In medieval times, tournaments and grand tournaments were quite common, even when not at war, barons would often participate in these simulations of war for entertainment, practice, financial gain.
Grand Tournament
Once every 30 days in game time, any Town in game can host a Grand Tournament but only one can be held in a kingdom at any time, a kingdom can not host a grand tournament while at war. A grand tournament will summon lords and parties much like an army, including those without troops from neighboring towns and castles to the hosting town, after 5 days the player can trigger the tournament or 10 days it automatically runs without a player participating. Any lord who shows up gets a 2 relationship boost with any other lord who shows up to the tournament.Ladder
The ladder for the tournament is made up of available lords in the settlement with those having a party being given preference for leadership of an army, and available lords being made available as captains, these will simply be shuffled and assigned at random to each groups pool. The first ladder of each tournament will be 16 lords in 100v100 matches, then 8 lords in 200v200, then 4 lords in 300v300, then 2 lords in 500v500 final matchup.Troop Pool
Troops used in the tournament are selected from the total settlement pool. Parties are used first, then garrison, then militia, to ensure there are enough troops to participate. The first ladder does not allow tier 4+ troops, the second does not allow tier 5+, and the third doesn't allow tier 6 troops. In the final matchup, all bets are off and all troops can be used. Party composition will try as best as possible to have a homogenous formation size, but given a shortage, preference will be given to the formation most commonly used by that culture (see culture below). When cultural preferences can not be met, infantry are simply subbed in.Culture
Each culture will have a slightly different formation style and troop preference- Empire tournaments will have equal formations and fill troop shortages with more cavalry.
- Battania tournaments will have their archer formation split into two groups and fill troop shortages with more archers.
- Vlandia tournaments will have their cavalry formation split into two groups and fill troop shortages with more cavalry.
- Aesari tournaments will have their cavalry formation split into two groups and fill troop shortages with more cavalry.
- Sturgian tournaments will have their infantry formation split into two groups of shield wielding troops and two handed troops and fill troop shortages with infantry.
- Khuzait tournaments will have their horse archer and cavalry formations split into two groups and fill troop shortages with horse archers and cavalry equally.
Experience Gain
Leadership, Tactics, Medicine Perks and Weapon Perks all gain experience as normal during the mock battles of the tournament. Winning a match provides a small boost to charm as well as leadership. Every party who participates in the tournament will gain a flat experience boost distributed among its members if the party leader wins a match, each tier of the tournament doubles the experience pool for the winner gained by his/her party with the most experience gained for winning the final bout.Danger
The difficulty level of the game is set to realistic for all values for the event, there is no danger because all damage during the tournament is blunt and NPCs can only be knocked out. Due to the prize levels, winning should not be gamey and be able to be cheesed with difficulty.Prizes
Winning any round of the tournament rewards the player/npc with denars, tier 1 is worth 5k denars, tier 2 is worth 10k denars, tier 3 is worth 25k denars, and the grand prize is 60k denars. Winning every single round of the tournament is worth a 100k net total of denars. In addition to the cash prize, the final bout always awards a tier 6 horse, and a tier 6 weapon, the weapon again being affected by culture.- Empire tournaments will reward a tier 6 weapon from any item pool
- Battania tournaments will reward a tier 6 Bow or 2h Sword
- Vlandia tournaments will reward a tier 6 1h/2h Piercing Polearm or 1h Sword or Crossbow
- Aesari tournaments will reward a tier 6 2h Polearm or 1h Sword or 2h Axe or Javelin
- Sturgian tournaments will reward a tier 6 2h Axe or throwing axe or 1h Sword or 1h Axe
- Khuzait tournaments will reward a tier 6 Bow or 2H Swingable Polearm or Javelin