Field of Glory II - Big battle brawl

Clearly we were waiting for you!

It showed u[p on my radar but I am totally unfamiliar with the series, so was actually waiting for someone here to start the conversation.

Whatever way it is, I’m sure she has it right and I’m remembering it wrong. She would care enough to get it right, she’s not a dummy, she’s just silly. :)

RPS has a nice battle report.

After reading that article I steam wishlisted it, and then read the following, positive, articles:

gamewatcher.

wargamer.

And if I hadn’t bought TWH2 I’d have bought this. As it stands I shall finish D:OS2 and TWH2 and then get this.

If you’re into podcasts, this weeks Three Moves Ahead is about the game as well. Very positive about the game. Picking it up when I don’t have a million other things to play…

It is excellent. But then again its based on a core design by Richard Bodley Scott so I shouldnt be surprised. The man walks on water as far as I am concerned.

Someone gifted me this unexpectedly yesterday so I’ll be giving it a go. So far it’s obvious that this is someone’s labor of love. And that as a lifelong fan of Roman history and turn based tactical games, I could be in for a really good time. The initial presentation is pretty slick.

Yesterday was MY birthday and no one gifted it to ME. :(

That’s a nice surprise! Looking forward to hearing what you think about the game.

If I order the game on the Slitherine site, do I get a Steam key?

Take this with a grain of salt, but it appears not. A lot of games, you can log into the site below and you can get a Steam key. Field of Glory 2 does not appear to have that option.

https://www.slitherine.com/members/

Recent games just have one key, a dual Steam/Slitherine key. Redeeming your Steam Key.

I got a Steam key through Slitherine no problems

My impression so far is very positive. The UI is very easy to use with lots of information presented at your fingertips. There are 2 expandable tool menus at the bottom left and right of the screen that present all the options you need and you can select, move, turn, attack and undo movement of units just using the left and right mouse buttons.

The tutorials are well done and present all the information you need to know to play the game and be successful. I think the graphics are great. It’s like playing a miniatures board game. The AI seems pretty good, even on the easy tutorial setting.

Overall, so far I’d say this is a keeper. I haven’t started a campaign yet so I don’t know how that part of the game goes yet. But there’s nothing I don’t like that I’ve seen so far. It’s very impressive. The only negative is that it costs $30. I can’t say it’s not worth that though if you love games like this.

The other thing I like is that it apparently has a map editor and you can create your own battles and campaigns.

Yesterday I played the first tutorial to get used to the game. It’s got a really nice tactical battle system that I like a lot. Here’s a little mini AAR of my first tutorial battle:

The tutorial gave me the ancient British forces from 54BC fighting the Roman forces of the time.

I start the battle in an advantageous position with my general and core foot on a hill, which provides some combat advantages. However the trees up there will disorder my forces unless they are light foot, which mine are not. So I’m going to need to move them forward. The chariots and light cavalry I want to move out to both sides of the map to prepare to flank the Romans if/when they move toward me. I need to move my slingers forward so they can mess up the Roman javelin chuckers before they can mess me up instead. The screenshot is turn one before any moves are made.

The first thing I do is move my two groups of slingers up in range. The ones on the right concentrate on the javelins on the far right because I want to hit them on their flank with my chariots. My slingers disorder that unit and I hit them with the chariot unit. Here on turn 2 you can see that they broke and that also caused the Roman cavalry next to them to break and run and are being pursued by my chariot unit. Notice that as they flee they pass my foot unit and present their backs for a flank attack which I take advantage of.

Later on turn 2 I have positioned my light cavalry and chariots to hit the flanks of Roman units at the top of the map. I’ve moved some of my heavy foot forward to engage the Roman foot from the side of the hill, which provides a slight advantage to my troops. I’ll need it because these are tough nuts to crack. The other two are engaging their cavalry to the north.

At this point on turn 3, the Roman cavalry I engaged has been hit from the flanks and is fleeing off the map, pursued by my units. To the north, his javelin unit is also fleeing off the map. His core legion units are standing firm against flank attacks. They are very tough.

But by turn 5, repeated flank attacks have taken their toll and the Romans are disordered and wavering. My chariot breaks the Roman foot unit to the south and it flees.

Turn 6 and the rout is on.

Victory is ours. A crushing victory with huge Roman losses and light British ones.

That does look cool. I liked Battle Academy, which I think this uses an evolution of that engine.

I was thinking about this game a bit when I was playing Battle Chasers (a completely different type of game). What I don’t like in Battle Chasers is that you can fail if you just haven’t leveled up enough. I think I prefer games like this where there is some tactical challenge and you have the tools to defeat it, you just need to figure out how.

In multiplayer I’m playing quite a few large battles where the unit-points are even, but the composition is set to “pot luck” so you don’t have any control over what you’re going to get.

One of the better games I’m in with this setup is Gauls-vs-Ancient British and the British player got an absolute ton of superb quality chariots. I got some decent armoured cavalry and then outside of that we both got a cluster of various quality warbands, (large numbers, but unwieldy).

He managed to put his warbands up on a hill and I manoeuvered mine so that there is swampland and rough ground between us, so those units are just in a standoff where whichever one attacks is going to be disordered.

Then there’s this massive wheeling and whirling mounted battle going on around them, with light javelin cavalry, armoured heavy cavalry and countless chariots all spinning and chasing, trying to win an advantage.

It’s seriously messy, but a lot of fun.

Me and a friend picked this up on the Steam sale. We have played the tutorials and have a basic understanding, now we are going to go head to head. Please recommend some starting battles that are even and the armies are straight forward. It would be nice to know that I am getting my ass kicked because I am a bad player not because the armies are uneven or they need tactics that only come through experience.

Thanks

Next expansion is announced: http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=721

This is a very good game with a lot of flexibility for expansions. Looking forward to this.

Any of the DLC must haves? I bought the base game a little while ago but haven’t played it yet. DLC is on sale on Steam.