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Like all game companies, Strategic Simulations (SSI) will happily milk an engine for all it's worth. Hence, it shouldn't amaze anyone that SSI has recycled the phenomenally popular Panzer General engine into a new fantasy wargame.
For those expecting a Panzer General clone with dragons instead of tanks, Fantasy General offers a welcome surprise. This game takes the best of the PG engine and adds enough new features so that no one could ever mistake it for a simple reuse of existing code.
Fantasy General lets you take on the role of one of four champions trying to rid an oppressed world of the Shadowlord, an evil tyrant who holds the entire planet in a despotic death grip. Each hero has special abilities, such as casting spells or summoning armies, that make the task easier or more challenging, depending on your choice.
At the start of the game, you get a number of units, a la Panzer General, that form the core of your army for an entire campaign. These units come from a number of different classes, including flyers, heavy infantry, siege engines, spellcasters, and cavalry. You also start with a small amount of gold, which you can use to buy extra units for your army or invest in training for current units.
Once you've selected all of your units, you start out on the long road to reclaiming the planet for the forces of good, continent by continent. You'll have to win a number of scenarios on each continent before moving on.
The actual combat in the scenarios contains the strongest traces of the PG engine. As in PG, you are confronted with a hex-based map; only a few of the spaces on the map are available for placing units, which is done with a few simple mouse clicks. After placing your units, you must use them to take over a set number of predetermined goals in a fixed number of turns.
Solid features clearly differentiate Fantasy General's combat mechanics. You can cast complex magic spells that increase units' combat abilities, or use other magic to destroy your enemies. Units must also deal with a realistic wound- and kill-damage system that allows some injuries to be healed just by resting, while other damage stays with a unit regardless of rest.
Better yet, while Fantasy General offers complex combat abilities and simulation, it is as easy to play as its predecessor. After spending ten minutes with the tutorial in the manual, the interface became intuitive, allowing me to concentrate on the game's most important element: tactics.
In addition to the 20-plus linked scenarios in the campaign mode, Fantasy General offers a play-by-e-mail option allowing two players to go head to head, as well as an arena option that lets you build your own scenarios.
With solid graphics, great playability, and an absolutely superb classical music score, Fantasy General does for fantasy wargaming what Panzer General did for WWII games: it makes the genre fun, easy to play, and tactically challenging. All aspiring mage generals should consider adding Fantasy General to their spell book. Old Website Recovery