TBS Fantasy General II by Slitherine Games

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I'm taking "maybe buy the whole package once they've finished with DLC's" -approach this time.

 

[rezaf]

Did they retain anything from FG's "metagame", i.e. the research and stuff?
The previews I've seen looked visually more like generic fantasy strategy game #352 and the gameplay reminded me of those old console SRPGs where your Defender reaches lvl10 and you can upgrade him to either a Warden or a Guardian.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Pretty expensive, but that was to expected given it's Slitherine publishing it.
I'm tempted, but at this price point I'll wait for more impressions.

It's even steeper considering there's an entire campaign locked behind the middle price point. If I'm going in, I'm going all-in. I'm also tempted and waiting for impressions too but the reasonable voice at the back of my mind tells me I have enough wargame scenarios to explore already with TOAW IV and that I don't absolutely need FG2 right now.

did you buy the upgraded version of TOAW? Did you play the previous version?

 

[coldcrow]

The OST is a joke. It's the FG1 OST + 5 new titles of which 1 is a slightly modified Dies Irae.

 

[Fishy]

Pretty expensive, but that was to expected given it's Slitherine publishing it.
I'm tempted, but at this price point I'll wait for more impressions.

It's even steeper considering there's an entire campaign locked behind the middle price point. If I'm going in, I'm going all-in. I'm also tempted and waiting for impressions too but the reasonable voice at the back of my mind tells me I have enough wargame scenarios to explore already with TOAW IV and that I don't absolutely need FG2 right now.

did you buy the upgraded version of TOAW? Did you play the previous version?

Is there an upgraded version? Dunno, picked the game from Slitherine, they also sent me a Steam key a few months later when they launched there too, but don't think there were different versions. I played the old original TOAW a good while, like, back in 98, but hadn't played 2 and 3 no. I've been tempted a while by the 3rd, but since they were actively working on 4, I decided to just bide my time. No regrets either, it's a magnificent piece of wargaming.

 

[MSP]

After 6 scenarios, well... it's actually not bad. I was worried I would miss research, one of my favourites parts in FG1. But they handled it differently, and so far I don't mind.

Tactically, it has more options than FG1 (which was pretty simple in this direction). Don't expect Hearts of Iron or Steel Panthers, but you have to at least keep yourself against overextending and play rock-paper-scissors right. I lost some units, even reloaded a couple of times (overextention, wasn't that important in FG1), and it is not too easy to keep your units both upgraded and trained (both cost gold).

If this was Fallout series and FG1 was F1/F2, then FG2 is definitely not F3. FNV for sure, maybe even Van Buren. It looks like the devs played and liked FG1, there are quite a few references, and I find myself starting up the game just to listen to the menu song - one taken from FG1. Pity they did not use the whole album.

We'll see how it goes further in the campaign. So far, my feeling is that the devs did a good job, respected the original game, and built a solid base that can be improved and extended further.

 

[coldcrow]

Yea, but imho it is not worth the price. The OST is mediocre at best, SFX are the same, art direction is: "eh, it works, but mediocre aswell", and frankly they had predecessors to learn from (General Series, Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy). It's not a bad game, but from what I glanced not a good one either. Props for being quite polished and bugfree at launch, though.

 

[Sinatar]

It looks and sounds like a game made by like 3 - 5 people, it should not be a $45 game.

 

[Fishy]

It looks and sounds like a game made by like 3 - 5 people, it should not be a $45 game.

Silly off-topic question but are you the same Sinatar as the one on twitch or are you guys engaged in a mortal struggle for nickname supremacy and a there-can-be-only-one type thing?

 

[CaesarCzech]

world of advice the Prequel Campaign may seem Decently hard in first two scenarios but the real hell comes in third scenario Sseriously dont play prequel first like i did.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

world of advice the Prequel Campaign may seem Decently hard in first two scenarios but the real hell comes in third scenario Sseriously dont play prequel first like i did.

when else would you play it? can you play it out of order, like after you have gained some experience?

 

[Fishy]

world of advice the Prequel Campaign may seem Decently hard in first two scenarios but the real hell comes in third scenario Sseriously dont play prequel first like i did.

when else would you play it? can you play it out of order, like after you have gained some experience?

Think he means "learn to play with skirmishes and/or the main campaign first, the prequel campaign is not a tutorial".

 

[CaesarCzech]

world of advice the Prequel Campaign may seem Decently hard in first two scenarios but the real hell comes in third scenario Sseriously dont play prequel first like i did.

when else would you play it? can you play it out of order, like after you have gained some experience?

Think he means "learn to play with skirmishes and/or the main campaign first, the prequel campaign is not a tutorial".

Exactly what i meant before i was rudely betrayed by my own grammar

First mission is relatively easy if you decide not to go northern route with more loot and just follow your ally instead of racing.

Second can be eased if you go south pickup centraus then move over river capture shrine to the north then move to far eastern north, pickup pegasis then positioning your archers and pegasi around trading outpost before you move unit in.

Third One throught, You are outnumbered, byunits of higher quality and your ally on northern flank gets overrun fast. I changed difficulty to easiest and still spent several hours beating that scenario with several restarts and countless save loads.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

world of advice the Prequel Campaign may seem Decently hard in first two scenarios but the real hell comes in third scenario Sseriously dont play prequel first like i did.

when else would you play it? can you play it out of order, like after you have gained some experience?

Think he means "learn to play with skirmishes and/or the main campaign first, the prequel campaign is not a tutorial".

ah, okay, that makes sense.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Pretty expensive, but that was to expected given it's Slitherine publishing it.
I'm tempted, but at this price point I'll wait for more impressions.

It's even steeper considering there's an entire campaign locked behind the middle price point. If I'm going in, I'm going all-in. I'm also tempted and waiting for impressions too but the reasonable voice at the back of my mind tells me I have enough wargame scenarios to explore already with TOAW IV and that I don't absolutely need FG2 right now.

did you buy the upgraded version of TOAW? Did you play the previous version?

Is there an upgraded version? Dunno, picked the game from Slitherine, they also sent me a Steam key a few months later when they launched there too, but don't think there were different versions. I played the old original TOAW a good while, like, back in 98, but hadn't played 2 and 3 no. I've been tempted a while by the 3rd, but since they were actively working on 4, I decided to just bide my time. No regrets either, it's a magnificent piece of wargaming.

oh, I guess I own TOAW III which I bought like 5 years ago. I thought TOAW IV they both had the same name and it had just been updated with new interface design, graphic updates and changed how some combat stuff worked and reworked some of the scenarios. It looks a lot better. I thought it had retained the same number, I guess it went from III to iV and I have III

 

[fantadomat]

Sooooo how is it?

 

[sser]

until further notice.

 

[fantadomat]

Ahhh the game is not bad but that timer/loot is a retarded mechanic that breaks the game for me and doesn't make any sense. The fuck people are fleeing the province when you are in the middle of nowhere and there is no people to flee,and all the caves/ruins have no more loot because of it.

 

[Galdred]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

 

[fantadomat]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

The mechanics and the economy of the game force you to be very protective of your units,the gameplay tho doesn't care about such things and tries to make you be casual about your units. It is a frustrating puzzle game of reloading older autosaves and trying to see what it works.

 

[Galdred]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

The mechanics and the economy of the game force you to be very protective of your units,the gameplay tho doesn't care about such things and tries to make you be casual about your units. It is a frustrating puzzle game of reloading older autosaves and trying to see what it works.

So that sounds exactly like Elven Legacy :D

 

[fantadomat]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

The mechanics and the economy of the game force you to be very protective of your units,the gameplay tho doesn't care about such things and tries to make you be casual about your units. It is a frustrating puzzle game of reloading older autosaves and trying to see what it works.

So that sounds exactly like Elven Legacy :D

Nah,it is a lot more extreme than EL. If you take your time in EL you loose some bonus loot and units,here you don't get anything. Also in EL if you loose a unit it is up to the player,here is a lot of focus fire with bigger armies. It doesn't help that player's melee units are useless trash that die from a few attacks. In EL you get upgrades by paying money,here you pay money and armour or weapons resources,which are very rare and you get fucked if some upgraded units die. In EL you get rewarded for being fast,here you get punished for not rushing like a total retard and loosing half your army. The whole timer thing doesn't make any sense in such games. In the end i did enjoy EL and Fantasy Wars enough to replay them a few times,this one i am deliberating about deleting it.

 

[Trash Player]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

The campaign is a mess. On top of of what fantadomat said, enemies scale too tightly with player. Report of mandatory units only run and full army cap run for same encounter differs from 2 foes for the former and 10+ for the later.
By dev's admission on Steam, composition of enemy army is generated from a limited selection within a mission and difficulty dependent budget, so it can be a pushover or a meatgrinder by RNG.
Imo, both of these are faux elegant solutions to flaws of the predecessor resulting form static missions. As of now, the optimal play is fielding a core of mandatory Heroes and ranged crew and then expendable melee mercenaries, who don't count toward scaling strength.

 

[fantadomat]

So, how does it compare to FG1, Elven Legacy, and Rites of War (which had a focus on artifacts and troop ugrade through experience)?

The campaign is a mess. On top of of what fantadomat said, enemies scale too tightly with player. Report of mandatory units only run and full army cap run for same encounter differs from 2 foes for the former and 10+ for the later.
By dev's admission on Steam, composition of enemy army is generated from a limited selection within a mission and difficulty dependent budget, so it can be a pushover or a meatgrinder by RNG.
Imo, both of these are faux elegant solutions to flaws of the predecessor resulting form static missions. As of now, the optimal play is fielding a core of mandatory Heroes and ranged crew and then expendable melee mercenaries, who don't count toward scaling strength.

Fuck i didn't even knew that the missions are not fixed but generated. That pushed it toward getting deleted asap,bunch of lazy fucks! Such games should always be fixed missions,that way the campaign management matter and if you have ravaged army and could beat a mission should be your fault!

 

[Trash Player]

Well, devs are going to put up a new patch soon to address the balance, it is up to you to decide if they are a bunch of incompetents or willing to listen to feedback.
Btw, goodies squares give random loot from a table instead of fixed ones. That includes artefacts and upgrade resources. Patch will tone the randomness down but this might be a dealbreaker for some of you.
Imo, the devs want a one-size-fit-all solution too much.