Hey gamers, how's everyone doing? Hope you're all doing great. Today I sat down to properly explore and get to know the 40-player mode in Chivalry 2 a lot better, because honestly after spending so much time in the 64-player matches it felt like the right moment to step back and check out what this other side of the game has to offer. And let me tell you, it's a different experience in ways I didn't fully expect going in.
What It Is and How It Differs from the 64-Player Mode
So first things first, let's clear up what the 40-player mode actually is, because when I first saw it in the menu I wasn't completely sure what I was getting into. The 64-player mode that I've been talking about in previous posts is all about Team Objective, massive battles where one side attacks and the other defends across a series of missions on huge maps. It's the main course of Chivalry 2, the thing the game is most known for, and honestly the mode with the most structure and purpose behind every match.
The 40-player mode is a completely different animal. This is what the game calls its Mixed Modes queue, and it pulls together a rotation of different game types that all feel much more casual and arcade-y compared to the serious objective-based gameplay of the 64-player side. The player cap drop from 64 to 40 might not sound like a massive difference on paper, but in practice you feel it almost immediately when you load into a match. The maps are generally smaller and more contained, the fights feel a little tighter and more focused, and there's noticeably less of that overwhelming chaos that hits you in the face during a full 64-player battle where everyone is pushing toward the same gate at once.
The 40-player mode is also where Team Deathmatch lives exclusively, meaning if you want to play TDM in Chivalry 2 this is the only queue that offers it. Beyond that you also get access to Free-for-All matches through this same pool, which throws out the whole team concept entirely and turns every player into their own faction with one simple goal, be the one with the most kills when the timer runs out. So while the 64-player mode is really one focused experience repeated across different maps, the 40-player queue is more of a sampler of different ways to play the game, which actually makes it a solid option depending on what mood you're in when you sit down to play.
How Matches Play Out in the 40-Player Mode
Let me break down what actually happens when you're inside these matches because each mode within the 40-player queue has its own feel and its own tempo that's worth talking about individually.
Team Deathmatch is probably the most straightforward of the bunch. Two teams go at each other on a map and the goal is simple, rack up kills and reach the score limit before the other team does. There's a ticket system involved, meaning every time someone on your team dies the team loses a ticket, and the first team to drain the other's tickets completely wins the match. What this does is create a kind of constant push and pull where dying has a slightly more real consequence than just respawning and running back into the fight, since every death is actively helping the enemy team get closer to victory. It encourages you to play a little smarter than you might in a pure respawn-and-go scenario, without going all the way to the extreme pressure of a no-respawn mode.
The maps used for Team Deathmatch are generally more open and arena-like compared to the massive sprawling environments of the Team Objective maps. Places like the Tournament Grounds and the Fighting Pit are designed specifically for this kind of back-and-forth brawling, with enough open space that you're not constantly getting stuck in choke points, but still enough geometry to create interesting angles and positions to fight around. After playing so many matches where I was always thinking about objectives and missions and what my team needed to push next, switching to a map designed purely for killing enemies and nothing else felt weirdly relaxing. You just fight. No coordination required, no convoy to escort, no gate to break down. Just you, your weapon, and whoever has the misfortune of spawning near you.
Free-for-All is where things get even more chaotic and honestly a lot more fun in short bursts. In this mode there are no teams at all, every single player on the server is an enemy, and the scoreboard is just a list of individual kill counts racing toward the limit. What makes this mode so entertaining in Chivalry 2 specifically is that the melee combat system, which was already pretty chaotic in team-based modes, gets completely unhinged when nobody has an ally anywhere on the map. You'll be in the middle of fighting one person, land what you think is a clean hit to finish them off, and then immediately take a sword to the back from someone who was watching the whole fight waiting for the perfect moment to jump in. It's genuinely every person for themselves and the game doesn't try to pretend otherwise for even a second.
Something I noticed pretty quickly in Free-for-All is that it actually does a really good job of teaching you individual combat mechanics in a way that team-based modes don't quite manage. When you're in the 64-player mode, there's always so much going on around you that you can sometimes get by without fully understanding the combat system because there's always a teammate nearby to take heat off you or finish someone you couldn't. In Free-for-All you have nobody to bail you out, so you either learn how to read enemy swings, time your blocks, and manage your stamina properly, or you spend the whole match at the bottom of the scoreboard getting absolutely destroyed by people who did put in the time to learn those things. It's a harsh teacher but an effective one.
There's also the Brawl mode that occasionally pops up in the rotation for the 40-player queue, which I mentioned briefly in an earlier post. This one is basically a Free-for-All but with unconventional weapons only, fish, chairs, bottles, rolling pins, turkey legs, all of the ridiculous stuff you can grab off the environment instead of an actual sword or axe. It's complete nonsense and that's entirely the point. When Brawl comes up in the rotation you can tell immediately because the entire tone of the server shifts and everyone just starts goofing off, which is a welcome palette cleanser when you've been grinding through serious Team Objective matches for a couple of hours.
The pace of all these 40-player matches also tends to run faster than a Team Objective match from start to finish. Team Objective can go quite long depending on how closely matched the teams are and how many stages the map has, but a TDM or FFA match in the 40-player queue wraps up in a pretty defined window and then you're back in the menu ready to queue for another one. That faster turnaround makes this mode really good for when you only have a limited amount of time to play but still want to get a few solid matches in without committing to what could be a lengthy Team Objective battle.
My final thoughts on the 40-Player mode
So having spent some real time in the 40-player mode, my takeaway is that it's a genuinely solid complement to everything the 64-player side of the game offers. It's lighter, faster, more casual, and a lot less demanding in terms of team coordination and objective awareness. If you're tired after a long session of Team Objective matches and just want to swing your weapon at people without thinking too hard, this is exactly where you want to be. And if you're a newer player still getting comfortable with the combat mechanics, the Free-for-All matches in particular are actually a really useful training ground that the 64-player mode just can't replicate the same way.
It's not going to replace the 64-player Team Objective experience as the main event of Chivalry 2, that's still where the game truly shines and where the most memorable moments happen. But as a secondary option for when you want something different, the 40-player mixed queue absolutely earns its place in the game. See you all in the next post gamers!
