockwellpete]

What's the feeling out there?

Well, they have (are) all slaughtering me, so I don't care! This is Classical Antiquity "A" division we are talking about everyone, nowhere near as important as the medieval stuff!

[Morbio]

What's the feeling out there?

Well, they have (are) all slaughtering me, so I don't care! This is Classical Antiquity "A" division we are talking about everyone, nowhere near as important as the medieval stuff!

Sorry, I didn't realise there was another league

[stockwellpete]

As we are in the last month of the season now it is time for the tournament committee to start canvassing your opinions about the future direction of the FOG Digital league. We feel that the first season has gone very well but there is always room for improvement and the introduction of new ideas. Over the next few weeks there will be a number of poll questions appearing on the forum and on Sunday 15 December we will be opening The Talking Point debate about army composition.

The first poll will appear a bit later today and it will concern the length of the playing season. Your comments are very welcome.

Edit: Sorry, I should have said from the outset that the results of these polls are indicative rather than binding on the committee, but obviously it would be sensible of us to listen very carefully to what everyone says about the various issues.

[stockwellpete]

The first issue for “The Talking Point” concerns the related questions of army composition and army size; which includes such aspects as the so-called “super armies” (very strong armies), the use of “horde armies” (very large armies) and the use of “massed skirmisher armies”. In Season 1, the tournament committee were reluctant to allocate any of these “super armies” to players in the interests of creating good competitive divisions, but there were no restrictions placed on “horde armies” or “massed skirmisher armies”.

For Season 2, however, we have come up with some ideas that we would like to introduce to address all of these issues. So we can use the next few weeks before recruitment opens on January 10th to consider their merits, or otherwise. We will also be running some extra polls so that we can measure player reaction. Please note that these polls are indicative and, as such, are not binding on the committee. It should also be understood that these are interim measures we are proposing pending the release of the new Unity version of FOG - and that we will review everything once we have seen how the armies perform with the new coding.

The first thing then is to look at these so-called “super armies”. What we have done here is to compile a list of these armies and the restrictions that we are intending to place on them in future.

Classical Antiquity

Classical Spartans and Later Spartans
i) They must choose 8 or more allied units

Late Republican Romans and Late Republican Romans, Brutus and Cassius
i) They must choose 8 or more allied units
ii) They may not choose more than 4 Veteran Legionary units

Principate Romans 25BC-99AD; 100-196AD; 197-217AD; 228-259AD; 260-284AD
i) They must choose 8 or more allied units

Jewish Revolt (Josephus)
i) They may not choose more than 12 Zealot warrior units

Jewish Revolt (Later)
i) They may not choose more than 12 Zealot warrior units

Galatians (Macedonian Invasion)
i) They may not choose more than 16 Fanatical warrior units

Galatians (Seleucid War)
i) They may not choose more than 16 Fanatical warrior units

Galatians
i) They may not choose more than 16 Fanatical warrior units

Early Middle Ages

All Arab Conquest armies
i) They may choose a maximum of 16 “Foot Warriors”
ii) They may not choose the troop type “Warriors” at all

Dailami Buyids and Dailami Musfarids
i) They may not choose the troop type “Warriors” at all
ii) They must choose 8 or more allied units

Christian Nubians early, and Christian Nubians
i) They may not choose more than 8 “superior” archer units

Christian Nubians, later
i) They may not choose more than 8 “superior” archer units
ii) They must choose 8 or more Allied units

High Middle Ages

Swiss (early) and Swiss
i) They may not choose more than 12 “superior” pike units

Swiss (Burgundian War)
i) They may not choose more than 12 “superior” pike units
ii) They must choose 4 allied units

Catalan Company, early
i) They must choose 8 or more allied units
ii) They may not choose more than 16 Almughavar Spearmen units

Catalan Company and Catalan Company, later
i) They may not choose more than 16 Almughavar Spearmen units

The second thing is the related issues of “horde armies” and “massed skirmisher armies”. These are very large armies either using lots of very cheap medium foot soldiers or armies that deploy very large numbers of low cost skirmishers and light horse. As such they can be very tedious to play against and often require the opposing player to use a “herding” tactic to drive the enemy from the field. Obviously, in historical terms this is ridiculous.

So we have come up with the idea of the “50/10” rule. This stipulates that the maximum size for any army is 50 “units” and the maximum number of skirmishers allowed (LF and LH combined) will be 10 “units”.

Please let us know your thoughts about any of the issues raised here and do participate in the polls as well.

[Jonathan4290]

So we have come up with the idea of the “50/10” rule. This stipulates that the maximum size for any army is 50 “units” and the maximum number of skirmishers allowed (LF and LH combined) will be 10 “units”.

So I guess the Numidians are banned

[chris6]

Hi,

just want to say that I really want to participate in the discussion, but lacking in enough experience I keep my mouth shut. I played a hored army with the spartacus slaverevolt, but actually I did not find them to hard to beat. What is true is that you have to spread your troops out to drive the slaves of the field. I have no idea if this is a Non-historical tactic?