Fantasy General II

Fantasy General II is a hex-based, turn-based wargame from Owned by Gravity that slots firmly into the operational strategy genre. You command armies across a narrative campaign, controlling hero units, infantry, cavalry, ranged troops, and various fantasy creatures, each with their own experience tracks and upgrade paths. The core loop is attrition management as much as it is tactics: losing veteran units hurts badly because their accumulated levels and equipment upgrades walk off the map with them. That single design decision forces you to think like a general rather than a puzzle solver. The campaign structure is the main selling point. Missions are not self-contained skirmishes. They feed into each other through a persistent army roster, so the composition of your force at the start of mission eight depends directly on how carefully you played missions one through seven. Unit specialization trees let you push a swordsman toward an elite shieldbearer or a berserker, and those decisions compound over time in satisfying ways. Gold and reinforcement points are tight enough that you cannot just buy your way out of earlier mistakes. The economy rewards forward planning rather than reactive spending. For newcomers to the wargame subgenre, the tutorial does a reasonable job introducing terrain effects, zone of control, and the supply system without front-loading too much at once. It is not a genre primer in the way that, say, a Paradox tutorial tries to be, but it walks you through the mechanics that actually matter in the first few missions. Players who have never touched a hex wargame will find a gentler on-ramp here than in most Slitherine-published titles. The fantasy setting - orcs, magic, and mythic creatures replacing WWII divisions - removes the barrier of historical literacy entirely, which helps. Where the game stumbles is in AI consistency. The enemy AI makes solid positional decisions on higher difficulties, using terrain cover and focusing fire on weakened units, but it occasionally wastes strong late-game units in puzzling ways that let you breathe when you probably should not. Multiplayer is available but not the primary attraction here. The mod ecosystem on PC is modest compared to something like a Total War title, though a few community campaign packs exist if you finish the base content. Replayability beyond the main campaign and its expansions depends on your appetite for score optimization and harder difficulty runs rather than procedural variety. The 81 percent positive rating on Steam and an 80 on Metacritic land exactly where they should for a game this focused. It does one thing - operationally rich turn-based fantasy wargaming with persistent unit investment - and it does that thing well without overreaching. If you want deep system complexity on the level of a grand strategy title, look elsewhere. If you want a wargame where every decision in a long campaign compounds into a final battle you either feel prepared or humbled for, Fantasy General II earns its playtime. Diego, Scout Team