William Blake
29-03-2005, 07:09
Probably very few people have same level of knowledge and experience in KoH multiplayer as I do. I’ve been playing for quite some time, against quite some number of people with quite nice results. Initially all you want to archive is an army which will win no matter what. And fortunately very few setups will do that. But unfortunately few can and once you get it, it becomes extremely boring and unfair for those who just don’t know the right combination.
Anyway, I’ve been playing lately with some nice german guys and we played to have fun and interesting games, so we tried some rules to extend possibilities and fun. Amazingly if you voluntarily apply some rules on all armies you can have much, much better game. And I’d like to share these rules with community, so decent people could have more fun.
The main purpose of these rules is to give practically any army (nation) a fair chance and also have various unit types on the field, so players could show their skill in tactics and maneuvering. Because as we all (hopefully) know, a winning combination of 10 swordsmen + bunch of men a arms or vikings all buffed with some stars is the most cost effective army possible, will win against any other army and it takes no skill to control. We don’t want some units have amazing advantage on battlefield, we want people have amazing skill controlling units.
Oh yeah, rules apply to the tower maps only. Well, you can try them for the siege, but siege is so unbalanced already that you probably wont be able to safe it:) Ok, here are the rules:
Part A – Definitions:
Unit Type – “feudal knights”, “men at arms”, “peasants” and so on are unit types. Same icon, same look mean same unit type, you got it, right?
Unit Class – we distinguish 5 unit classes.
“Cavalry” – all mounted units, from camels to feudal knights, with horse archers and steppe included.
“Spears” – spearmen, akyndji, desert spearmen and halberdiers.
“Archers” – all infantry that shoot arrows and cost more then 100 gold – archers, desert archers, crossbowmen, longbowmen and janissaries.
“Auxiliary” – all units that cost 100. Peasants, bowmen, axemen and slavonic ones.
“Swords” – everything else, basically all shock infantry from swordsmen and saracesens to vanguards and teutons.
“Stars” - levels of unit experience. Initially unit has no stars. Units in initial army can be upgraded up to 3 stars level.
Part B – Main Rules
Before the game while buying units, clearly state that you wish to play “by the rules” and ask others if they want to do so. Make sure that everyone else explicitly agreed that you are playing “by the rules”. If there is any question about “the rules” specify what the rules are.
If someone doesn’t want to follow the rules, play as you wish. But if everyone agreed to play by the rules, make sure YOU yourself follow them before you blame anyone else:)
In initial army you buy before the battle:
You must have at least 2 units of cavalry, spears, archers and swords classes. If you don’t want any auxiliary units you may go without them.
You can not have more then 2 units of a same type.
You can not have more then 4 units of a same class.
Stars are subject to special conditions, see part C.
You have a right to inspect enemy army at the start of a battle to check if the rules are met by the enemy. If at the first glance you spotted something questionable, press pause and check carefully. If at start of a game enemy pressed pause, wait for him to un-pause the game, so he can inspect your army. The rules are voluntary and if you both decided to follow them, pay fair. If you spot something wrong with opponent’s army, tell him what and why is wrong. Maybe one of you doesn’t understand the rules or made a mistake. If you didn’t say anything about enemy army at the start don’t bring it up 20 minutes later then you are losing :).
During the battle you are free to buy any units. And play as you wish.
Part C – special units
Some units are a bit unbalanced against others, so putting stars on them will make the advantage even more unfair. You can not level up (buy stars) for the following unit types:
Men at arms, highlanders, vikings – these units are very cost effective and price is just 300, so the stars you are buying go like 50, 100, 150 gold. And for normans and up its already 100, 200, 300 or even more.
Desert Cavalry – same logic obviously. It’s the only cavalry which has 100, 200, 300 gold stars. It is also cheapest unit in the class, has 20 men per unit and extremely cost effective as it is.
Janissaries – shoot as good as longbowmen, twice cheaper and can fight hand to hand as good as men at arms. I mean, come on, what else does a fair unit need for 500? 3 stars on top of that? No way.
Steppe Cavalry – 2 of them with 3 stars each worth a whole army. They extremely hard to catch, they shoot hard and very strong hand to hand. No need to buff them even more.
All other units can be upgraded the way you want.
Comments on “2 of type, 4 of a class, 2 of each class minimum”
Well, if you don’t understand it in general terms, here are some examples:
You can have:
2 light cavalry (2 of a type “A”) + 2 feudal knights (2 of a type “B”) = 4 of class (cavalry)
But you can not have:
3 light cavalry (3 of a same type)
But you can have
2 unit of desert cavalry, 1 unit of camels, 1 unit of mameluks = 4 of class
Make sure you understand that bowmen and slavonic bowmen are not “archer” class, but
”auxiliary”. So for Russian and Balkan groups you must take 2 units of archers (type archers, those brown guys for 400 gold), because steppe cavalry is counted as cavalry class and slavonic bowmen are counted as “auxiliary”.
Or for example for Spanish you can not take 2x crossbows, 2x archers, 2x heavy archers = 6 of a class, right? But you can have 2x archers, 2x heavy archers, 2x horse archers = 4 of class archers, 2 class cavalry. And you need 2x spears, 2x swordsmen to comply with other rules which is exactly 5000 gold, but this will leave all your spanish units without stars. Want to try it against 2x desert cavary, 2x mameluks, 2x saracens, 2x desert archers, 2x desert spearmen, 2x peasants, 2x bowmen? :)
Conclusion:
As I said, these rules are nothing but an effort to make your multiplayer experience richer and more enjoyable. If you don’t feel so, play as you like.
Also, I would love to see your feedback. I understand that the rules wont solve all the balance issues, and player skill itself affects the outcome a lot, but I tried to make as less restrictions as possible to keep it simple and enjoyable.
Thank you for your interest.
PS
Special thanks goes to Attila, you know who, for amazing Central European vs Central European.
Anyway, I’ve been playing lately with some nice german guys and we played to have fun and interesting games, so we tried some rules to extend possibilities and fun. Amazingly if you voluntarily apply some rules on all armies you can have much, much better game. And I’d like to share these rules with community, so decent people could have more fun.
The main purpose of these rules is to give practically any army (nation) a fair chance and also have various unit types on the field, so players could show their skill in tactics and maneuvering. Because as we all (hopefully) know, a winning combination of 10 swordsmen + bunch of men a arms or vikings all buffed with some stars is the most cost effective army possible, will win against any other army and it takes no skill to control. We don’t want some units have amazing advantage on battlefield, we want people have amazing skill controlling units.
Oh yeah, rules apply to the tower maps only. Well, you can try them for the siege, but siege is so unbalanced already that you probably wont be able to safe it:) Ok, here are the rules:
Part A – Definitions:
Unit Type – “feudal knights”, “men at arms”, “peasants” and so on are unit types. Same icon, same look mean same unit type, you got it, right?
Unit Class – we distinguish 5 unit classes.
“Cavalry” – all mounted units, from camels to feudal knights, with horse archers and steppe included.
“Spears” – spearmen, akyndji, desert spearmen and halberdiers.
“Archers” – all infantry that shoot arrows and cost more then 100 gold – archers, desert archers, crossbowmen, longbowmen and janissaries.
“Auxiliary” – all units that cost 100. Peasants, bowmen, axemen and slavonic ones.
“Swords” – everything else, basically all shock infantry from swordsmen and saracesens to vanguards and teutons.
“Stars” - levels of unit experience. Initially unit has no stars. Units in initial army can be upgraded up to 3 stars level.
Part B – Main Rules
Before the game while buying units, clearly state that you wish to play “by the rules” and ask others if they want to do so. Make sure that everyone else explicitly agreed that you are playing “by the rules”. If there is any question about “the rules” specify what the rules are.
If someone doesn’t want to follow the rules, play as you wish. But if everyone agreed to play by the rules, make sure YOU yourself follow them before you blame anyone else:)
In initial army you buy before the battle:
You must have at least 2 units of cavalry, spears, archers and swords classes. If you don’t want any auxiliary units you may go without them.
You can not have more then 2 units of a same type.
You can not have more then 4 units of a same class.
Stars are subject to special conditions, see part C.
You have a right to inspect enemy army at the start of a battle to check if the rules are met by the enemy. If at the first glance you spotted something questionable, press pause and check carefully. If at start of a game enemy pressed pause, wait for him to un-pause the game, so he can inspect your army. The rules are voluntary and if you both decided to follow them, pay fair. If you spot something wrong with opponent’s army, tell him what and why is wrong. Maybe one of you doesn’t understand the rules or made a mistake. If you didn’t say anything about enemy army at the start don’t bring it up 20 minutes later then you are losing :).
During the battle you are free to buy any units. And play as you wish.
Part C – special units
Some units are a bit unbalanced against others, so putting stars on them will make the advantage even more unfair. You can not level up (buy stars) for the following unit types:
Men at arms, highlanders, vikings – these units are very cost effective and price is just 300, so the stars you are buying go like 50, 100, 150 gold. And for normans and up its already 100, 200, 300 or even more.
Desert Cavalry – same logic obviously. It’s the only cavalry which has 100, 200, 300 gold stars. It is also cheapest unit in the class, has 20 men per unit and extremely cost effective as it is.
Janissaries – shoot as good as longbowmen, twice cheaper and can fight hand to hand as good as men at arms. I mean, come on, what else does a fair unit need for 500? 3 stars on top of that? No way.
Steppe Cavalry – 2 of them with 3 stars each worth a whole army. They extremely hard to catch, they shoot hard and very strong hand to hand. No need to buff them even more.
All other units can be upgraded the way you want.
Comments on “2 of type, 4 of a class, 2 of each class minimum”
Well, if you don’t understand it in general terms, here are some examples:
You can have:
2 light cavalry (2 of a type “A”) + 2 feudal knights (2 of a type “B”) = 4 of class (cavalry)
But you can not have:
3 light cavalry (3 of a same type)
But you can have
2 unit of desert cavalry, 1 unit of camels, 1 unit of mameluks = 4 of class
Make sure you understand that bowmen and slavonic bowmen are not “archer” class, but
”auxiliary”. So for Russian and Balkan groups you must take 2 units of archers (type archers, those brown guys for 400 gold), because steppe cavalry is counted as cavalry class and slavonic bowmen are counted as “auxiliary”.
Or for example for Spanish you can not take 2x crossbows, 2x archers, 2x heavy archers = 6 of a class, right? But you can have 2x archers, 2x heavy archers, 2x horse archers = 4 of class archers, 2 class cavalry. And you need 2x spears, 2x swordsmen to comply with other rules which is exactly 5000 gold, but this will leave all your spanish units without stars. Want to try it against 2x desert cavary, 2x mameluks, 2x saracens, 2x desert archers, 2x desert spearmen, 2x peasants, 2x bowmen? :)
Conclusion:
As I said, these rules are nothing but an effort to make your multiplayer experience richer and more enjoyable. If you don’t feel so, play as you like.
Also, I would love to see your feedback. I understand that the rules wont solve all the balance issues, and player skill itself affects the outcome a lot, but I tried to make as less restrictions as possible to keep it simple and enjoyable.
Thank you for your interest.
PS
Special thanks goes to Attila, you know who, for amazing Central European vs Central European.