Champions League
A brand new major game feature introduced with Version 111 elevates Tribal Champions to a new plane of importance; the Malkahai-operated, gladiator-like Champions League.
Each month the Malkahai will teleport all Champions in the land to the Arena of Fire at one of their four Great Cities, to fight in a pre-arranged bout against another of their kind in the Champions League. Each bout takes only a few minutes, and surviving Champions are then magically healed before being teleported back from whence they came. In real terms, participation in the Arena of Fire will not affect a Champion's Orders or location that month unless he is killed by his opponent, though not many actually die in the Arena as the fight is halted when one Champion is bashed senseless. There are no thumbs up or down in the Arena of Fire.
The purpose of the League is to find the strongest and most skilful Champions in the land, for he who tops the League and becomes the Champion of Champions will come to the attention of the Lesser Gods themselves, and therefore be awarded the opportunity to prove himself a Great Hero or not, as the case might be. Each warrior has to fight with different weapons every bout, selected by the League judges just moments before the fight, so a true Champion needs a wide range of skills and would benefit greatly by practising regularly with a Weapons Master or similar.
At game-start each player-controlled tribe has one Champion in the League, and there is also a Champion of the Centaurs, Drow, Rock Trolls, Ogres, Dryads, Minotaurs, Babulska and Malkahai present; fifty in all. The League is presently dominated by the legendary Great Hero of the Malkahai, Tabax the Dragonheart, but Korak the Assassin - renowned Champion of the Babulska Clans - has publicly sworn to destroy him in honourable combat and assume the coveted mantle, Champion of Champions. Tabax just laughed, and then patted the little man on his bald head.
The eight non-player Champions head the League in Ranks 1-8, and the 42 player Champions are each assigned a random Rank number of 9-50. Future emerging Champions will automatically join the bottom of the League. Initially the Ranking order is unimportant as none of the player Champions have any Rank Points, which are earned based on performance in a bout and which will determine the proper Rank of each Champion in future. Thus the Champion at Rank 50 at the start of the game might find himself in the top 10 or 20 after just the first turn, simply by soundly defeating his first opponent. By turn 3 or 4 the Ranking order will clearly and accurately reflect every Champion's success, or lack thereof, in comparison to all the other Champions.
A fight in the Arena lasts for up to five rounds, though will often end sooner if one of the combatants is bashed senseless (KO'd), or killed. For details on how these five rounds are actually fought see the Supplementary Rules Sheet on Tribal Champions, No. 502, under the sub-heading of "Champions Single Combat".
Rank Points
The following Rank Points are awarded depending on performance in a League fight.
Kill
- 8 Rank Points are awarded for killing an opponent outright by the end of Round 5
- 12 for a kill during Round 4
- 18 for a kill during Round 3
- and 30 for a kill during Round 2
A Kill is only possible if the opponent was at less than 100 damage at the start of that Round (ie. still conscious, otherwise the fight would have already ended with a KO) but suffered more than 36 damage during the round, taking damage to MORE than 135. A Kill is awarded full due points even if your own Champion is KO'd in the deciding Round (collapses from own wounds & the effort of swinging that last mighty blow).
Note that kills outside the Arena (in Champion combat before Army battled) earns the victor the basic 8 Rank Points for the kill regardless of the number of Rounds fought: the Arena judges have no way of knowing how well (or badly) this was fought, only that the death of a League Champion has occurred.
KO
- 5 Rank Points are awarded for achieving a Knock Out by the end of Round 5
- 7 Points for a KO during Round 4
- 10 Points for a KO during Round 3
- 15 Points for a KO during Round 2
A KO is achieved by causing 100-135 points of damage to the opponent by the end of Round 5 or less, while suffering less than 100.
DOUBLE KO
Where both combatants collapse from their wounds and exhaustion during the same round, having both suffered 100-135 damage.
- 1 Point each is awarded for a Double KO by Round 5
- 2 Points each for a Double KO during Round 4
- 3 Points each for a Double KO during Round 3
- 5 Points each for a Double KO during Round 2
Note that a Double KO in Champion combat outside the Arena (before Army battles) is the only way that BOTH Champions will survive any clash outside the Arena!
WIN
Clearly winning on points (causing at least 15% more damage) without actually knocking an opponent unconscious by the end of Round 5, 3 points.
LOSE
Losing on points (taking 15%+ more damage than opponent), but still conscious at the end of Round 5, 1 point.
HIGH DRAW
Both combatants suffering more than 60% damage but both still conscious by the end of Round 5, and with difference between the two less than 15%, 2 points each.
LOW DRAW
All other situations at the end of Round 5 which are not covered by any of the above or below scenarios, 1 point each.
KO'd
- Knocked out by an opponent by the end of Round 5, 0 points
- KO'd by the end of Round 4 - 1 point
- KO'd by the end of Round 3 - 3 points
- KO'd by the end of Round 2 - 6 points
CHALLENGES
- +5 points for killing a Challenger
- +3 for KO ing such
- +2 for beating Challenger on damage points
- +1 for a High Draw
- -3 points for being KO'd by opponent whom you challenged
- -2 for losing such a bout on damage points
- -1 if he fought you to a High Draw
- +3 for killing the Champion you challenged
- +1 for KO ing him
Challenge Bouts
It is possible for Champions to issue a challenge against a specific other Champion every month (though only one other) rather than leave it to the Arena judges to decide who he will next fight. To do so he must 'qualify' by either being within three Rank places of the other Champion, or by having a difference of no more than 10 Rank Points regardless of how many actual Ranks apart they might be. Thus on Turn 1 player Champions vary in Rank from 9 to 50 but all have equal (zero) actual Rank Points so may challenge any of the other 41.
Later on, however, the growing differences in both Rank and Rank Points will prevent poor fighters from qualifying to challenge the best, and vice versa.
Understanding the League Table
Every turn The Champions League Table will list all Champions together with their skills, past fight statistics, latest fight results, and next turn's opponent, as follows. Where the Table heading is abbreviated, this abbreviation will be shown below in parenthesis, beside its full meaning.
If more than a single Champion challenges the same one, the highest-ranking Challenger (ie. the one with the most honour and prestige) will prevail. This also means that although you might challenge another, if someone else of even higher rank challenged YOU on the same turn then your own challenge will be ignored and you will have to fight your challenger rather than the Champion you had hopes to challenge yourself. This would indeed be unfortunate, because to throw down the gauntlet to the Champion of a specific enemy it will cost a total of 300 Crowns x Turn No. on which the challenge is made, regardless of whether it is actually successful or not. Note that a challenge cannot be refused however, only screwed up by a higher-ranked Champion issuing a challenge to either yourself or your intended target, which will supersede your own challenge. Soundly defeating the Champion of a current or intended neighbouring enemy tribe is of course a very effective means of weakening their entire tribal morale, while bolstering your own.
There are no League rules preventing Champions from issuing repetitive challenges against the same enemy Champion every single month, indeed it even seems to be quietly encouraged. To issue a challenge against a specific enemy (or allied!) Champion, an Order called Challenge Bout (CB) may be found later.
| Code | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| RANK | RNK | The League Table lists Champions in order of Ranking, beginning with the top-ranked Malkahai Great Hero, Tabax the Dragonheart, who has never been defeated and who has succeeded in killing every opponent who ever sought to take his crown and become Champion of Champions. |
| RANK POINTS | RPT | Beside each Champion's Rank will be listed his Rank Points, earned from previous confrontations in the Arena of Fire, if any. Rank Points determine the correct order of Ranking after the first turn. |
| CHAMPION'S NAME | NAME | Simply the name of the Champion who holds this Rank. |
| TRIBE | TR | The Tribe No. to which the named Champion belongs. |
| OLD RANK | OLD | The Champion's Rank on the previous turn. |
| DIFFERENCE | DI | The difference between the previous turn's Rank and this turn's, shown as a positive or negative figure, or +0 if no actual change. |
| WHIRLWIND ATTACK SKILL | WA | A 0-99% rating for the Champion's current WA Skill, including any new skill experience gained in the last fight or through training this turn. Approx. 1% Skill is gained for every 10 Damage inflicted using this Skill. |
| STRONG ATTACK SKILL | SA | As above, but for current SA Skill. |
| FEINT ATTACK SKILL | FA | As above, but for current FA Skill. |
| CAUTIOUS ATTACK SKILL | CA | As above, but for current CA Skill. |
| PASSIVE ATTACK SKILL | PA | As above, but for current PA Skill. |
| KILLS | KL | The number of Champions killed by this Champion to date, including those destroyed by him outside of the Arena of Fire. |
| KNOCK OUTS | KO | The number of KO's by this Champion to date. |
| WINS | WN | The number of other clear (points) victories by this Champion to date. |
| DRAWS | DR | The number of Draws: either High, Low or Double KO's. |
| KNOCKED OUT | KN | The number of times that this Champion has been KO'd. |
| DEFEATS | DF | The number of times other (points) defeats have been suffered. |
| TOTAL BOUTS | TB | This Champion's total number of bouts to date, either inside or outside of the Arena of Fire. |
| LAST FIGHT | LAS | The CURRENT Rank Number of the Champion that this Champion has just fought. |
| PREFERRED TACTICS | PRFTT | The 5-digit Fight Tactics, in order or preference, which the Champion attempted to use in the last fight. |
| ACTUAL TACTICS | ACLTT | The actual Tactic used for each of the (up to) five Rounds, eg. 11112 would indicate that Whirlwind Attack was used in the first four Rounds and a Strong Attack was used in the fifth. Any zeros would indicate a shorter fight, eg. 51500 lasted only three rounds. |
| ROUND 1 DAMAGE | D1-5 | The Round x total Damage inflicted by this Champion upon his opponent in the last fight. (To see damage TAKEN by this Champion, look at the damage inflicted by his last opponent.) |
| POINTS SCORED | PT | Shows the actual Rank Points earned by this Champion in the last fight, shown as either a positive, a zero, or a negative. |
| FIGHT RESULT | RES | A three-letter code indicating the result of the latest fight |
| KIL | Killed opponent | |
| K.O | KO'd opponent | |
| WON | Defeated opponent on points | |
| HIH | A high damage Draw | |
| LOW | A low damage Draw | |
| LST | This Champion was defeated on points | |
| OUT | This Champion was KO'd by opponent | |
| RIP | This Champion was killed by opponent | |
| DED | This Champion has just been killed outside of the Arena, after his League fight | |
| NEW | New entry into the League. | |
| NEW FIGHT | NEW | Shows the current Rank No. of this Champion's opponent next turn. |
| CHALLENGE MATCH | C | The letter "Y" (Yes) indicates that this Champion issued the challenge for the next fight, while the letter "H" (Him) means that his opponent did. The letter "N" (No) indicates that this fight was arranged by the Arena judges. |
As you can see, the League Table contains all the information pertaining to your Champion, as well as useful information and the fight records of all potential opponents. It is advised that each turn you should study your next opponent's skills and all past fights carefully, and instruct your own Champion accordingly. Don't leave it entirely to chance, because if you make a habit of not changing your Champion's Tactics preferences an astute rival will spot this and take swift and potentially fatal advantage of it.
Tribal Morale
Note that Tribal morale in general may be considerably affected by how your Champions account for themselves in the Arena of Fire every month, and the Morale Upper Limit of your tribe will also be adjusted accordingly.
| Combat Damage | Wa | Sa | Fa | Ca | Pa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wa | 30 | 10 | 5 | 20 | 30 |
| Sa | 20 | 20 | 10 | 30 | 5 |
| Fa | 30 | 20 | 15 | 5 | 10 |
| Ca | 10 | 5 | 30 | 10 | 20 |
| Pa | 5 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 5 |