TBS Fantasy General II by Slitherine Games

[Hobo Elf]

I feel like the hero design has improved significantly since I last played FG2, back before Empire Aflame was released. For example there are some fun ways to build up Szzlag. I made a few of those big lizard monsters with the roar ability, and went up the skill branch with Szzlag where you get bonus to morale reduction skills as well as the ability to convert a routed enemy unit for the rest of the mission, as a bonus action. I find this ability to tip the scales feels like significant advantage each time I use it, which is nice. Breaking enemy morale is also a ridiculous boon for lizardmen who are otherwise a bit squishy, as a broken archer will not provide cover fire so you can easily just rip through the ranks. Also low morale means higher magic damage taken which is what most lizardmen do. Very thematic and mechanically satisfying.

I had a look at some of the new heroes they added to Onslaught as well. Moira seems pretty cool with her passive abilities that keep on adding more skeleton units at the start of each mission. I think she can get to something ridiculously high, like 10 extra skeleton units, which is on top of your already existing army. They also added a new version of Falirson who is a ranged attacker with skills to tame and improve animals or just rip through the enemy with his bow. Cool stuff.

 

[covr]

I currently play the main campaign with that new Falirson, finished like 12-15 maps and he is... still doing some shitty damage, like 33-38, which is less than the poorest mob.
Is there any way to change his bow to a better one?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finished the Lizardman campaign. That was really good. I think the mission and map design was varied and fun. The length felt appropriate too with some branching left to explore in a future playthrough. I unlocked Crabs and the resource shop, but the resource shop was kind of useless. You use liquid mana to buy other resources but I was never short on armor, weapons or gold. I'd rather spend excess mana on training my troops for extra damage. Crabs were really powerful tho. Next time I might get Crabs and Tsuna for 4 evolution points to make an extra big dino (top tier of the melee lizard type) since they are really good and maybe try the artifact guy. If it unlocks an artifact shop then that could be useful since I found a ton of crap and wouldn't mind having access to better ones, unless it's just to sell artifacts for gold, in which case it's not so useful.

 

[Lagi]

I'm in second run. I have a problem with unit army size. Because i go for crabs and artificer (can't beat the level to kill vivic or whatever his name is). In shop I could previously buy more army size. Now I'm not sure what to do. Especially when late unit start taking 2 supply slots.

 

[zapotec]

I can't reach 60 FPS with this game (around 40), while i have 60 fps in total warhammer 2. Unity fault?

 

[zapotec]

I played FG2 just once. So Im not sure how it work excaclty here.

Theoretically: Scaling army size is bad. Because when you spent your resources to increase your army size, you are penalized with having to fight more opponents. And lets be honest, you will hire a cheapest greenhorns and will face off hardended late tier enemies. You will subconsiously stick to lowest possible number of your elite units.

Good approach would be, if you lose too much troops in a scenario, you are granted some replacement troops in next mission. Enemy forces strength is not affected then. Like in Myth. This balance the army power, and if you IronMan the game (like I always trying to do, unless I lose completly, and need to reload).

The enemy scaling influences only the enemy army size or also the enemy experience?

 

[Lagi]

I played FG2 just once. So Im not sure how it work excaclty here.

Theoretically: Scaling army size is bad. Because when you spent your resources to increase your army size, you are penalized with having to fight more opponents. And lets be honest, you will hire a cheapest greenhorns and will face off hardended late tier enemies. You will subconsiously stick to lowest possible number of your elite units.

Good approach would be, if you lose too much troops in a scenario, you are granted some replacement troops in next mission. Enemy forces strength is not affected then. Like in Myth. This balance the army power, and if you IronMan the game (like I always trying to do, unless I lose completly, and need to reload).

The enemy scaling influences only the enemy army size or also the enemy experience?

DOnt know, i didnt use scaling

 

[Lagi]

I try for couple of hours to beat the 4th civil war mission with my cripple army (10 size and with 2 flyers (more supply needed) it really limit your size), then I drop it, and i start 3rd time the evolution campaign from scratch. this time i take all side objective i could, to increase the army size (for killing giant crabs).

I go for artificer Waven and for Crab. Going center i think is most optimal, because you can increase army size just with gold. I was not aware how good that was.
Not sure Hoboelf if you want me to spoil you what right brother grant?

Right guy bring New combos, new mechanics. I start putting more focus on items that charm animal, summon skeleton or entangle opponent (web). I stick with hunters, because they could basically sneak past anything, and cast debuffs from items (and have nice ambush dmg bonus). I didnt upgrade Szlag and invest evolution points into extra pockets for my elite units: sweet combos harassment with dark presence (curse). I have lots of fun. I must stop playing because I play since 6am, and didnt even eat anything.

I was trying to play Invasion, but despite having more units, and apparently interesting mechanics, Evolution campaign is just great gameplay wise! Meta here is a King.

I would say the experience boost your units too much. Because of that I am save scumming each time i lose elite unit .

Also last tier flying capturing unit (Swamp Dragon Rider) is a must, being able to fly somewhere and just capture location, allow to abuse scenario goals (instead fighting half map to get there, you just fly with 1 unit).

 

[Lacrymas]

Fantasy General 2 is currently in a humble bundle for 10 jewro.

 

[Lacrymas]

A question - I've been playing the prequel campaign (the curse? Der Fluch in German) on Veteran and I'm wondering about this reduction of resources if you take too long. Is it more advantageous to rush to objectives (which is what I did in the second mission) or explore the map? What do you get by exploring the map more thoroughly?

 

[Parabalus]

A question - I've been playing the prequel campaign (the curse? Der Fluch in German) on Veteran and I'm wondering about this reduction of resources if you take too long. Is it more advantageous to rush to objectives (which is what I did in the second mission) or explore the map? What do you get by exploring the map more thoroughly?

The treasure spots (caves, shrines etc.) give loot depending on how much wealth there is left, so you get better stuff in the beginning. So if you explore at zero wealth remaining you'll get nothing.

The 'optimal' way is to clear everything ASAP.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Sometimes it's nice to finish a mission asap for the gold boost, but generally speaking it's better to explore everything. You can still find gold, but getting XP, other resources and equipment is more important.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'd say the difficulty is pretty good on Veteran. I would've lost the last mission I did if I hadn't stumbled on a firebird. Speaking of firebirds, do they resurrect when they die or their healing properties only work when they are alive? I'm assuming this is a special creature not normally available.

 

[Lacrymas]

First impressions while playing Alisa the Blind through the same demo/bonus campaign - I like how she has different options when recruiting an army. She doesn't have access to a merchant, but she can transmute artifacts to other resources. I also like how different her army is compared to Filos's. I must play more to get a feel for the gameplay and whether it gives us enough options which don't equate to "attack". The positioning is very important, especially to break charge attacks, and keeping your army alive is also a deciding factor. There is an option to not scale the enemies' armies and I'm using that, but I have a feeling you might get yourself into an unwinnable situation if you lose too much of your army constantly and not have enough gold to recruit more. Losing experienced units is a huge blow even if you have gold to hire more, especially when playing with Alisa (perhaps the Barbarians in general?) who can't convert gold into weapons and armor.

 

[Jugashvili]

This is a p. good game, it kind of reminds me of the Warlords games from the nineties. It would be even better if they had gone for a sword&sorcery aesthetic instead of gym vikings and sidecut dykes.

 

[Lacrymas]

Filos' run vs Ailsa the Blind's -

Interestingly enough, the results aren't very different from each other, the biggest difference is the difficulty level. I lost fewer units with Ailsa (mostly due to more save scumming in the fourth mission, lol). I would've lost 1 less, but my birds died in the last round of the last mission. My stormtrolls were ridiculously overpowered by the end, they had 9 defense due to an artifact and were level 5. Huge damage, great tanks, not as slow as one would expect. The wolfhounds were the worst unit imo, even though I managed to keep them alive till the end it required a lot of moving them around and they didn't do much damage because of it. I don't think I used them properly, however, they have huge advantages when ambushing, but since a lot of the missions are about pushing forward, as opposed to waiting for enemies to come to you, I didn't get a lot of opportunities to hide them in a good spot where they could catch enemies unaware. They did catch Hzzrakar in an ambush once, though, which was cool. I liked Ailsa and I might play with her in the main campaign, I liked her focus on animals and how different she felt to Filos and perhaps even the other barbarian guy who hires people. She's more of a support hero, though, while Filos is more in your face. Quite a cool game, I'm surprised it only has 13 pages of discussion here. I can't even get my friends to try it and for us to compare points, especially since one friend accused me of playing terribly while I was streaming for him on Discord, lol. This is the Spellforce 3 problem all over again - great game, little exposure. My experience may change in the main campaign, though, we'll see. The only negative thing I can say is that the AI seems kind of dumb. Hzzrakar left his very comfortable spot in his castle and lost all the defense that comes with, so I put my stormtrolls there and they were basically unkillable (and the magic birds could link with them and absorb even more damage) while Hzzrakar stayed in an open field being bombarded with damage from my units.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, I still like and play this game regularly. I haven't completed the barbarian campaign yet, but I liked a lot of the missions and they are varied enough to keep my attention. The gameplay hasn't devolved into steamrolling the opposition (and I'm playing on veteran, so there are two difficulties higher than this, lol) and sometimes I can't keep all my units alive, I even lost the Black Bard (I thought he will get resurrected after the mission is over, but apparently not). I also lost my wolfhounds :/ I like the scarcity of gold, weapons, and armor, but I might be unlucky with that, I get a lot of artifacts from ruins/caves and rarely weapons/armor. I still don't have a unit at a higher upgrade level than a Wolfmother and I'm at the first mission which uses the Empire's coat of arms. The only suspect thing I can really say about the gameplay is how you don't have a cap on summons, so if you can get yourself 2 mana sources you can use Ailsa to summon those air elementals every 3 rounds which are very powerful. That doesn't happen often, though. This kind of also forces you to use your mana only for those elementals because they are so good. However, I regularly use Tir to create forests and cast regeneration on my bear too, but it's rarer than summoning elementals. Yeah, you can cast more forests and regenerations than elementals because the mana cost is very low compared to the elementals, but they are so universally useful that you still end up using them more either way. Tir's last spell, that icon with the angry tree, is overly mana-intensive too (5 mana, rofl). Archer Falirson has a very similar ability that does comparable damage, but doesn't cost mana. Coupled with the fact elementals are 6 mana, yeah, that never gets used.

So, yeah, underrated game, go play it now.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

haven't completed the barbarian campaign

Absolutely civilized

Archer Falirson

Thoroughly civilized

 

[Lacrymas]

I chose archer Falirson because I thought he'd get lots of furry animals in his army. That's not the case, however. I got a cool bear spirit companion, though. He acts as a mercenary in every scenario and is a great tank.

P.S. Filos > Falirson

 

[Jugashvili]

So, I still like and play this game regularly. I haven't completed the barbarian campaign yet, but I liked a lot of the missions and they are varied enough to keep my attention. The gameplay hasn't devolved into steamrolling the opposition (and I'm playing on veteran, so there are two difficulties higher than this, lol) and sometimes I can't keep all my units alive, I even lost the Black Bard (I thought he will get resurrected after the mission is over, but apparently not). I also lost my wolfhounds :/ I like the scarcity of gold, weapons, and armor, but I might be unlucky with that, I get a lot of artifacts from ruins/caves and rarely weapons/armor. I still don't have a unit at a higher upgrade level than a Wolfmother and I'm at the first mission which uses the Empire's coat of arms. The only suspect thing I can really say about the gameplay is how you don't have a cap on summons, so if you can get yourself 2 mana sources you can use Ailsa to summon those air elementals every 3 rounds which are very powerful. That doesn't happen often, though. This kind of also forces you to use your mana only for those elementals because they are so good. However, I regularly use Tir to create forests and cast regeneration on my bear too, but it's rarer than summoning elementals. Yeah, you can cast more forests and regenerations than elementals because the mana cost is very low compared to the elementals, but they are so universally useful that you still end up using them more either way. Tir's last spell, that icon with the angry tree, is overly mana-intensive too (5 mana, rofl). Archer Falirson has a very similar ability that does comparable damage, but doesn't cost mana. Coupled with the fact elementals are 6 mana, yeah, that never gets used.

So, yeah, underrated game, go play it now.

By the point you can transmute your junk artifacts into weps and armor you basically won't have to worry about those anymore. Just make sure you get plenty of liquid mana during the swamp missions. Sack lizard settlements ruthlessly, disregard the mana income.

Also, when you get access to them, invest heavily in phoenixes/firebirds or whatever they're called. Use them as your eyes and ears and in general combat roles. Even though monster hunters are cheaper and will theoretically outperform them in some roles, the ability to regenerate full health every 3 turns is absolutely broken and if you play your cards right you'll have them performing around the clock without having to rest them. Thunderers and troll artillery will be your main damage dealers in the late game, especially against constructs and hordes of undead and to keep enemy fliers honest. Keep a small core of hard-hitting heavy infantry (werebears, armored trolls) to take positions by storm and you'll walk all over any opposition you encounter.

By the way, I believe wanderlust is probably the most useful training you can get. Keep your troops moving towards the objectives, raid anything that needs raiding and reinforce the line wherever it is needed. I also went with archer Falirson and found him to be extremely underwhelming; low damage output despite upgrades and poor mobility meant he often contributed little to the fight.

 

[Lacrymas]

I also went with archer Falirson and found him to be extremely underwhelming; low damage output despite upgrades and poor mobility meant he often contributed little to the fight.

Yeah, archer Falirson has low damage (although that exploding arrow is pretty good, especially to break through tough opponents like defending spearmaidens and shieldbearers), but he gets the bear companion which melee Falirson doesn't get (he rides it instead). So you might be getting fairly low damage from Falirson himself, but you get another free unit which can tank and its damage is also respectable.

 

[Jugashvili]

Yeah, archer Falirson has low damage (although that exploding arrow is pretty good, especially to break through tough opponents like defending spearmaidens and shieldbearers), but he gets the bear companion which melee Falirson doesn't get (he rides it instead). So you might be getting fairly low damage from Falirson himself, but you get another free unit which can tank and its damage is also respectable.

Yes, though the bear becomes pretty underwhelming in the late game. It can be useful to raid a few ruins in the middle of woods but being unable to rest means its usefulness will be limited to one or two serious engagements.

 

[Lacrymas]

You can keep him up with Tir's regeneration for a bit longer, but yeah. He would be pretty overpowered if he could rest, though.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, the swamp missions are annoying. Having to herd 20+ units through the shallow waters hex by hex each turn is an experience. They also threw up their hands with the resource management and went "here's all the fluid mana you could possibly need and want". You could skip 2 of the missions, but why would you. Other than that, I'm still enjoying the game and looking forward to the Empire Aflame campaign.

Oh, and Unity strikes again - whenever the imperial acolytes I have in my army attack, their missiles lag the game and sink the FPS to single digits. It's quite funny.

 

[Hobo Elf]

The swamp missions have been toned down post launch, too. They used to be even more tedious. That's the last hard hurdle of the main campaign imo. After that it becomes a cakewalk due to all the liquid mana that you get, as you pointed out.