Re: Live Your Fantasy! Fantasy General II free Free FREE!

On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 18:53:07 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 7/11/2025 7:48 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:40:06 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:
 

Worth a look:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1025440/Fantasy_General_II/

 
I had to grab this one simply because it is apparently a follow-up to
the 1996 classic "Fantasy General", originally created by the
venerable Strategic Simulations Inc (SSI). That game itself was a
follow-up to "Panzer General" (it used the same underlying engine),
which revitalized traditional war-games, making them much more
accessible to the average gamer. "Fantasy General" wasn't as novel or
exciting, but I remember it was well-made and had a good soundtrack.
 
Is this sequel anything like its 30-year old predecessor? I've no
idea. It's not made by thes same people, but it does seem to use the
same setting. But I'm mainly grabbing it out of nostalgia... because
I'm just as vulnerable to that as the next person ;-)
 
 

>
Same.  I enjoyed Fantasy General.  It's probably too old to enjoy for me
anymore though.

I'm not so sure about that. I can still get a kick out of (brief)
sessions of "Panzer General". I think that game holds up well enough,
despite being contemporary (give or take a year) with "Fantasy
General". I don't really enjoy war-games (as opposed to 'strategy
games') and yet "Panzer General" has an interface and gameplay that
makes that genre bearable.

I never got into "Fantasy General" as deeply, just because it was too
obviously a skin of "Panzer General" and I already had played the heck
out of that game back in the 90s. But I think if I were a bigger fan
of the genre (or just hadn't over-played "Panzer General") I might
have had as much fun with its fantastical counterpart.

The thing about classic wargames is that they are fairly simple,
static simulations; they aren't heavy on flash and visuals. It's a
genre where you're staring at unit icons trundling across a static map
and all the combat happens algorithmically. As such, I think SSI's "*
General" series does that as well today as it did back in the late 90s
and still hold up fairly well.

The question is: is this the sort of game for which there is a market?
I'd argue no; gamers these days want more hands-on control, and more
action. Even in 1994, wargaming was on a decline because of this. But
if you _like_ wargames? Those old games still work their magic.

None of which has anything to do with the freebie, though. It seems to
cater much more to modern gaming sensibilities than to what grognard
wargamers like. It's a game connected to its legacy mostly by name
only.