Recommended turn order based on play times:

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
Only 4 games still ongoing (actually 5 but 1 is finished and not yet reported) so we might be able to start round 2 earlier than planned.
REMINDER: round 2 will use v1.21 of the balance mod (check the changelog).

== 2015 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
The mega final of the previous Duel Tournament has just begun! Skuns vs gabthegab! Good luck to both of them! Looking forward to the result and the report!
The interview of Fistandantilus, who is #3 of that tournament will be published soon. You can find the interview of Sjow, who ended up #4, on that article of the Battlefield.

== Misc ==
Please vote in the new poll Do you think the mod that removes rapids (blocked water) from the Random Map Generator should be used for tournament games to help classes/races that cannot cross these rapids? The results of this poll will determine if rapids are removed from round 3 of the 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament and maybe of round 3 or 4 of the 2vs2 Team Tournament (to be confirmed).

== Balance ==
If you haven't, please remember to vote on the previous poll: What direction should the Balance Mod take in the coming months? (the poll closes on 15 March)

Also I encourage all of you to watch the video presenting v1.21 of the balance mod on YouTube and you're very welcome to comment it:


v1.22 is under preparation. Before proposing new changes, we need to slim down the current list of proposed changes (which you can find here https://docs.google.com/docum... What's your opinion on the following changes:
GC16
Pounce requires 3 action point and has Medium range (was no action point and Short range)

AD08a
Orc Hunters cost 75 gold (was 80) and have Sprint

Dr10a
 -40 Research cost for Musketeer and +40 for Cannons

Dr15
Dreadnought heroes and leaders can now choose Mechanised Field Medic at level X for Y points

Ne05f
Greater Reanimate Undead can be chosen at level 9 (was level 7)

Ne11
Necromancer heroes and leaders can choose Heal Undead at level 1 for 3 points (was a starting skill)

Ne13a
Raise Corpse reanimate cadavers with 50% HP (was 100%)

Ha03e
Jesters cost 55-60 gold (was 80) and Fireworks does 5 physical damage and 9 fire damage (was 9 / 5)

Ha09f
Brew Brothers can use Throw Cleavers when engaged

Ha09h
Brew Brothers has 45 HP (was 35) and a new ability “Chief’s Special”, weaker version of fire breath – with base of 10 or 11 fire damage, usable once per battle. Reduce the strength of Throw Cleaver.

Ha12
Halfling Hunters have Sprint

Ha20a
Halfling military RG1 gives an additional +10 HP to Jester (was 0 and boosts to Nightwatch).

Ai06
Air Master gets Wind Path instead of Heavy Winds. Wind Path is a strategic spell which gives target stack +36 MP on the strategic map for one strategic turn. It costs 700 RP, 60 CP and is tier V. Wind Path causes units getting extra movement to become Exhausted for 3 turns (including the turn when it is cast). Wind Path causes units getting extra movement to become Tired until the end of the (strategic) turn.
Exhausted units cannot receive extra movement from Wind Path or Death March any more. Tired units get -50% movement in tactical combat.

== PBEM 2017 Duel Tournament ==
All games started, 3 finished!
Round ends on 3 April.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
All but one game started. I discussed briefly with Lightform today, he said to me he would try to solve his issue (likely to be overheating of the computer), so the missing match may be able to start...
I just realized I made a mistake for the duration of the round, obviously it's 8+3 = 11 weeks, not 7 weeks, I just updated it. So the round ends on

== Misc ==
A new article has been published, with a lot of nice pictures, good info about mods, and the results of all recent polls, it's here: Best mods for AoW3 and other poll results (best class, worst starting class)
Also, please vote for the poll What direction should the Balance Mod take in the coming months?   It will really shape the future work on the balance mod so your votes are really important.

Ranger has still not played a single turn since he finally joined the game 3 days ago...

it has been launched but i doubt this game will go anywhere

if it ever gets to my turn i will try put a turn timer on but suspect he will miss many turns even if its a 3 day timer

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
All matches of round 3 but one have started.
v1.21 should be used on round 4.

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
All matches of round 1 but three have started. Kelda was replaced by El Lobo and PandoraFay was replaced by JundlandBanshee. Both need to send their class/race to the judges then they can start their matches. THE RANGER also needs to join the game hosted by SeeR to start.
v1.21 should be used on round 2.

== Balance ==
Technically, Ghoul units acquired through Ghouling Strike and those built by a Necromancer are currently undistinguishable. You're right though, we should ask Triumph to help us distinguish them. But adding "Converted unit" or "Mind-controlled unit" to them would maybe feel weird to many players. Any other idea?

Regarding the economic bonus of Necromancy, you have to keep in mind that most players find Necro difficult to play and struggle with it. The economic bonus was added to compensate for the lack of good morale of Necro cities which mean lower income and production, especially in end game.
When you master Necro's tactical combats, you don't really need this economic bonus but many players complained that we were starting to nerf Necro too much and that they had difficulties with it, so I don't think people would want to remove it.

For the 3rd point, no it also depends on the distance of the closest controlled city. I also felt the figure was lower but I think it's just that I usually do not Migrate cities (whereas I always do as Necro) so I had not paid attention to it. I argued for increasing the migration time by 1 turn here: http://aow.triumph.net/forums... />
I will launch the poll about the directions of the balance mod very soon.

marcuspers | Balance Discussion
So, today I noticed that Ghouled unit doesnt get the "extra upkeep cost", that must be wrong?
This should be fixed then!
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"?
This could be chaged as well
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?
I don´t know how this works. I soon should test Necro another time, then I could give more feedback

El_Lobo joined !!

Bishmanrock joined !!

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.