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Fantasy General 2

Started by Jarhead0331, April 08, 2019, 04:49:58 PM

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FlickJax

Bought with my coupon yesterday, not installed yet though.

al_infierno

#106
Thinking about picking this one up.  Have any grogs clocked in some hours and have something to say?

PG was a formative game for me so I'm a fan of the formula.  Wondering how other like-minded folks are finding this title after a couple weeks of play time.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

FlickJax


Yskonyn

That might say enough then,right? ;)
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

airboy

I just got it on my matrix coupon.  Be a while until I get around to playing it.

Gusington

Thinking of getting this with the Matrix coupon, brings the price to about 28.00. Worth it?

Also there is a new DLC out:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1193871/Fantasy_General_II_Onslaught/


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

RedArgo

I just got these with my anniversary coupon (47% off!) and PanzerCorp2 and Battlestar Galactica DLC.  FG2 is first on the list, maybe this weekend.

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

ComradeP

#113
Gus, I haven't played the expansion yet but was halfway through the final mission when I stopped playing. I had bought it at release.

It's difficult to rate the game as someone who has played the original Fantasy General, as FG2 is both a true sequel as a step back at the same time.

Some units have special abilities or special attacks, heroes can pick skills and items can be given to units. Some units had special abilities in the original as well and of course there were items too, but they work a bit differently here. In FG, the majority of the items boosted stats or gave units a new kind of attack (giving an infantry unit a magical crossbow gave it a ranged ánd a melee attack, which made ranged items rather overpowered). In FG2, items offer usually small modifiers to various stats (higher morale, decreased chance to suffer kills and so on).

The addition of mana points means you can't use all special abilities/spells each turn, as most cost mana.

My main issue with FG2 is that, initially, it's mostly a ground game. There's little combined arms and there's no vertical component (there are only a handful of air units, but most of them only appear later on or not at all if you don't use summons). You start with infantry and skirmishers/archers, and that's it for a while.

What also isn't really made clear (well, not at release but maybe a tooltip was added since then) is that you need to charm units in order to be able to summon them with the wolf mother. If you don't, the only air units you'll potentially be using will be a (hero on a) dragon and potentially a hero on a pegasus, as well as potentially some ravens. It's very easy to miss the possibility to summon aerial units entirely. The AI tends to use numerous flying units, with stronger ones appearing when you're dealing with the Empire.

As, like in FG, you ideally want single entities to take the most damaging hits (because single entities like heroes always heal back to full strength when resting and don't require replacements that cost resources), the game can be a bit of a puzzle early on due to your limited options.

With certain summons, either magically with one of the heroes or through the wolf mother, the game becomes a cakewalk. Example: the spitting spider could, at release, spit a web 3 hexes (each turn, no mana cost or cooldown) which would glue a unit in place. With 3-4 spitting spiders, you could essentially nullify all enemy heavy hitters. Another option would be an eagle bear spam (but that isn't very cost effective in terms of mana) or summoning lots of spirits with one of the heroes (I didn't take the "summon spirits" part of the skill tree for that hero, so I've never used them).

All of that, combined with a limited unit selection (and limited enemy variety), means you'll be doing the same thing throughout most of the campaign. There will be points when new strategies suddenly open up, but the final missions become a bit of a chore. FG did a better job due to subtly changing enemy variety on each island.

It's been a few months since I played it, and the new expansion looks interesting, but whether you'll like the game depends a lot on what you expect. It feels like one of those modern kind of games where it looks like you have more options than in other games, but in practice it's a more streamlined game than comparable previous games. Panzer Corps 2 might give you the same feeling, incidentely.
The fact that these people drew inspiration...and then became chicken farmers - Cyrano, Dragon' Up The Past #45

Gusington

Thanks CP! I could not have asked for a better summary.

FYI the new expansion is touted as 'adding 13 different flying units' as well as new campaign modes.

Sounds like the game should not have been released until this new expansion was part of it.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

RedArgo

I've played through about the first 10 missions or so of the campaign and I really like it.  I never played the original FG, but it definitely has the Panzer General feel to it, so if you like that and like a world of mostly humans, trolls, and undead, you'll probably like this too.

I agree with all of ComradeP's thoughts.  Lots of ground, not much air so far, mostly bats and crows, which are my scouts.

I haven't tried the expansion yet either.

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd