Fantasy General 2: Invasion

This is my favorite turn based war game.

I have played the base game and the Empire Aflame expansion all the way through multiple times. The combination of scenarios, unit choices, and story, have pushed this to the top. I have been playing pc games since the beginning of home pc gaming. I loved Civ, Master of Magic, and Panzer General, when they released. I played every successor to Panzer General I could find. For me, this one is the top. Many list Panzer Corps 2 as their favorite. It has more content. Many units. A different style of leadership upgrades. Something about the scenarios, probably because of history, drops the campaigns down a peg for me. I will probably dive back into that when I finish the Legend campaign I started yesterday in FG2.

This game is pretty big.

You have a leader. You also get other heroes. These units have special upgrade trees just for them.

You get combat units. Most of them can be upgraded to other combat units or into heroes. There is a limit to how many units you can purchase but this number can be expanded based on your choices. At the Veteran difficulty level you can play with pretty much whatever combination of upgraded troops suit your fancy, though I have not tried doing anything as extreme as all cavalry, all archers, all heavy armor sloggers, or the like. There are good play guides out there if you want them. I am using one on the Legend difficulty campaign I just started. There are better unit upgrade choices which are not obvious.

Inventory. You get gear throughout the game that can be assigned to your units as you choose. Extra armor, faster movement, spell like abilities, consumables, and special one of a kind stuff.

The scenario progression is semi linear. Sometimes you have more than one choice about what battle to play next. The game automatically creates a save after every battle. During my subsequent campaigns I looked back at my old saves and then chose to play the battles I had not played before.

The story is not mind blowing but it is good. It kept me interested. Story line heroes can join and leave your army. Your choices can make different troops available to you. It isn't good role playing game level but it is pretty much the pinnacle for this style of game.

Empire Aflame expansion. One of the best experiences I have had while playing computer games. It is basically Fantasy General 3 using the Fantasy General 2 engine. The choice you are given half way through the campaign was such a big deal that I made sure to save my in battle game save so that I could re-load that save later and make the other choice. Some of the other expansions aren't reviewed well but this one I highly recommend.

Combat... Support your front line troops with ranged units. Your units get better with combat experience. Every unit within 3 hexes of an enemy unit you just destroyed will get experience. Find a guide if you need more than this.

SAVES. This game loads and saves FAST. My hat is off to the programmers! Well done. Artistic design, level design, speed of play, AI enemy play, e v e r y t h i n g. I am bowing.

This post is long enough. If you enjoy turn based war games, I highly recommend this one. If you are so-so about them, I recommend getting and playing this on an easy setting so that you can enjoy the experience of the story and unit upgrades, along with the freedom to play as you want without dire consequences.

FG2 is a reboot of the classic Fantasy General. It falls somewhere between Panzer General and Fantasy Wars / Elven Legacy, playing as a hex-grid wargame with a bit of story gluing things together.

There are "hero" and regular units, which level up over a series of about twenty missions in a branching campaign. Regular units have an upgrade tree that can change them significantly, e.g. from melee to ranged, while heroes gain various abilities. All units can get "promotions" that provide minor enhancements, like more health or speed.

Campaign mission maps have primary objectives, but also have a collection of resource nodes. Finishing the scenario quickly will net you some extra gold. There's a balance to be struck between being thorough and being fast, though the bonus resources are usually more important. Proper use of terrain is important, as certain terrain reduces damage from missiles or prevents enemies from charging into you.

Units are comprised of 1-10 individuals, which can be wounded or killed independently, making it possible and useful to weaken enemies. Resting for a full turn restores the wounded but not the dead, which can only be restored by spending money or finishing the scenario. Combat is typical for this sort of game, with very little RNG involvement. The only exception is the "retreat" mechanic, which allows certain units to flee from attacks. One consequence of this is that ranged units are often better employed for finishing an enemy than softening them up.

The AI is solid. If you leave a unit in a bad position, it will get shredded. The only example of bad play I saw from the computer on "normal" difficulty was a somewhat careless use of siege weaponry.

This is a great title for anyone who enjoys "light" wargames.

Fun game if you like strategy war-games. It has a clunky UI, some annoying design deficiencies (hard to scout effectively if you don't want your scouts dying a lot!), ok story, repetitive music (main theme is pretty good but rest are like 30 second loops! I turned game music off for most of the time and played Two Steps from Hell and Viking inspired battle/folk/rock. That was a good work around. In fact probably made things more exciting!) and it goes on too long and it kind of requires save scumming to get through it sensibly... But it has that X factor of just being fun. I am not sure if I will return and play the DLC campaign, as I am fatigued right now, but maybe. Certainly it is worth playing the main campaign.

Such a great game, it's a shame I overlooked this for so long, this is an hidden gem if you like deep challenging turn based wargames without rainbows or childish stuff inside. I was looking for exactly this type of granular PC game with serious classic fantasy art style, you can also disable enemies scaling which is another very nice feature. I had to get the Complete edition soon after I tried the base game because for me this is already a super underrated game.

Game is fine, kept me going for 29 hours (low on good games now), so there is that. Likely uninstalling now.
I give it a B-/C+; buy on a good discount only.
Nice scripting of story events, but a bit light in content, Basic approach is pretty simple and has been done a lot elsewhere. I wish there were more connections and development, vs only the string of straight forward skirmish battles strung together in a logical sequence.

So I got this for 5 bucks with the whole bundle from fanatical. Dont pay 90 AUD (50ish USD) for this.
One hour in and I'm hooked. It feels like Civ 6, Humankind, Ancestors Legacy and a few others blended in.
The music is pretty chill. Its got the Nordic vibe to it almost making it feel like you are playing Northgard.
If you are into RTS and an old school gamer you probably will enjoy this.
I cant imagine that people actually would pay the asking price these nuts are thinking they will get for this type of game.
If its more than 10 bucks its not worth it. Just bundle buy it and buy it cheap.

Having never played the original, I wasn't sure what to expect from this game initially. Now after having completed the original campaign, I feel like I've missed an opportunity if the first game was anything like this one. This is an absolutely amazing game! I can't wait to pick up the DLC packs and try out the additional campaigns with even more units and maps. Even with just the first campaign, there was a ton of content. Every subsequent level seemed to introduce either a new mechanic, new units, new terrain or new races altogether! I can't say enough good things about this game, it is truly impresive!