Update 19 version: EchoGolfQuebecHoosegow
Tournament Mode
Playing against the AI in single player mode is good for learning Forward Line, but for a greater challenge, Forward Line now has a tournament system where players all over the world can compete against each other for bragging rights. Forward Line is best enjoyed with a human opponent, and it really becomes a totally different, emotional experience.
Signing up
To begin your military career in Forward Line, you will be asked to create an account to track your progress. You will need an email address and and choose a password. Then you will have to verify your email address before logging in to your profile screen for the first time. You wouldn’t want to create a battle history on an email addy you don’t control, so verifying is necessary. Just click the link in the email you get from Forward Line.
Create your profile
The first task you want to complete is decide how the rest of the Forward Line community sees you. You must choose a name, you can choose any name or rank you want, within the rules of decency. Inappropriate or offensive content created in Forward Line will be deleted and repeat offenses will be disciplined including a possible ban on the account. Please keep it clean and fun for everyone.
After choosing a name, you can also edit your appearance. There are many facial parts to choose from, and they can be changed in rotation and size giving you many options to create your own character. Most of them are quite goofy, but don’t spend a lot of time here! This is not a beauty contest! You will be measured by your success in war.
Medals
When I say you will be measured by your success, I am talking about medals. In Forward Line, wins and losses don’t matter, what matters are the medals on your chest. This is similar to real life, where for example, should you obtain a college degree, the education that you got is not what matters, it’s the piece of paper telling dummies that you are educated that matters.
A medal gains prestige when it is won in a tournament. Prestige gained is the amount of players in the tournament, with a small multiplier for larger sized maps. Medium and large maps yield 1.5 and 2 times the earned prestige to the medal. A players rank is the sum of all the prestige built on all of the medals that have been awarded to them.
Tournament Creation
Tournaments and the medals that are awarded to the winners are created by players. To create a tournament, go to the browse tournaments screen and press ‘create tournament’. You must then choose a medal to be awarded to the winner. This can be a new medal that you made, or you can choose to sacrifice one of the medals that you have won in the past. If you sacrifice a medal in this manner, and you happen to win the tournament, the medal will gain 3 times the normal prestige amount! If you are good enough to pull this off, you can greatly increase your ranking among your peers. However, if you lose the medal, it will be lost until the new recipient creates a new tournament with that medal. You should only choose medals to upgrade in this manner from those you are willing to lose!
Medal Creation
To create a medal from scratch, press the ‘Medal Shop’ button in the ‘Browse Tournaments’ screen. There are various buttons that you can experiment with. See the image below with a deeper explanation of the amulet editing screen.
The name for a medal must be in the ‘Medal Of’ format, and can be anything. Also the amulet creator can make just about any image, but again, similar to your player profile, please keep it decent and fun for everyone. Inappropriate content will result in discipline up to and including a ban on the offending account.
Tournament Flow
A single user may join five tournaments at once. Before joining a tournament, be sure to check the map size. A tournament on a large map might take a month to complete, so be sure you really want to commit to such an adventure. Once a tournament is joined there is no backing out. You either win or lose. If you take no action the turn timer will run out and your opponent in the match will advance by default. In a tournament full of indolent slackers, the guy who shows up the most will get the medal.
A tournament can have anywhere from 2 to 32 players. The amount of players will determine the prestige gain of the assigned medal. A tournament will start when the creating player decides to start it with 2 or more players, or it will start automatically in around 3 or 4 days. Anyone can join a tournament. Higher ranked players will always get a favorable match-up with the lowest ranked opponents, and will always choose the game map and have the first move in a match.
Playing a Tournament Match
Tournament games have some special rules to keep in mind. When two players end up in the same unresolved bracket, a game will begin automatically. Both players will be notified when this happens through the notification system specific to the platform they are using.. If you do not get a notification, take care that you have notifications allowed for the Forward Line app. Lately platforms default to blocking notifications so make sure you don’t miss your turn.
Entering the game
There are two ways to enter a game. The ‘Play!’ button will take you to the game with the most urgent turn timer if there is an active game going on for you. If you want to enter a specific game, go to the ‘My Tournaments’ screen, select the tournament and click on your current bracket containing your latest match. That will bring you to the matchup screen and you can press ‘Enter Game’.
Progress in the game is saved automatically. You may enter and leave the Forward Line app at will. You can watch your opponent make his moves or not, it doesn’t matter. When your turn comes up you will get a notification, and you can then make your own moves.
The Turn Timer
In order to keep tournaments moving along, there is a time limit for players to take their turns.The timer is visible in the lower right corner of the screen, above the ‘End Turn’ button, along with the turn count and max turns allowed.
This timer is not designed to rush people, it’s just to ensure that eventually the game will end no matter what. At the start of every game, the turn timer is set to 24 hours. Players may take their turns at any time as long as there is time left. Nobody needs to wait to take their turn when it comes up.
When the timer ticks down to below 30 minutes, a player ending their turn will reset the turn timer to 30 minutes, so a player will always have a minimum of 30 minutes to take their turn after an opponent ends their turn.
Calling a Truce
Not everyone can drop what they are doing to play a game. Real life happens and even the most ardent gamer must make it a priority. Work and sleep are important, and a Forward Line game can last for multiple sessions over multiple days. Though the timer must tick, and the tournament must progress, when a player captures a city they may elect to call a unilateral truce that resets the turn timer to 24 hours. Use this feature if you need to go to work or to sleep.
When you capture a city, a little red truce phone will appear above the turn timer. Tap on that to give both players a 24 hour reprieve from the timer. You can keep playing, but you don’t have to play for at least 24 hours upon calling a truce.
If you control the game, then you are in control of the schedule. If your opponent is preventing you from capping a city in the near future, you might have to forfeit if it’s your bedtime. That will be your judgement call. Dreamreason Games does not condone making real life sacrifices for the sake of games. Go to bed.
Ending the game
The game can end in several ways. The first way is the normal way, when one player gains twice as many cities, plus one, as their opponent, after capturing an enemy city. (A game is not won by capping a neutral city.)
The second way is for the turn timer to run out. The player who’s turn it is when the timer runs out loses, not merely his turn, but the whole match. People are waiting, things have to move along. Do not let the turn timer run out on your turn unless you wish to forfeit the game.
The third way for a match to end is in a draw. If the turn count limit is reached and there is still no victor, then the match is a draw and both players are knocked out of the tournament! Their would be opponent in the next round will get a bye and win that match automatically. If a draw happens in the final round the medal will go back to it’s original owner, and the tournament will effectively be canceled.