What am I going to be facing?

[RogerJNeilson]

At the moment I select a battle, and select a side. At this point I am given a deployment area and forces. I have no idea what sort of troops I will be facing. Ok I know I 'should' know all this because I am an 'expert' in all the multifarious armies of the period. (Spoiler - I am not I am new to this period entirely) So my only way of knowing the possible army compositions is to either read extensively, or fight out battle after battle learning by experience.

Surely there should be something that gives me an idea of what the standard compositions of the forces are? I recall from the dim and distant past a similar posting of a document in the FOG Ancients was created.....

Of course I may just be being stupid and it may obviously exist - in which case please help Dumbo here o locate it.....


Roger

[gribol]

When you are in deployment phase, there is "Accept" button in the middle of the screen.
At right side of this button, there is a little square called "Preview Enemy Options". Just click it.
Is that resolving the problem, because i don speak english very well?

[RogerJNeilson]

Thank you I shall try that.

No button visible - this is in the Nevsky Campaign

Roger

[JensAtSaxony]

I'm not sure, what question bothers you. I see two parts of question in it and I assume you only point to the mp skirmish battles and not the mp scenarios?

First, what type of combosition should I use?
I think this is a matter of what you like and what you want to do, which is a result of your experience of many battles.

Second, I don't know what the other player will get as troops?
If you don't like this, you can either create a scenario mp match with given troop types or you create your own skirmish with fixed troop origin.

Does my answer help? Because also my english is not native.

[RogerJNeilson]

Ok, sorry I can only use English. I hope I am clear.

In the past there were few battles where the commander dod not have an idea of what composition of forces the enemy had - not every unit and their condition but the likely array that would meet them. he could thus look at the terrain and try to maximise his advantages and minimise the enemy advantages. At the moment in the Nevsky Campaign I have no idea what the enemy will field until I deploy and then they are revealed. So I have to play a whole load of games to get to know what I might face - which seems a waste of time to me. Either notes on the scenario briefing about what type of forces the enemy traditionally has, or something in an addendum to the rules that tell us what each army is likely to have would be very helpful. Without that it is all trial and error.

So if we had a set of lists of what might be in an army - maybe a downloadable pdf, or a paragraph in the scenario briefing that would be very helpful.

Roger

[JensAtSaxony]

Ah. Understood. Mistaken your first post.

Maybe I am wrong but as I remember the map in the scenarios are randomized and the troop combosition slightly can change with restart of the battle. So I understand why you want to see the army before you make your decisions, but would this be realistic? I mean usually you have your army moving to the battle in a formation and then see the opossites formation. Of course this also depends on your spys and scouts work in reality.

I personally use the first 3 or 4 rounds to slightly change my formation mostly in a forward movement. But I also changed my bow mens position in the "Anglo-Norman vs Scots" Scenario before the enemy arrived my frontline in a defending position.

Yes, of course you knew. I completely understand your issue and I think to know the enemys combosition and formation would be ideal. The button the other poster mentioned, I never used.

Maybe a stupid suggestion for a feature by myself, but what is when you as a player can spend points in scouting before battle formation building? So you can spend points to see the not hidden enemy units before?

[JensAtSaxony]

Some further thoughts.

Usually as a commander you discuss your formation with the sub commanders before starting the battle (seeing the other army, one or more days before). So it is not unrealistic not knowing the excatly size and combosition of the enemy in the time of medieval. That is a part of tatic - trying to be flexible in some parts of own formation, I think.

[rbodleyscott]

Thank you I shall try that.

No button visible - this is in the Nevsky Campaign

Roger

The view enemy options button (in Custom battles) essentially displays the enemy army list choices from the army lists file. The button does not show in Campaigns because in campaigns the enemy does not alway use the standard army lists, or uses them in non-standard ways.

[RogerJNeilson]

So would it be a good idea to actually publish basic army lists of does one have to fight through to learn every single one of them?


Roger

[RogerJNeilson]

Some further thoughts.

Usually as a commander you discuss your formation with the sub commanders before starting the battle (seeing the other army, one or more days before). So it is not unrealistic not knowing the excatly size and combosition of the enemy in the time of medieval. That is a part of tatic - trying to be flexible in some parts of own formation, I think.

I would totally agree that one would not know the exact size and composition but you would have a pretty good idea of their standard forces and likely tactics. This comes from prior knowledge, trade, the normal cultural exchanges and indeed what your light cavalry is for....... What are the great imponderables are if there is a sudden revolutionary new tactic, the actual terrain, and how good the enemy commander is....

Roger

[Paul59]

It wouldn't surprise me if someone came up with an Army List guide, such as this one that was made for the FoG2 Ancients game:

https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 77&t=92038

In the meantime just find the ArmyList.txt file that is in the game folders:

FieldOfGloryMedieval/Core/ArmyList.txt

It is a simple text file, so it will easily open in Notepad or Wordpad. Keep a copy of it somewhere (please don't delete it from the game!) so that you can search the armies and see what units each has.

To help understand them, here is a guide produced by Richard for the Ancients game:

https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 92&t=79848

[rbodleyscott]

So would it be a good idea to actually publish basic army lists of does one have to fight through to learn every single one of them?

You don't need to fight through them. Just go into Custom Battle setup, pick the army list you want to look at, and click on the Preview Army Options button.

Note that the army lists scale according to the number of points available.

[RogerJNeilson]

Thanks I now know how to find what compositions there are until someone....... no names mentioned.... comes up with the lists....

On a side note this is the first of this whole series - I have all of them - that I really feel happy with as a game. Hopefully some of the ideas here will be retrofitted onto previous ones.


Roger

[bahatrick]

Hi Roger, I was interested in your post b/c I have often thought the same thing myself. Why don't I know more about what I'll be facing? As I think you've expressed, even the lowliest armies should have some idea of the composition or at least type (infantry, cavalry, bow) of main force an enemy uses. I've developed a little strategy that I employ in my campaigning that diehard FOGers may feel is akin to cheating, but which does save a lot of time/grief when immersed in a campaign. Usually the game does an Autosave whenever you've moved on to the next stage, or what I call the 'choice' screen. As long as you haven't played the next battle to completion, that saved file should still be around. Or you could save the choice screen under a different name. When you start the next battle, you'll notice that the top of the briefing scroll gives you the names of the armies involved. So, just hit escape, go to main menu and go to the custom battles screen. Then look up the enemy army. (Chances are it will already be loaded b/c the game seems to keep track of where you are pretty well). That way you have an idea of what you'll be facing before you build your own army!

I've also tried loading the battle a few times in order to 'pick my terrain', another luxury that FOGers don't have initially, which happens to be a major tenet of warfare. I've only done it once or twice (I usually like to figure out how to use the terrain given), and if you limit it to, say, three times, you should have a variety of terrain. At times I've also saved the battle while in the 'deployment' screen, so I can always go back and experiment with deployment without having to fight a battle several times. Cheating? Eh, maybe, but it is a game.

Lastly, if your army is infantry starved, don't forget that you can dismount heavy cavalry. They make excellent foot soldiers, especially in a defensive stance. I hope this helps somewhat.

[RogerJNeilson]

Thank you for those thoughts.

Roger