| I've been eagerly awaiting the release of the Fantasy Rules! Expansion
Pack for months, ever since I heard that Chipco Games was working on it.
Well, it's finally out now, and I have it! With a retail price of about US$10,
it's quite a bargain, IMHO. Here's what's inside:
- Rules of "The Levels of Operation" in Fantasy Rules! These are
basically height levels, with Level 1 being Sea Bottom, level 2 Swimming
(below the sea's surface) or Burrowing (below the ground surface), Level
3 the Sea/Land surface, and Level 4 Flying height. With these rules, we are
no longer restricted to ground and flying models in FR! - we can now play
battles at sea or involving a large body of water, have creatures that
burrow underground in our land battles, etc. Pretty cool, overall.
- New Unit Types. There are now Lesser Spirits, Tricksters (if you
get a Trickster's combat roll, your troops die instead of it!), Beastmen,
Leviathans (or Colossi - ever wanted to play with that big metal statue
from Jason and the Argonauts? ;) ), slaves, different types of chariots,
magic-casting monsters, planar entities (Cthulhu!), parasitics (giant
leeches, ugh!), and contraptions (ever wanted to play an army of
tinkering gnomes?).
- New Character Types. There are now two classes of characters - Major
and Minor. Major characters include all the old ones from the basic ruleset
(General, Heroes, Wizards), but this class has expanded to include Witch
Hunters, Hive Queens, Archangels/Demon Lords, and Bards (these guys are
very cool, giving your troops a big morale boost). Minor characters
include Healers, Alchemists (ever wanted to turn lead into gold? How
about iron into tin foil? ;) ), and Bodyguards (just the thing to protect that
important wizard from an assassin!).
- New Rules. There are a few new rules and rules changes, including
rules for concentrating bowfire, unit facing, the use of magic, "grapple"
attacks, and a new ability that some units and characters have - Fade (some
things just refuse to die!). There are also "special" items and abilities
for characters and units now - though limited in number to sixteen, these can
range from special tactics and formations a unit can adopt (tortoise,
stakes), abilities a unit can possess (water breathing, flying), an item
for a character (army standard, exceptional armor, Holy Hand Grenade!),
or a special characteristic that a character possesses (Mark of Evil,
Taunt).
- New Armies. There are a host of new armies - 22 to be exact. Didn't
see an army that was you in the basic set? Chances are your army can be
found here (especially if you are a fan of Native Americans!).
- Miscellany. The rest of the rules are filled with Designer's notes,
tips on how to play the game, rules for making your own unit/character
types, and a scenario.
My overall impression? A very nice expansion, and well worth the price.
This addition expands the FR! rules in all directions, giving it much
greater depth and playability.
The new characters are nice, but the game
still manages to keep the emphasis on units of troops, and not heroes.
There is a great fantasy element involved, of course, but unlike other
games in the same genre, characters do not dominate gameplay.
The magic
system has been expanded to include even more different types of
spellcasters and spells, and is more interesting than ever. Magic is still
powerful, but now with Witch Hunters, Bards, and stored spells (spells in
magic rings or scrolls), it's very possible to play an army that has no
wizards, and have an even chance of winning.
(By the way, the magic system was one
of my biggest criticisms of the game before - I felt it dominated the game
a little too much, and was too powerful, and I made some suggestions in that
area. The Chipco guys were very interested in the criticism, and even
implemented one of my suggestions - Witch Hunters. So I'm living proof
that Chipco does listen to their customers!)
The scenario is interesting (a fight between Hill Dwarfs and an Evil army
over a rich gold mine), and I am told there will be "army packs" out soon
that coincide with the scenario armies.
About the only problems I had
with the expansion were typos. There were a few in there, like the Evil army
wizard with the exceptional armor! (spellcasters cannot wear armor in FR! ;) ). There were also a few mis-spelled words, but they were not very
prevalent, and easily overlooked.
I am chomping at the bit to try out a Colossus and
some of the new spells. I have several armies worked up, but now it
looks like I will have to rip them up and go back to the drawing board. Great
job, Chipco! ;)
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