First Impressions

Turn-based strategy/RPG game from Age of Games, a talented team from Italy.
ComradeP
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First Impressions

Post by ComradeP »

I've been playing the game for a couple of hours, it was already available at 4 pm GMT+1, so seemingly a bit earlier than expected.

Aside from the random graphics glitch I didn't run into any crashes thus far.

The manual is good enough, but clearly not written by a native English speaker which results in some descriptions being somewhat confusing.

Some descriptions in the game are also still in Italian, such as in the abandoned mine mission.

The fundamentals work fine, but a bit more polish wouldn't hurt.

The Courage of a Knight campaign is interesting thus far, although the difficulty is somewhat random. I finished some missions on the final turn for an epic victory and some well in advance.

I'm not a big fan of super units appearing behind my lines, or those Harpies which ignore ZOCs and go straight for your weakest units, but a couple of restarts and switching deployment locations solve that problem.

The AI is adequate thus far, although the suicidal charges also present in the AAR still happen. Units in cities also don't seem to attack units adjacent to them, even if they're weak.

The graphics are fine for what the game wants to be, the unit counters tend to have enough detail to compensate for the simple yet effective graphics. The graphics are not ugly by any means.

As you can't change units from one type to another as far as I know, you'll end up selling your veteran units of weaker unit types (like light infantry or heavy infantry) at some point presumably. This also means having to level up the new units during more difficult missions, requiring careful unit management.

All in all, it does give that "one more turn" feeling, but I wonder what the replayability will be like after I complete the campaigns. For 20 euro's (including taxes), it's a mid-price game and I feel it's worth it thus far, but I will wait with my final comments on the price/content ratio until I've completed the game.

The game plays like an advanced flash game, it's more complicated than I expected. My compliments to the developers for dealing with the limits imposed by using flash in a way that makes the game this entertaining.

I intended to write a small AAR, but that will have to wait for tomorrow, or until the next campaign as I wouldn't want to spoil some of the surprises.
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fireserval7
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RE: First Impressions

Post by fireserval7 »

I rarely post anywhere lol but I do love turn-based fantasy strategy when it's nicely done - hence my two cents here. I'm enjoying the game as well; from what I've played so far there seem to be some nice options as far as the unit mix goes and using that mix to get tactical results. I'm a medievalist and I appreciate what they've done with the setting; it seems well conceived and you can tell they put some tlc into creating their world. A nice little gem from what I've seen thus far. I still need to play some more, and I share the same concerns about re-playability as the OP but the price point is about right.

Other thoughts: I really like the unit management screen, I've always been a fan of that feature in this type of game. Maybe a few more options in terms of stat modification on leveling up? It would also be nice to be able to rename units to heighten the rpg aspect, but that would be just a cool extra feature. The unit graphics are crisp and satisfying, and the voice acting isn't too shabby either! My compliments as well to the devs.
Rocko911
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Rocko911 »

How does this compare to the game Disciples?
kevini1000
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RE: First Impressions

Post by kevini1000 »

I bought the game first thing this morning. First thing try not to confuse this game with the original Fantasy General. I notice some bugs in the game right away. You start the game with 2 light infantry. They don't appear to give any advantage for anything combat wise except they move faster than the medium infantry. They don't appear to have combat bonuses in difficult terrain. The cavalry units that you buy don't appear to be that powerful. Perhaps I just need to play more to get better feel for the game.
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fireserval7
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RE: First Impressions

Post by fireserval7 »

Although I still need to play some more, one of the main differences from Disciples would be that here you have more freedom of movement around the map, especially in combat, for flanking and positioning (vs. Disciples' combat in fixed slots - front row/ back row). Tough to compete with Disciples in terms of atmosphere... but there's a real effort here. I might make a parallel between Eukarion and Warlords III Dark Lords Rising as far as unit leveling goes, and the map feel.

Your unit selection before each scenario seems to be key, to get the right combination for dealing with threats; it's very satisfying when you get the mix right. I'll throw in a request for artifacts for heroes and the ability to keep a larger pool of units even on the earlier scenarios, rather than having to disband them to open up slots for new ones. Kudos for the demoralization feature though!
Tamas
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Tamas »

ORIGINAL: sath

I bought the game first thing this morning. First thing try not to confuse this game with the original Fantasy General. I notice some bugs in the game right away. You start the game with 2 light infantry. They don't appear to give any advantage for anything combat wise except they move faster than the medium infantry. They don't appear to have combat bonuses in difficult terrain. The cavalry units that you buy don't appear to be that powerful. Perhaps I just need to play more to get better feel for the game.

Wait for the true heavy cavalry, you will see the difference. :)
Bert27
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Bert27 »

I bought FK and I do not regret it. It's fun to play, addictive and challenging, with a good "fantasy general" feeling. I just finished the first campaign. Nice work and congrats to the dev, hope there will be many more campaigns soon.
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FabioBelsanti
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RE: First Impressions

Post by FabioBelsanti »

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

I've been playing the game for a couple of hours, it was already available at 4 pm GMT+1, so seemingly a bit earlier than expected.

Aside from the random graphics glitch I didn't run into any crashes thus far.

The manual is good enough, but clearly not written by a native English speaker which results in some descriptions being somewhat confusing.

Some descriptions in the game are also still in Italian, such as in the abandoned mine mission.

The fundamentals work fine, but a bit more polish wouldn't hurt.

The Courage of a Knight campaign is interesting thus far, although the difficulty is somewhat random. I finished some missions on the final turn for an epic victory and some well in advance.

I'm not a big fan of super units appearing behind my lines, or those Harpies which ignore ZOCs and go straight for your weakest units, but a couple of restarts and switching deployment locations solve that problem.

The AI is adequate thus far, although the suicidal charges also present in the AAR still happen. Units in cities also don't seem to attack units adjacent to them, even if they're weak.

The graphics are fine for what the game wants to be, the unit counters tend to have enough detail to compensate for the simple yet effective graphics. The graphics are not ugly by any means.

As you can't change units from one type to another as far as I know, you'll end up selling your veteran units of weaker unit types (like light infantry or heavy infantry) at some point presumably. This also means having to level up the new units during more difficult missions, requiring careful unit management.

All in all, it does give that "one more turn" feeling, but I wonder what the replayability will be like after I complete the campaigns. For 20 euro's (including taxes), it's a mid-price game and I feel it's worth it thus far, but I will wait with my final comments on the price/content ratio until I've completed the game.

The game plays like an advanced flash game, it's more complicated than I expected. My compliments to the developers for dealing with the limits imposed by using flash in a way that makes the game this entertaining.

I intended to write a small AAR, but that will have to wait for tomorrow, or until the next campaign as I wouldn't want to spoil some of the surprises.

Hi ComradeP

I'm really glad to know that you decided to become a Kommander!

Thanks for your first impressions.

We will wait your careful and severe judgment on the next campaigns ;)
Fabio Belsanti
Managing Director & Lead Designer
P.M.Studios & Age of Games
ComradeP
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RE: First Impressions

Post by ComradeP »

I've just completed the Elven campaign.

The initial battles were tricky, as even though Kaos had little to no chance of defeating me in battle, I could still lose or at the least not gain an epic victory.

The Undead altar area of effect attacks caused my first core losses (the Elven magic users would die if they tripped over a branch with their low life points), but they were quickly resurrected after the battle. The Elven area of effect attacks were devastating in the final scenarios. The siege of the Elven capital was also somewhat messy, as a unit died in the opening turn, but in the end that was the only casualty, which was surprising considering the less than stellar initial Elven deployment.

One thing that might be useful is a slightly different icon for auxiliary units, to be able to spot the difference between those and core units. Maybe it's already there and I missed it.

The performance of the AI when it comes to killing weakened units is mixed: sometimes it will, sometimes it won't.

I also caused the game to crash several times already, some of my saved games even became corrupted, presumably because I loaded saved games within only short intervals when I restarted a scenario.

Using the Elven AoE attacks combined with their excellent archers and heavy infantry almost felt like cheating for some scenarios. As the AI tends to try and cross rivers by moving into the river hex unless there's a bridge nearby, Goblin units were massacred by my archers.

The Elven cavalry is a bit too weak to be of much use, sadly. All in all, it was a nice change from the mostly cavalry and heavy infantry based Human battles. The scenarios do seem to be designed to "fit" the particular forces you're commanding and the opposition.

The voice acting is also good thus far, and I like the art.
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Rosseau
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Rosseau »

Thanks ComradeP. I think some of your comments bring out the need for a skirmish mode or xml modding of unit stats. However, with Flash, I am not sure how difficult that would be for the dev. However, I would gladly pay $40 for a nice scenario editor or modding capabilities. I don't want to be stuck with just a few campaigns. Again, as a WitE expert, your insights are appreciated [:)]
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wodin
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RE: First Impressions

Post by wodin »

@Comrade how much if an improvement is it over the free browser games?

http://www.ageofgames.net/games/fantasy-kommander-series/fantasy-kommander-ch-ii.html
ComradeP
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RE: First Impressions

Post by ComradeP »

That's difficult to say with certainty, wodin, as it would depend on what you're looking for. Personally, I feel the game is worth 20 euro's, provided it will be supported over time. The campaigns are enjoyable thus far, and feel "different" for each race. Archers being able to move and fire is also nice. Multiple campaigns and meaningful unit progression are often missing from the free browser games, although being able to change unit type to make sure you don't end up with rookie high quality units in the later battles would certainly be nice.

I completed 2 campaigns in something like 8 hours or so, maybe a bit more. If the other two take a similar amount of time, that's about 20 hours of content, although as usual you can complete it faster if you don't want epic victories, but I treat every scenario like I puzzle that I need to solve.

The AI could also use a tweak here and there, but the scenarios work fairly well now that the AI units tend to have an experience level bonus over your units. Still, units like the Elven archers feel somewhat unbalanced currently. I do need to note that I spend all the stat points per level gain on attack and nothing on defense.

rosseau: I'm happy to help out with feedback, to give others a clear picture of what the game offers, as I was also initially sceptical. A skirmish mode, possibly with random map generator, and an editor would certainly be good additions.
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ComradeP
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RE: First Impressions

Post by ComradeP »

Hmm, the AI issues suddenly become very visible in the Dwarf campaign, as the AI units keep making suicidal charges against my Dwarven units in the mountains. The Human and Elven campaigns were more enjoyable than the Dwarven campaign for that reason, as the Dwarven campaign was a walk in the park of sorts.

On the other hand, the high level Infernal units are nearly impossible to damage. I only won the last mission in time for an epic victory due to some lucky critical hits. I didn't capture the objective in the upper right, though. Units in any hex with buildings are really, really tough. Getting siege equipment in range might've been possible (though still difficult with all the trolls around in the center), but I used the two I had to occupy the Dwarven temple on turn 1.
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FroBodine
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RE: First Impressions

Post by FroBodine »

Thanks for the heads up, ComradeP. I am not nearly as far, but it is slightly disappointing to hear the AI does not hold up.

I sure hope they are working to improve the AI very soon. There only four campaigns, three short ones and a final 10 mission campaign, and that's it. No skirmish mode. The AI needs to be very strong, and more difficulty levels are a must, if that's all the missions we get.

Skirmish mode with a variety of larger maps would go a long way to extending the life of this game.
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Agathosdaimon
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Agathosdaimon »

if this game had a skirmish mode that would definitely get my interest also, but i guess that relies on a game have a more dynamic ai?
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FabioBelsanti
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RE: First Impressions

Post by FabioBelsanti »

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Hmm, the AI issues suddenly become very visible in the Dwarf campaign, as the AI units keep making suicidal charges against my Dwarven units in the mountains. The Human and Elven campaigns were more enjoyable than the Dwarven campaign for that reason, as the Dwarven campaign was a walk in the park of sorts.

On the other hand, the high level Infernal units are nearly impossible to damage. I only won the last mission in time for an epic victory due to some lucky critical hits. I didn't capture the objective in the upper right, though. Units in any hex with buildings are really, really tough. Getting siege equipment in range might've been possible (though still difficult with all the trolls around in the center), but I used the two I had to occupy the Dwarven temple on turn 1.


Trolls Have an Aggressive AI, it is not an error and I'm sorry if you don't like this behavior.

On the other hand Trolls have the regeneration and have a powerful damage.

In the eleven campaign you have faced the goblins, in the dwarven campaign the trolls, and the Heroes Campaign... you will face all the Kaos Armies together.

It's in this final campaign that you will see all the AI combined and I belive you'll not be disappointed.

Good Luck on the battlefield.

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Maulet
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RE: First Impressions

Post by Maulet »

ORIGINAL: Agathosdaimon

if this game had a skirmish mode that would definitely get my interest also, but i guess that relies on a game have a more dynamic ai?

it would be nice to see it!
ComradeP
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RE: First Impressions

Post by ComradeP »

Trolls Have an Aggressive AI, it is not an error and I'm sorry if you don't like this behavior.

On the other hand Trolls have the regeneration and have a powerful damage.

They make attacks with Mad attack or something like that activated that do ~50 damage to them and often just 1 to my Dwarven units. In one of the first missions, the Trolls killed 9 of their own units before I could even reach the secondary objective.

An aggressive AI is fine, but the trolls are now often losing lots of units for little to no gain.
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RE: First Impressions

Post by FroBodine »

ORIGINAL: Fabivs


It's in this final campaign that you will see all the AI combined and I belive you'll not be disappointed.

Good Luck on the battlefield.


Well, that is a problem for me. If it takes until the final campaign for the A.I. to give you a challenge, then the first three campaigns are kind of throw aways. That is basically 2/3rds of the game where there is not much challenge.

I sure hope there are more campaigns in the near future, or I think I have wasted my money, just to get to a single final good campaign. I like the game, but I don't think it's worth it to have three campaigns of easy peasy small battles, just to get to one last REAL campaign. Especially since there are no difficulty levels to make even the first campaigns much more of a challenge.
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RE: First Impressions

Post by FabioBelsanti »

ORIGINAL: jglazier
ORIGINAL: Fabivs


It's in this final campaign that you will see all the AI combined and I belive you'll not be disappointed.

Good Luck on the battlefield.


Well, that is a problem for me. If it takes until the final campaign for the A.I. to give you a challenge, then the first three campaigns are kind of throw aways. That is basically 2/3rds of the game where there is not much challenge.

I sure hope there are more campaigns in the near future, or I think I have wasted my money, just to get to a single final good campaign. I like the game, but I don't think it's worth it to have three campaigns of easy peasy small battles, just to get to one last REAL campaign. Especially since there are no difficulty levels to make even the first campaigns much more of a challenge.

Okay, I can admit that the AI ​​of the trolls may be too easy for an experienced wargamer, but please consider that also during the Beta Test several players have found the game too difficult and have also been massacred by the aggressiveness of the trolls.

Experienced players like you immediately understand that maintaining the position in the mountains with the dwarves against the trolls victory could be achieved easily.

But this is not true for all.

Our goal is to entertain both experienced players and those less experienced.

@ComradeP: From your first comments I felt that you liked the game and that the challenge was adequate even for a discerning wargamer like you.

@jglazier: where did you get in the game? Human Campaign? Elven Campaign? I believe that we have built interesting campaigns that culminate with the final.

Everything is connected by the storyline and I belive tha the game (and its gameplay) must be rated as a whole.
Fabio Belsanti
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