Slitherine

Check out the poll on the Yahoo fieldofglory group.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Fie ... id=2019521

The results of which were as follows:

(66 replies)

45% Strongly prefer themed tournaments
24% Mildly prefer themed tournaments
16% No preference
3% Mildly prefer open tournaments
10% Strongly prefer open tournaments

Thus 69% prefer themed tournaments and only 13% prefer open tournaments. (More than 5:1 in favour of themes).

Richard, I add the poll here also cause some people don't want sign in the yahoogroups.
The question is very interresting and it would be a shame that everyone could not respond.
In France we strongly prefer theme tournaments for the majority.

Interestingly while still on a small sample size the poll on Yahoo seems more in favour of theme comps than this one.

hammy wrote:Interestingly while still on a small sample size the poll on Yahoo seems more in favour of theme comps than this one.

My experience of FOG so far indicate to me that Themes are more balanced. It is my opinion that Kn are very strong in FOG and thus are better in period where there are other Kn and troop types suited to taking on Kn.
I have voted in favour of themed tournaments on that basis.

Regards

Dave M

davem wrote:My experience of FOG so far indicate to me that Themes are more balanced. It is my opinion that Kn are very strong in FOG and thus are better in period where there are other Kn and troop types suited to taking on Kn.
I have voted in favour of themed tournaments on that basis.

It will interesting to see how the RoR lists fare against SoA lists at the Challenge next week.

To be honest knights are not that scary if you know how to handle them. As I mentioned in another post I managed to break three BG's of knights and FRG another over four games with one BG of 6 crossbow

Knights are scary when you first meet them as, usually, it is only then that you fully realise the impact of their 2 dice per base combat ability.

However, I'd agree with Hammy that after a few games against them you start to work out how to handle them with earlier armies - I've played a few games of Hellenistics (usually sans nellies before anyone comments) against medievals now and think that the games are balanced.

That is why I voted no preference

davem wrote:My experience of FOG so far indicate to me that Themes are more balanced. It is my opinion that Kn are very strong in FOG and thus are better in period where there are other Kn and troop types suited to taking on Kn.
I have voted in favour of themed tournaments on that basis.

Regards

Dave M

My experience is that Kn are not the out-of-period killers that a lot of people are worried about. See the Cold Wars results for some data to back this up. There the top three armies were Successors x2 and Scots Isles. The top finishing Kn army came fourth.

Which is why I voted for Open.

Marc

Yes but with the tournament in open, the armies and tactics are no historic. In a theme tournament, I think the armies are more realist.

Hi ,
themed tournaments of course , the games are more interesting ;
ie: from Marathon to Adrianople
middle east story from 2000BC to 1000BC ( for west side stry it's later )
from the exodus to the sack of Jérusalem by Titus etc, etc ......................
let your imagination do the job ;

best regards

thefrenchjester " from rugbying to painting "

The results of the original poll I posted on the Yahoo group were as follows:
(66 replies)

45% Strongly prefer themed tournaments
24% Mildly prefer themed tournaments
16% No preference
3% Mildly prefer open tournaments
10% Strongly prefer open tournaments

Thus 69% prefer themed tournaments and only 13% prefer open tournaments. (More than 5:1 in favour of themes).

The narrower the theme, the more players will be excluded - particularly those with one or few armies (such as those relatively new to the period or the applicable scale). I would prefer broader periods encompassing several companion volumes, or thematically-driven matching in opens. I realize keen competitors may have excellent objections.

I agree with the majority vote here, themed tournaments. In the way that FOG has been set up and according to many posts made about army lists both by the authors and forum members, FOG is designed with each army's capabilities against its likely historical foes as a central principle. Some armies adapted across time in part because the nature of their enemies changed...the Romans being a good example. Some armies seem to have changed due to the contacts they had with other civilisations. Others still made good use of inventions. Of course, there were those, too, that made little change for a variety of cultural, techical or geographical reasons.

Who's to say what kind of change to their tactics and armament a civilisation may have made in response to a brand new type of enemy? Matching non-historical opponents can't allow for that kind of eventuality very well, if at all.

Martin

MikeK wrote:The narrower the theme, the more players will be excluded - particularly those with one or few armies (such as those relatively new to the period or the applicable scale). I would prefer broader periods encompassing several companion volumes, or thematically-driven matching in opens. I realize keen competitors may have excellent objections.

100% agree. This is a new game. (Yes, there are plenty of DBA converts) Why start out limiting who can join in the fun?