Recommended turn order based on play times:

So, today I noticed that Ghouled unit doesnt get the "extra upkeep cost", that must be wrong?
I also would like to ask, with Necro so strong already, is it really needed to give them extra mana, gold, production etc for "Necromancy  I-VII"?
And the third and last question, is Necromancer able to ghoul a city in 1 turn, no matter the distance to closest city? If so, this must be fixed as well?

== PBEM Duel Tounament ==
When your game starts, please update its status on the Battlefield to "Ongoing", that will help the judges to follow what's going on.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
Results of the 2 remaining games are confirmed: SIN and The green elephants won. Team "Reapers" is eliminated as mauvebutterfly left. We are confirming among judges that it is replaced by team BF+MM, I'll confirm soon.
After they report, round 3 will be officially generated.
@teams who have not yet sent their class/race, please remember to do so quickly so that your match can start.

== Balance mod ==
Please note that there is an issue on the beta branch that cannot be solved before v1.21, sorry about that. The change "Lesser Mighty Meek" for Halflings has not been implemented: their T1 do not get +1 damage per tier difference.
It's good on the main branch, so it's good for the tournament.

Wow, well seen Hellbrick, it is of course a mistake and the map size is indeed the "Tournament size" map, which is slightly bigger than the Small map. I corrected that in the rules.

Hosts are those displayed on top in the roster https://www.the-battlefield.c... and on the left in their game's blog.
As explained in the rules, hosts must play #2 in the turn order: https://www.the-battlefield.c... />
I uploaded v1.2 for non-Steam users in the usual folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qv... />
Round 1 ends on 31 March 23:59:59 GMT+1.

Hi Hiliadan,

Could you make the V1.2 of the Balance mod available somewhere for the non-steam user(s) ? Thanks !

I suppose the game host must be one of the players ?

2017 duel tournament rules say the medium map should be used. I was under impression that the tournament map size was added specifically for the duel tournament purposes - shouldn't it be used instead?

The main branch of the balance mod http://steamcommunity.com/sha... was updated with v1.2 a few minutes ago. You can find the changelog of v1.2 here: https://docs.google.com/docum... />
== 2vs2 Duel Tournament ==
The 2 remaining matches will end very soon, then round 3 will start.

== 2017 Duel Tournament ==
We have 9 class/race and need 23 more. The following matches can start: Skuns453Lirik902 vs Mr. Hawk,
Imperium vs Hellbrick after the host posts the screenshots of the setting on the game blog. For other matches, at least 1 player hasn't sent class/race to judges. Good luck all and have fun in this ne Duel tournament!

Only 13 votes so far in the poll about What classes of hero do you generally refuse if they are proposed on turn 1? (because they are the worst heroes to start with)  Please follow the link to vote!

== 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
Round 2 finishes in about 4 days.
Please note:
- team "Reapers" is out as mauvebutterfly left and judges decided no replacement of one member of the team is possible. It's sad but this tournament is really a team tournament so the team needs to stay the same (except on round 1 where a NEW team can replace the old one)
- team BF+MM which is the only team eliminated on round 2 still active replaces team Reapers to avoid having a WO on round 3 (we did the same in previous tournaments: when a team leaves, we try to replace it with teams with the closest victory-loss ratio)

Please check the roster https://www.the-battlefield.c... and send your class/race to judges (Hiliadan, Fistandantilus, Markymark) if you don't play against them.

== 2017 Duel Tournament ==
natnat and gabthegab replaced players who left. We will probably have about 3 more "no show" so we still need players in the reserve list (currently empty).
Judges for this tournament are different than from the Team Tournament, please note that marcuspers is judge on this tournament instead of Markymark. So judges are Hiliadan, Fistandantilus, marcuspers.

The roster has just been generated, you can check it here: https://www.the-battlefield.c... />
PLEASE NOT HOST YOUR MATCHES! You need v1.2 to host and it will be updated on the main branch of the balance mod only after 31st January. You CANNOT use the beta branch for the tournament.
The roster is generated only to help everyone choose his class/race to save time as the round lasts only 2 months.
So please check your opponent and send your class/race to one or all of the 3 judges by PM. Please note that you CANNOT replay that class and race until your 8th match (so if you play Halfling Sorcerer for instance, you cannot replay Halfing nor Sorcerer on your next 6 matches).

Morning Crimson quitted!

== 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
There will be no extension, round 2 will finish on 31 January 23:59:59 GMT+1. After that time, the ongoing turn must be finished for all players, i.e. the player on slot #4 must be able to play his turn. Then the last player on the turn needs to surrender and take screenshots of the score and send them to the judges. If the scores are judged sufficiently different, then the team with highest combined score wins.
Round 3 will use v1.2 of the balance mod. Please send your class/race now for those who can (Baballas vs Team of Bears).
For Shadow & Flame (WO against Team Mariusz on round 2), the class/race of round 1 counts as the last class/race for round 3 (so cannot be replayed on round 3).
We extend the duration of round 3 and subsequent rounds to 7 weeks to adjust for 4 players game which are longer than duels.

== 2017 Duel Tournament ==
The date of 31 January for the start of the round is probably going to be maintained, to be confirmed soon. I'm also going to generate the roster soon so that people can start sending their class/race.

== Misc ==
I did a new video showing how to clear a Mythical site before turn 20 for those interested (to feed the debate on high-level site balance): https://youtu.be/2gbObEUhY-o<... />Please remember the latest poll: What classes of hero do you generally refuse if they are proposed on turn 1? (because they are the worst heroes to start with)

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
The best would be to start the tournament AFTER the devs fix the bug reported by AlX but I am not sure when it will be done... Probably not before 31 January. So not yet sure what to do, I asked the devs, I am waiting for their answer.
If all goes well, start date is 31 January.
If you know players interested in the tournament, please let them say so somewhere: we need a reserve list as it is very likely that at least 4 players won't show up on round 1.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
Round 2 ends on 31 January.
Round 3 should use v1.2 of the balance mod.

== Balance ==
Changelog of v1.21 has been finalized: https://steamcommunity.com/li... />It should be tested on the beta branch of the mod after 31 January.
After v1.21, I plan to slow down on new change proposals and take time to review existing changes and proposed changes that have not been integrated so far.

== Regarding the ranking ==
Thanks Jean for sharing this idea! On Steam you also discussed a "territory war" with me with a map and players able to attack territories of other players by challenging them, potentially specific rules for territory (e.g. a "plain" means you need to play Humans, etc.). I think that would be fun but needs a big investment to develop.
Regarding the reset of ranking, I'm personally against it. AoW3's PBEM is long term. Both PBEM and live MP require a big investment in time and I think players who spent hours to climb the ranking should not lose it every year (even with a Hall of Fame). Maybe we can tweak the way points are awarded to make it easier to climb, but please note that already: 1/ new players have x2 on their points and cannot lose points until they reach 1000, 2/ players with many games have a lower K-value so win (and lose) less points each time. So it's already not so hard to get to top 8 if you're a top skill player. It's hard to get to top 2 but that's also normal for me. I don't want people to become #2 or #1 too quickly, otherwise I would be playing an iPad or smartphone game; of course that's a matter of opinion. So if more players like your idea, we can have a poll to see what the community thinks.

== Misc ==
A new poll has been launched: What classes of hero do you generally refuse if they are proposed on turn 1? (because they are the worst heroes to start with)

I want to clarify that, posting my ideas, I have no intention to point at any particular person. When I talk about "grinders" I consider myself to be one of them too. Let me explain:

My winrate atm is 86 % (08.01.2017). I think I'm doing pretty well XD but at the same time, if we only consider the win/loss statistics, there are guys better than me. For example, "ehall20" - 6/0 (100 % winrate) and positioned only 31, not even being on the front page of the rankings. The same goes for Jabst, Ariga and many other players. The only reason they are placed so far is that they haven't grinded rankings points. You just basically have to play more to fight for the top-3 places. These guys are now unactive, I believe, so the rankings system with reset will throw them off. My example concerns only active players. What if a player is active, got 6-0 but he just doesn't have much time to play? What if he can play only 1-2 games per month. It would take him a year to get into top-4.
If we take me, for example, my winrate is one of the best right now. I have been playing since June 2016 and I have to say that I'm one of the most active players of the community right now. I'm playing about 9-10 games at one time, all slots are busy, can we call me a grinder? Yes. Can my winrate bring me on the highest positions? Yes. But even with that I haven't yet reached top-2. And not everyone is so lucky as me to have so much time for AoW. What I mean is that one shouldn't grind in order to fight for the rankings and overpower those who have earned many points for playing a lot.

There are better ways to lower inactive players' positions than full reset. When I was working on a rating system for AoW 2, the idea of players getting some rating points just for playing regularly was statistically proven to improve the rating objectivity. It's basically the equivalent of players losing points for periods on inactivity, but sort of inverted because it was easier to implement this way.

Agree with Jean on most of the keypoints, except that maybe (due to slow game progress) the ranking should be reset every 1/2 year or every year.

And think Hall of Fame does the trick so the legendary players would still be remembered.

Hello, guys.
I think I'm gonna make a very unusual suggestion but for me it makes sense. Some of you might know that I'm very fond of different kind of sport events (especially racket ones) and I used to be a professional sportsman myself. I think that we could change our rankings system here using some experience from sports and so make it more logic and fair.
What I practically want is to see the rankings showing the real level of players at this particular moment. Right now when a new player registeres on bf and starts playing aow (like what happened to me in June) he has to grind and grind points in order to fight for the highest positions in the rankings which, if honestly, for the vast majority of the players here means nothing. I'll show you an example:
A player (let's call it Bob) comes to the battlefield community. He wants to fight for the rankings cause he considers this to be something he can compete in and so get excited. But what he sees there is GabtheGab with 100 % winrate, no losses and many points. Then goes Cbower. Both of them don't really play here any longer. Cbower has left the community and is no longer interested in aow. And I haven't seen Gabriel playing any games at all (for the last 8 months) besides this 2-2 PBEM Tournament which is already a small failure due to the fact that some strong team have decided to stop playing. He doesn't enter any ffa games, 2-2-2-2, 4-4 or smth like that. 
So practically "Bob" has to fight all the serious players right now (as the level of players increases, bugs and cheating options are fixed, and the game becomes more balanced due to the great work of our modmakers and Hiliadan). I call this grinding cause the leaders he has to reach in rankings don't play themselves and so don't run the risk of losing points.

What I suggest:
1. Make a hall of fame. It will show the winners of different tournaments and the players who reached the highest positions of the rankings. Like GabtheGab - the winner of a pbem tournament. Techno - used to be first and then second for a long time. Etc.
2. Make a rankings system which will reset every 3 months (like seasons - winter, spring, summer, autumn)
So we will see who is the best player right now, this month. This will allow some players who don't play much (2 games atm) or players who are not enough experienced to constantly beat all the tough players make a certain effort and fight for the crown. For example, Bob decides to concentrate on aow in Spring and make a very good winstrike, winning 5 games in a row. This is a chance to be the first one and get his fame!

Otherwise I really don't see any options for players who can not afford playing 10 games atm to reach those who got their points and stopped playing. 

I'd like to get opinions on that relatively simple change which would bring benefits unrelated to balance. If you think it does not deteriorate balance (or improve it, after all, Frostling was the 2nd least played race and nobody played AD or Theo Frostling in the previous Duel Tournament http://www.the-battlefield.co... please send me a PM or say somewhere that you're for that change:
Fr03
Frostling Apprentices, Shamans and Evangelists are female (were male). They can thus be protected by Frostling Royal Guards.
(it also means they can't get charmed by Nymph any more)


If you haven't voted yet, please remember the poll: What are the best mods according to you?
The PBEM & Single Player Balance Mod lost several ranks, it would be great if it could get back to #3! I'm sure several people didn't vote yet.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
Round 2 is extended until 31 January due to the Winter holidays for Christmas and New Year's Eve, which delayed several matches. It is an exceptional extension. There should be no holidays during round 3 so it should last 2 months.
For those who finished their matches, please start thinking about your class/race and send it to the judges if you chose it, that will save time to start round 3.

== PBEM 2017 Duel Tournament ==
The new map size should be released soon on the beta branch of the balance mod! Zaskow almost finished it.

== Balance ==
Feedback still needed, the list has not changed:

GC24
Dungeon's battle enchantment is Suffocating Sadism. Every turn, one enemy unit is hit by 15 physical damage, Undead, Machine, Elemental and Incorporeal are immune. Every time an enemy dies, all defenders of the Dungeon get +100 Morale and +1 melee strength.

GC25
Earth Elemental cannot be obtained as a reward any more in the Forbidden Sanctum

GC33
Healing is once per battle (was cooldown 3).
Shamans and Evangelists get Combat Healing in addition to their Healing ability. Combat Healing starts fights with an initial 4 turns cooldown, it heal 20 HP and it can be used once per battle. Combat Healing has no effect on the strategic map (but Healing still works on the strategic map). Order of Healing gives Healing and Combat Healing to Theocrat's Supports

Ro16b
Lesser Charm and Charm have strength 6 (was 7) and 8 (was 9) respectively

Th08b
Lesser Convert and Convert have strength 8 (was 9) and 10 (was 11) respectively

Pa02
Hide Out costs 40 CP to cast and has an upkeep of 15 mana/turn. Disjunction cost is 55 CP (was 60 CP and 20 mana/turn ; disjunction cost was 80 CP)

Pa02a
Hide Out gives Invisibility to all your units in enemy’s domain (was All friendly units in enchanted city's domain are invisible). It costs 700 RP, 150 CP, is tier V,  has an upkeep of 40 mana/turn and its disjunction cost is 170 CP (was 60 CP and 20 mana/turn, 120 RP, tier II; disjunction cost was 80 CP).

Ai07
Air Master gets Dark Storm instead of Wind Ward. Dark Storm is a strategic spell which gives -2 vision range to all enemy units. It costs 2500 RP and 600 CP, is tier VII, its disjunction cost is 500 CP and its upkeep 80 mana/turn.

Ai07a
Air Master gets Heavy Winds instead of Wind Ward. Heavy Winds is a strategic spell which gives -2 vision range to all Flying enemy units and prevent them from Flying in tactical combat. It costs 800 RP and 150 CP, is tier V, its disjunction cost is 170 CP and its upkeep 60 mana/turn.

Cr02a
Domain of Life gives Fast Healing (stackable) and +20% Spirit protection  to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.

Cr02b
Domain of Life gives +5 HP  to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.

Wt01
Water Master gets Hail Storm instead of Drench the Land. Hail Storm is a strategic spell and causes 5 physical damage and 5 frost damage to all units and gives Weaken for 1 strategic turn to all Machines or Undead up to 2 hexes away from its center. It costs 350 RP, is tier IV, costs 90 CP.

De02
Domain of Corruption gives +1 Blight damage to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.

Wi01
Unstable Transformation attempts (blight strength 15) to transform target enemy unit into a unit of equal or lower tier and that unit dies after 3 rounds (was Target unit is saturated with powerful magic and transforms into a new random unit of equal or great power. The new unit is inherently unstable and will die at the end of combat). If it fails, the units receives two random debuffs and will die at the end of the combat.
Debuffs include Cursed, Weakened, Bleeding, Blinded, Broken Spirit, Choking, Crippled, Dazzled, Disgusted, Enfeebling Fever.

Wi02
Pandemonium gives two 60% weakness to two random damage types to hostile units (was one 100% weakness)
(other effects of Pandemonium are unchanged)

Pa02b
Hide Out is renamed Cloaked in Shadows and gives: all units in target friendly army gain Invisibility until end of turn (was All friendly units in enchanted city’s domain are invisible). Cloaked in Shadow costs 60 CP, 120 RP and is tier II.

Evgendil quitted!

EarL1893 quitted!

If you haven't voted yet, please remember the poll: What are the best mods according to you?
The PBEM & Single Player Balance Mod is #3 right now but has only 9 votes, I hope more than 9 players here find it useful!

== PBEM 2017 Duel Tournament ==
Please check the rules if you haven't yet: https://www.the-battlefield.c... />"Following good comments from Tussel, I clarified the possibilities for class/race choice (the part in bold has been added):
A team (player) can never play a class or race that it played in all its previous matches (so you can play Goblin only once in the whole tournament, you can play Sorcerer only once, etc.). As there are only 7 classes, after your 7th match, the "counter is reset", i.e. you can play all the class/race again. However, in your 8th match, you cannot play the class or the race that you played in your 7th match."
Please note that the max hero level proposed is level 13 and that we should play on a "tournament size" map, bigger than Small map.
We still have 5 slots left and we still need everyone who wishes it to contribute financially: https://www.the-battlefield.c... />

EDIT:
== Balance ==
I also encourage everyone to read that report https://www.the-battlefield.c... to learn more about balance issue regarding Necromancer. It illustrates why Whispers of the Fallen is too strong, among other things.

We need 5 more players for the 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament, please spread the word to your friends:
To all the players already registered, please remember that - following a poll where 18 people said they were ready to pay at least 1 euro, including 14 more than 3€ https://www.the-battlefield.c... - prizes are planned for this tournament and we need people to contribute financially to pay for them. The recommended contribution is 3€ (that's also the minimum if you pay through Paypal; you can pay through bank transfer and give less than 3€ but then you're not eligible to the prizes) and you can contribute by using Paypal (you don't need a Paypal account, you can just use a credit card with the help of Paypal, without creating an account): https://www.the-battlefield.c... />So far, only 2 players (4 if we count MarKymark and me) have donated money. Please don't forget to do it before the tournament starts, otherwise it will be complicated for us to plan which prizes to buy!
Please let me know by PM if you have any issue with the payment system.

The tournament can start only when v1.2 is ready so we are basically waiting for Zaskow to have free time to code it.
A new article on the site provides the changelog of v1.2: https://www.the-battlefield.c...

Tasslehoff reason, Twisted Roots is a too strong spell that would that would be a little updated.
It is true that also penalizes friendly units, but it's also true that inside all of the sites, (quarry, trading post, crystal tree, dungeon, tomb, ruin ...), there are always a few units that fly or have 36 movement points, then enough just two or three heroes to succeed to take without problems almost all sites.
For the heroes that move three hexes at a time, while most enemy moving of two, and a few flying or other that moving three, it's very very easy to win without ever getting hit.
My two cents.