Field of Glory: Empires - Challenge 1 with DasTactic

[Daniele]

Hi guys,

The Stream is up on Youtube!



See you on the battlefield!

[Yarev]

Well I'm going to focus on one thing through that 2 hour video:

Why cant you show us the part where you import battles to FoG2?

[balto]

+1. Really really would like to see this. I also see Frontage in Empires. How does that carry over to FOG2? Is the FOG2 battlefield a small box.., you know what I mean? Thanks

[devoncop]

+1. Really really would like to see this. I also see Frontage in Empires. How does that carry over to FOG2? Is the FOG2 battlefield a small box.., you know what I mean? Thanks

Not sure if you own FOG2 already but the devs have stated the terrain on the strategic map will govern the terrain on the generated FoG2 map. The fighting against the Samnites in mountainous Umbria for example is likely to be fought on a very constructed mountainous map in FOG2 which is likely to give much restricted manoeuvre ability due to impassable mountain ranges which seems reasonable.

[balto]

Hi Devoncop. After I watched Das YouTube (which was very very interesting), I re-watched the original stream with Pocus.., and the Slitherine guy (sorry), and when they went to FOG2, it was a big open field. It did not seem to have any reocognition of the Frontages which in Das video seem to be between 12 and 8. Pocus stream was like.., 50.., maybe more, it was big.

PS - my avatar used to be the armored car, now I am an AT gun. I like the armored car better..,

[SGZ]

The "frontage " concept looks excellent. I quite like the battles as depicted in Empires and can't imagine I'll bother importing many over to play in FOG2. But I agree with the above sentiments. There would need to be a correlation b/w the 2 maps in terms of battlefield width.

[SGZ]

It was mentioned you "win the game" if your CDR is 3x > than the next best faction. When you "win" does the game necessarily stop or can you forge on and conquer the known world ...........?

[devoncop]

Hi Devoncop. After I watched Das YouTube (which was very very interesting), I re-watched the original stream with Pocus.., and the Slitherine guy (sorry), and when they went to FOG2, it was a big open field. It did not seem to have any reocognition of the Frontages which in Das video seem to be between 12 and 8. Pocus stream was like.., 50.., maybe more, it was big.

PS - my avatar used to be the armored car, now I am an AT gun. I like the armored car better..,

Thanks for that....it seems odd...........I will watch that stream you referred to........I must have missed it.

Surely the map in FOG2 would correspond to the Empires terrain though ?

So if the Empires province was mountainous it would be fought on a mountains map in FOG2.

I appreciate the frontage is not carried across.......it would make a crazy small map if it was....but the general terrain features would match.

If so I would be happy with that.

[loki100]

...
Surely the map in FOG2 would correspond to the Empires terrain though ?

...

You get a standard size FoG2 map but with terrain features that reflect the Empires region. The result is some unusual/damn difficult battlefields - swamps and mountains both tend to give you something very unusual.

In general, I've had some of my best FoG2 battles with the converter. I did one playtest with Armenia and most of the early battles were basically two rubbish armies in difficult terrain - stuff you would probably never select from the army lists - genuinely great fun

[devoncop]

That is exactly what I was hoping.

Thanks for the clarification.

I agree about the fun to be had in FOG2 with unlikely armies by the way...I have about 1200 hours in FOG2 now and my best battle to date was between the unloved Romano British and some Picts.

[Tamas]

It was mentioned you "win the game" if your CDR is 3x > than the next best faction. When you "win" does the game necessarily stop or can you forge on and conquer the known world ...........?

You win if your Legacy is 3x of the next best faction, CDR is a different thing and has to do with your relative progress. Very important but is not used as a victory requisite.

But otherwise yes, you can continue playing once declared the winner by the game.

[surusI]

I very much enjoyed watching the video. I look forward to playing the game.

I understand that the game is currently in beta and doesn't reflect the finished game. However, there is too much "blobbing". The Roman's just build a large stack and "steamroller" their way to victory, attrition and supply do not seem to hinder them. This does not seem very historical or realistic.

There also seems to be too little "fog of war" and it seems to be too easy to optimize one's forces and decisions.

A few quick suggestions:

Add more regions (which I understand is unlikely to happen).

A number of the regions do not have walled cities, which makes them too easy to conquer. Looking at the AJE map one could add walled cities such as Sens Gallica (walled 2) in and Bovianum (walled 3) to those provinces. I would think that almost all the provinces in Italy should have walled cities with very few exceptions.

It seems from the video that terrain was clear, mountainous, forested or marsh. I would add additional terrain such as woods, hills, wooded hills etc. and have them reflected in movement, battles etc..

Make the frontage variable not always 12 for clear etc.. making it harder to optimize and predict.

If the old AJE supply system with depots and supply trains were added it would be more realistic, supply doesn't seem to be enough of a constraint.

It was commented on that the Roman's had many generals from which to choose from. I think that the Roman political system should be reflected in the choice of generals. Each year the Roman's get two random generals, the consul's, that command the troops. You can't choose the generals and optimize your army. Each army with a legion in it has to be commanded and only can be commanded by one of the consuls (a consular army).

Should all the legions be in one army/stack both consuls have to command the army. You can't choose which consul commands when you have a battle it will be random. This would better reflect the Roman system and the diasters that occured with multiple consuls in command (Cannae and Arausio). Also having a large two consul army would bring about reductions in speed and effectiveness.

It was commented that the Roman legions were among the fastest heavy troops available. I don't know if that was the case from the Early Republic on but more reflective of the Marian legions. A way to reduce the effectiveness of large stacks is to reduce their speed. Perhaps reduce the speed of stack for every legion over 2 (with exceptions for leaders like Marius, Caesar etc..).

[devoncop]

I think you need to hear in mind that the "blobbing" is entirely a result of what is in effect a suicidal race to conquest mode in this particular challenge.

The concentration on just building a killer stack would be lethal in a proper campaign as in the Dastactic playthrough, before he has even succeeded in conquering the relatively weak independent Italian states his Republic is on the verge of collapsing backwards into a more regressed government form due to failure to culturally develop.

This challenge seems very much designed to illustrate the combat mechanics only. It is a perfect illustration in many ways of short term gains being built on sand.


With regard to the attrition in Generals I do agree and Das Tactic himself stated the turnover rate is too high and I think this may well be addressed going forwards.

[loki100]

I'd agree, if you did this in the normal game it would go horribly wrong, not in your ability to carry out the military conquest but to hold it all afterwards.