Want to quickly fight epic battles? Play the new Arena game mode (News)

The Arena is a new game mode developed by the AoW3 community to allow epic PvP and PvE battles, putting one of the biggest strength of AoW at the centre of gameplay: tactical battles. This article presents the Arena and provides an introductory guide for new players.

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What is the Arena game mode?
The Arena allows to fight epic, large-scale battles against humans or against the AI after a relatively short preparation period where you select skills, armies and hero upgrades. It is an additional game mode developed by the AoW3 community that brings a 4th way to play the game in addition to Single player (campaign, random maps, custom scenarios), Play by email (PBEM, which actually does not use emails), and Live multiplayer (live MP). A 5th mode is Hotseat, but is relatively rare.

A massive Shrine of Smithing fires a blast toward the enemy infidels! No need to spend an entire game researching T4!

The tactical battle system of AoW is often considered the best ingredient in the recipe of the game`s success but, for most people, playing live MP takes too much time in a row and that makes tactical battles vs humans impossible to access. In addition, depending on the map, duration of the game, etc. you may not get a chance to use the Dwelling you love, or the epic high-level spells you crave. The Arena mode is entirely focused on tactical combat: it keeps the best part of AoW3 and put all the rest to its service: you can now select any spell, unit or upgrade of the class, race and three specializations you picked, as well as units from one Dwelling of your choice! A short preparation phase (10 to 30 min to pick your units, etc.) is followed immediately by an entrance into the central Arena, and the s tart of the battle vs your opponent, on any ofÂ AoW3`s battlefield.

Comparison of the Arena to other game mods

The current strategic map of the Arena (will be simplified): two production centers on each side and a central Arena with all overlays and climates

The Arena mode can be used to organize epic battles vs the AI: you can enter the Arena in hotseat mode, prepare both teams` armies then launch the fight and put the `AI player´ in auto: it will then fight against you.

How to set up the Arena?
You`re interested and want to use the Arena mode? It's quite simple! The Arena is currently in early beta and things will get even simpler in the future (see the last paragraphs of this article; for instance only 1 mod will be needed in the future).
You can check the latest instructions on how to set up the mode in the Arena Pool on the-Battlefield.com/aow3, the community website for AoW3. You can watch the first 5 minutes of this video to learn how to set up the Arena (thanks Marcuspers!), and then continue watching to see the preparation of a battle (part 2 for the rest of the preparation and part 3 for the battle):

And here are some written, step by step instructions:
1. get the following mods from the Steam Workshop:
Decodence Map Content
Elemental Mod
No Domain Structure Minimum Distance
2. download the 2 .taf files here
3. put the 2 .taf in this folder in your C:\Users\[your user name]\Documents\My Games\AoW3\UserContent
4. activate the Arena and Arena balance mods in your launcher, as well as the Decodence Map Content, Elemental Mod and No Domain Structure Minimum Distance mods (5 in total). Launch AoW3.
Note: you should not run any other mod that modifies units, skills or hero upgrades with the Arena as they will probably conflict (e.g. the PBEM & Single Player Balance mod will cause units in the Arena to have an upkeep whereas they should be free from upkeep).
5.
a. If you want to play vs an AI: select `New Scenario´, move from the `Official` to the `Community´ tab and use the "Arena map v2.0X" custom map. Keep the first two players as Humans and select `Classic Turns´ instead of `Simultaneous Turns´.
b. If you want to play vs an human, go to Online Multiplayer then Internet, host, select `Host Scenario´, move from the `Official´ to the `Community´ tab and use the "Arena map v2.0X" custom map.
(later, you may want to delete the .sam and ~sam files in the \UGC_ARENA [76561198121141565] folder to prevent them from appearing in your custom map selection screen)
6. Once in game, you can pick the 6 research stashes on the ground near your Throne to get 4500 RP. Choose if you want a Dwelling or not in the research book, then pick the rest of your skills. You may use Seek Inspiration for free to find the skill you want. Build your units in your 7 cities and the Dwelling you chose (or not). Your Leader is level 13: pick his upgrades. Then you can use the 4 medal stashes to give up to 6*4=24 medals to your units (you can get 6 Elite units or 12 Veteran units for instance). Move through the Teleporter to reach the central area, wait/find your opponent, decide about a battleground, move there and engage the fight!

What should I know when I play the Arena?
Starting conditions
Each player starts with 1000 gold, 500 mana and 4500 RP (to pick on the ground) as well as 4 medal stashes (to level up units). The Leader starts (and is capped) at level 13.

Starting conditions in the Arena

Engagement rules
Before players choose their army, it is recommended that they randomly select a terrain (overlay + climate) and decide who will launch the attack (= attacker). The other player (= defenders) must position all his units on the chosen terrain, then the attacker chooses how to engage the fight, with all his units on the same terrain.
On round 1 of the battle, only movements are allowed. The use of abilities or spells and attacks are all banned. This aims to make the battle fair for both players and avoid advantaging the attacker or the defender. In the future, this rule should be integrated directly by in-game mechanics (abilities will start on cooldown and a battle enchantment will prevent spellcasting and damage-dealing).

Only movements are allowed during the first turn, usually the armies move away from each other, but not always!

Banned skills
All skills that have no impact on tactical battles have been removed (e.g. Domain of Winter, Terraforming, etc.). In addition:
- Rite of Malediction is banned
- Disintegrate: cannot target Leaders

Disintegrate has been modified and can't target Leaders. Many more balance changes will come in future versions

Evolve and Racial Governance
Evolve is removed from all units and skills. Racial Governance should not be used (the current version still has RG but it should not be used; in the future, it will be entirely removed).

Known issues
If you start playing the Arena, don't be surprised by these issues, they will be fixed in future versions:
- buildings can be sold: they should not!
- some high-level skills (tier VI and above) do not appear as much as we'd like in the research book (Disintigrate, Mass Statis, ...)
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Where to play?
The heart of the Arena game mode is on the Battlefield, the community website for AoW3. All news, latest releases, guides, meta statistics and commentaries, etc. will be centralized there. The best places to look for players a re the Arena Pool where you can use the in-site tool to share your availabilities and find who will be available at the same time, and the chat (which does not require registration). Come say hello at any of these places and you`ll find people to play with.

How to use the chat as a guest (without registering)

Two videos of AbedNego vs Nemesis_Zero in the first showcase matches of the Arena:

Future evolutions
Many improvements are planned in the coming months!

The biggest is going to be the move from 5 to only 1 mod, which will considerably simplify life for users. This new version will also fix remaining issues (RG still usable, etc.) and bring a big wave of balance changes for the Arena. It should also include in-game restrictions on actions on turn 1 to prevent players from forgetting they can only move and are not allowed to do anything else during the first round of any battle.

Pre-made armies might get prepared and provided in specific maps so that players can skip the preparation phase and go straight into combat. The armies will probably use the most popular builds played during tournaments, and will include armies of independents to facilitate play in single player in PvE.

An Arena ranking will be added to the Battlefield community website. At first, this ranking will probably be reset every few months as the Arena matures and gets more and more balanced. Once it reaches maturity, the ranking should be integrated into the General ranking.

An army building tool might get added on the Battlefield, both to simulate armies and see what they cost (gold, mana, RP, Leader`s upgrade points) and to facilitate matches, especially for tournaments: both opponents would be able to input their army in advance, without being able to change them, so that they can then exchange the save game to prepare the match without worrying their opponent might see their army, etc.

Meta-statistics about the most used units, skills and abilities might be added on top of the army building tools.

Current meta-statistics from live MP and PBEM matches reported on the Battlefield

Tournaments will be organized. The current idea for tournaments is to let each player choose 3 armies for each tourney round. A player will then have to beat the 3 armies (each with a value of 1000 gold, 500 mana and 4500 RP) of his opponent to win the round, leading to between three (3-0) and five (3-2) actual battles each round. Such a system should ensure rounds are not lost to impossible match-ups on one single battle.

Finally, a specific Wikia should be set up to list the stats of all the units, skills and Leader`s upgrades including the specific Arena balance changes.