Fantasy General and Pacific General now available from GOG.com

[Greybriar]

Pacific General and Fantasy General have been released DRM-free on GOG.com! These two PC games were part of the classic 5-Star General series by SSI.

[airboy]

Pacific General and Fantasy General have been released DRM-free on GOG.com! These two PC games were part of the classic 5-Star General series by SSI.

Fantasy General was an excellent wargame.  It should hold up pretty well since it is turn-based.

[bbmike]

Nice! I'll pick up both.  :)

[DoctorQuest]

Holy Crap! I'm in......

[JasonPratt]

The update of the Fantasy General engine to Fantasy Wars / Elven Legacy is better in almost every way, but I'll still grab this because it's Fantasy General. 

[JasonPratt]

The only aggressively annoying thing about FantGen was its silly and probably late attempt to balance the game by heavily penalizing the player who doesn't at least sort-of-evenly research all the tech paths.

Its magic system is ridiculous, too, but not actively pernicious for the most part -- just mostly ignore magic, like the game would prefer, and you'll be fine. ;) Put points into researching heavy cav as soon as possible, and the game will throw ungodly strong units at you, until you relent and create a balanced tech progression like all other Panzer General games automatically do by campaign design (including FG/EL by the way), and like this one should have done in hindsight.

[airboy]

I still have my big box of the original Fantasy General.  So I can use the original documentation.  I liked the game so much I never got rid of it - even though I could not play it without a ton of aggravation.

[Nefaro]

With stuff like AOW2/3 and Warlock 1 & 2 out there, I don't think I would ever go back to playing Fantasy General.   ???

[JasonPratt]

FantGen isn't for the same purpose at all as modern MoM games.

More specifically, it wasn't for the same purpose at all as the original Master of Magic. ;) Which was released at about the same time.

It's literally like saying that with stuff like AoW2/3 and Warlock 1 & 2 out there, I just don't think I could ever go back to playing Panzer General (or Panzer Corps if you prefer). That could be true, I guess, but it's like comparing apples to cans of Mountain Dew. There are some trivial similarities, even a surprisingly large number of trivial similarities on examination, but they aren't really comparable.

[JasonPratt]

Modern (sort-of-modern) FantGen gameplay in an AAR here at Grogheads (linking to the start of the actual mission work, for convenience, not the plot): http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=12285.msg320109#msg320109

FantGen is like that. But with much older 2-D gfx. And a vastly much better soundtrack.  (I still listen to that music on a regular basis.)

[airboy]

Fantasy General was IMHO the best of the 5-Star games.  There are a lot of unit types.  Terrain had a big impact.  Magic added another level to the game.  And you had a research element.  It is a very engaging, high-end, beer & pretzels game.

My problem is that with the age of the paper, I cannot read my old manual without getting sick.  I'm going to have to print off a copy of the PDF that came with the GOG purchase.  Rats.

[Arctic Blast]

Well, THIS is interesting :

Pacific General and Fantasy General are being published by GOG.com. We are happy to release these titles not on behalf of another party, but by acting as the sole publisher for the very first time!

[Staggerwing]

I wonder if they will eventually have Star General, based on David Drake's the Fleet, and the rest of the SSI stuff such as Luftwaffe Commander and Age of Rifles, or even clean-up versions of the Great Naval Battles series.

[bbmike]

I wonder if they will eventually have Star General, based on David Drake's the Fleet, and the rest of the SSI stuff such as Luftwaffe Commander and Age of Rifles, or even clean-up versions of the Great Naval Battles series.

And Soldiers at War. You forgot to mention Soldiers at War!  :o

[Sir Slash]

Did someone say, "SSI"? Gold Box Series, Gold Box Series, Gold Box Series, and of course.... The Series of the Golden Container.