Recommended turn order based on play times:

16 players tournament: cbower beat me so round 7 is about to start. It's cbower vs Lightform. Please send your class / race to the judges and wait until the round has officially started (after cbower reports our game) so that the host has been randomly selected by the system.

1st 8 players tournament: still waiting for the matches between Skuns & Blackcat and Sjow & Gilafron.

2nd 8 players tournament: round 3 has officially started on 26 April.

We are moving forward to prepare the PBEM balance mod for next tournament (mod available here: http://steamcommunity.com/sha... and one of the key issue it seeks to fix is Necro. cbower confirmed the feasibility of one fix but said it would require a lot of work. 
 
We would thus need more feedback to choose the fix to Greater Reanimate undead preferred by the community. 
Basically, we've got 4 options: 

 

1. make it target only allied units (Ne05a)
 

2. make it available later and at a higher cost (Ne05c, Ne05f)
 

3. limit it targets and especially make it impossible to reanimate Death Bringers (Ne05b, Ne05d, Ne05e)
 

4. limit its targets at the beginning but then make it evolve to a stronger ability when techs are researched (Ne05)
 

 
Personally, I favour option 4/ because it has a smaller impact on Single player experience and is thus more likely to be adopted by Triumph. 
Here are the detailed candidates changes: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ne05	GRU7 * “Lesser Reanimate Undead” is a prerequisite of Greater Reanimate Undead (GRU). GRU is available at level 11 (was level 7), for 8 points (was 7 points). GRU works only on allied units and only on T1 and T2.  When a Necromancer player researches all its T1, T2, T3, and T4 strategic techs, GRU is upgraded to the current version (target T1 to T4 units and restore 100% health)
Ne05a	Greater Reanimate Undead – works only on YOUR undeads, restores 75% HP (was 100%). Needs Lesser Reanimate Undead as prerequisite.
Ne05b	Greater Reanimate Undead works only on T1, T2 and T3 (was up to T4)
Ne05c	GRU1 * Increase cost of GRU: 6 -> 8
Ne05d	GRU3 * Make mind-control immune and ghoul-curse immune units also immune against enemy unit reanimation
Ne05e	GRU3bis * Make it impossible to target cadavers of Death Bringers
Ne05f	GRU6 * Increase the level required to choose it: 7 -> 9

 
 
 
Please provide feedback here on the gaming blog or there: http://aow.triumph.net/forums... 
 
+ I proposed new settings (weak starting armies, village start, etc.) which you can discuss here: http://aow.triumph.net/forums...

Thanks for providing the videos. They were very educational.

I only played necromancer once, but I noticed that it seemed a lot more forgiving than other classes. It's funny how you can make so many mistakes early on and still end up with an overwhelming army so quickly.

Nice work Hiliadan. 

Well if it wasn't obvious that Necro were broken it certainly is now!

The last match of the 16 players tournament just finished. It was not a very nice match as both Eskild and I played Necro and tried to abuse it + I got serious hardware issues. In the end, I was better at exploiting Necro and won on turn 10.
I made several videos of my match against Eskild in the PBEM tournament and commented them. You can find the playlist with the 7 episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playl...
Each episode is about 3 and 22 minutes and show 1 or 2 turns.
For people doubting the strength of Necro, I strongly recommend watching episode #5 where I (more than?) double the size of my army and just exterminate Eskild which has no way to fight back. It's here : https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Your feedback on the videos are very welcome! I plan to do videos again on my game against cbower and I strongly encourage other players to do the same.

So round 6 officially starts today and it's only cbower vs me.
cbower, please send your class / race to Markymark and Fistandantilus, I'm going to do the same.
It looks like I'm host, I'm going to post the settings!

Thanks to Eskild for his feedback on the post on the forum http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/balance-based-on-hard-data-from-the-pbem-tournament/ and to gabthegab for his feedback here and on the chat.

There may be a bug on the 2nd 8 players PBEM tournament: please do not start round 3 as hatifnat and Tussel may not have finished their match (I'm waiting for a reply from Markymark but it seems there is a bug and the match is not finished).

Please also note the current status of warnings given in the tournament:
16 players tournament:

gabthegab	1 1 reload justified with screenshot during round 3
Eskild	Class / race sent after match started? during round 3
Hiliadan	6 3 reloads without proof (screenshot, etc.): 1 during round 1 (crash during upload), 1 during round 2 (computer overheating and shutdown) and another 1 during round 3 (at first load) 1 reload with screenshots after a failed upload (due to internet loss during the upload) during rematch of round 3 2 reloads with screenshots and videos after computer crashes on round 5 (including a x2 reload on same turn)
cbower	1 Slightly strange reload, without proof (screenshot, etc.) during round 2

1st 8 player tournament:
No warning

2nd 8 players tournament:

rrrrookie	2 2 slightly strange reloads (1 after upload failed and 1 at launch), without proof (screenshot, etc.) during round 1. Final warning given!
gladis	2 1 did not publish the screenshots of the settings during round 1 1 did not send his class / race before match start in round 2
EarL1893	1 1 did not send his class / race before match start in round 2

We are not yet clear how we will merge them at the end, but I believe that players from the 2 eight players tournaments will fight each other and the winner will play against the winner of the 16 players tournament, for the big final.
So you would play one additional match only if you win all your matches. If you lose one match, it's less certain. We need to discuss it but I don't think we will solve this issue now, it's not very urgent (and the balance discussion takes a lot of time), sorry.

Thanks for the feedback on the Necro solution. I'll add your opinion "For" the solutions you mentioned in the table.

 
Hello , i want to know how you join the 3 tournament for know how many match i will play if i go to big final and play necro in final of course . For me one solution for have a good balance for necro is Ne06b WITH Ne05a(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1flsHncpzAmJa_2xMHZ6Tlp-mf69ej2mYrSGNc4V3_QA/edit?usp=sharing) like this no need to change deathbringer because you can't have one deathbringer by resurect a ennemy deathbringer...Ne06a with Ne05a is very good solution too! Congratulation for the very good job   
 

Current status of the 3 tournaments:

• 16 players: 1 match finished, 2 match ongoing but awaiting feedback from the judges: Eskild vs Hiliadan (reload after game crash), Lightform vs gabthegab (death on turn 1, agreed restart)


• 1st 8 players tournament: replacement match ongoing (Blackcat vs badborre) to take the seat of Pothead Pixie, Castaneda is going to replace NoLife and will then play against Sjow, other matches finished


• 2nd 8 players tournament: 2 matches finished, 2 matches ongoing

Please note that the PBEM balance mod has been released by Zaskow! http://steamcommunity.com/sha...
It will be used in the next PBEM tournaments so you're encouraged to test it (not when you play a tournament in the current tournament of course, but in all other games).

@all:
As you know, there is currently several balance discussions ongoing, some dedicated to Conversion, others to Necro, others to balance issues outside conversion & Necro, a last one to XP farming. There is also a more general discussion about the settings of the next PBEM tournament.
On the "other balance issues" discussion, I checked the opinions of everyone so far and here are the changes that get at least 3 approvals and no disagreement. I flagged them as “Priority changes” and highlighted them in yellow in the table.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1flsHncpzAmJa_2xMHZ6Tlp-mf69ej2mYrSGNc4V3_QA/edit?usp=sharing

Could you please give your opinion on them so that we accept them or reject them for a balance mod? You can write in the discussion on the official forum (no need to read the whole thread, just comments these changes): http://aow.triumph.net/forums... or directly here and I'll repost for you there (to save your time).

Ha03d
Jesters get High Morale on Veteran, Solace on Elite (was Scorching projectile and Explosive Death on Elite)
Ha06
Give a lesser version of Mighty Meek (+1 def, +1 dmg by tier level difference) to Halfling T1
Ha08
Halfling cities get +75% on “Produce merchandise”
Ha09b
Brew Brothers’ Nourishing Meal resets the counter on Farmers’ Throw Chicken.
Brew Brothers have Inflict Crippling Wounds
Ha09d
Brew Brothers ignore ranged penalty
Ha09e
Brew Brothers’s Nourishing Meal has an effect similar to Bolster on its target
Ha15
Halfling Assassins get Pass Wall on Veteran (was on Elite)
Ha15a
Halfling Assassins get a new ability Shoot Poisonous Darts, short range, 1 physical damage, 4 poison damage, Inflict Noxious Vulnerability, Inflict Enfeebling Fever, Inflict Exhausting Fatigue, Inflict Severely Poisoned, and costs 10 gold more
Ha24a
Halfling economic RG3 also provides bonus for haste berries, clover, flowers, melons

@16 players tournament: ok it was quick... got killed stupidly without my throne... on turn 14. So we can resume for round 5.
I'm going to do the reporting soon, need to confirm how we do it with Markymark.
So Lightform, Eskild, gabthegab, please resend your class / race to judges in case you want to change (or if you hadn't done it yet).
We're going to randomly choose host too. Then, as usual, please post the settings screenshots for the host. EDIT: actually hosts had already been chosen last time so you can post the settings and start immediately EDIT2:

mauvebutterfly

ehall20

hatifnat

We still do not have your class / race. Please send them so that your match can start (+ settings of the match for the host).

marcuspers joined !!

@2nd 8 players tournament: round 2 is started

@1st 8 players tournament: currently on hold, sorry.
Blackcat will play against badborre to see who replace NoLife.
We are waiting for the answer of Castaneda, to see who replace Pothead Pixie.

@16 players tournament: my rematch against Lightform is ongoing, turn 13. When it's finished, we can resume.

@all: here is the judges' decision regarding NoLife and Pothead Pixie:
In the 1st 8 players tournament, Pothead Pixie disappeared and NoLife quitted.
NoLife had 1 victory, 1 loss and Pothead had 2 victories.

So they have the same number of victories as Gilafron, Castaneda, olschenstein for NoLife and Blackcat and badborre for Pothead (we looked at all the 32 players involved in the 3 sessions of the PBEM tournament).

After discussion among the judges, we propose that one of these 3 players and one of the 2 other players thus replace the missing players. We asked for their interest by PM. We will see how we do according to their answer.


Reminder: there is currently a balance discussion to prepare a mod for next tournament http://aow.triumph.net/forums...

@EarL and Gladis: please wait until the host is selected to start (Markymark will do that soon). It needs to be the 1st player. I know you're brothers but that's a not a reason to not send your class / race to the judges (necessary for next round) + respect the host rule. Ok if you don't want to post the screenshots of the settings (even if I think it would be a good idea, you can make mistakes and we could help you spot them).

@all: we are waiting for Fistandantilus's opinion regarding the proposition to replace NoLife and Pothead (but the players who would replace them are not those cited by Skuns).

@Lightform: also waiting for Fistandantilus's feedback to continue our game (I had a reload due to failed upload due to internet disconnection, due to Windows 10 upgrade....... -_-)

@2nd tournament players: round 1 just finished. Please send your class / race to the judges (to the opponent of Fistandantilus: obviously do not send it to him). The host will be chosen soon, then will be able to start your match after the host post the screenshots somewhere. EDIT: so official date of the start of round 2 is probably 30/03/2016

Good thoughts Skuns, but I'm not interested in rejoining the duel tournament. Duel isn't my thing

I really do like the thoughts of xlnt, but since I'm no duellist it doesn't really matter.

Maybe at some point I consider organising a 2 vs 2 tournament, but right now I just don't have the time for it.

Discussion on race / class balance (for next tournament) started here: http://aow.triumph.net/forums...

Mmh, ok let's discuss that in the topic opened to discuss settings for the next tournament then: http://aow.triumph.net/forums...

Personally, I don't like the idea. I prefer to be able to replay the same race / class. I don't think it's a big issue. Actually, if you do, your opponent can anticipate it and counter your class / race.

Yes - you start some random generator and sent the results to both players and one has to be goblin sorc and the other a tygran dreathnougt.

Or at least we get to choose the same race/class only once, not every other round. I have to pick Orcs only once in the tournament and i can be a Necromancer only once. (well... at the finals - haha)

I don't get how that would work? The judges choose the class / race for the players?