If I had to guess it came up there the same way it came up here

If by that, you mean me posting it... not at all. Nor was there any discussion about it.

Sounds a lot like the game Ex Illis.

There are some things I really like about integrating tabletop games and technology - no illegal moves (accidental or deliberate), minimal memorization and more time playing than number-crunching or rules-lawyering, the ability to "save" your game (although that does mean setting up and breaking down the game twice).

Is the game playable "unplugged," though? One thing that I always worry about is a game's longevity, and I always want a game to be playable long after any official support for it has ended.

Also, you mentioned something about players being able to help shape the game world by playing certain scenarios. Call me old-fashioned, but I guess with this kind of thing I prefer that the company just provides a backdrop, and ayers take "world-building" into their own hands, but that's based on some poorly implemented attempts I've seen with other games in the past. Maybe they'll do it better.

Just did some quick looking into Ex Illis, as I hadn't heard of it. Looks like a key difference is that Ex Illis requires an internet connection.

And looking at a demo video, there's no direct interface for Ex Illis (they never really got into telling you how figures and the online interface are kept in sync). In GA the stylus is the direct interface.

It could be made so. There's an option when you're making an attack, etc to see what's being calculated so it wouldn't be hard to figure out. All the figure's point values are visible when army building. I don't expect it will be too long before somebody compiles all the modifier tables and such and posts them online.

Well, remember... this is Jordan Weisman. He's got a pretty good background in world creation and fiction (Battletech and Mage Knight are the two biggies I'm thinking of).

And I think those types of things are going to be scenario driven... I tend to think of it like the No Man's Land events in HC, but the aggregate battles will affect what the next battle may be. Maybe the Gudanna are successful in invading the Zikia lands. Perhaps the next scenario is the Zikia contracting the Urugal to fight with/for them to push the Gudanna back. (I dunno, I'm just making stuff up here. ) I do know that characters will come out of storyline events and the events will shape that character to a certain degree. I'm not 100% certain how it's all going to work, but the range of possibilities is pretty exciting to think about.

Yeah, that and cost (and lack of time) are primarily what held me back from jumping into Ex Illis.

That's good to know, just because I'm sure I'd want the option sooner or later.

Re: campaigns, it's all just striking the right balance between players feeling like their outcomes matter while at the same tome retaining creative control, and not being entirely beholden to players' results. I like the idea of brief campaigns or small territory grabs, and especially changes to in-game characters throughout the campaigns, just as long as they avoid apocalyptic world-shattering events, or the ability for one faction to dominate.

I don't see this being an issue. Like I said, if something is really out of whack they can adjust it in-app without making your figures obsolete or requiring errata "paperwork".

Sorry, wasn't clear enough. I meant world-shattering events or the ability for one faction to dominate in the fictional world, not in gameplay. As in, suppose one faction is more popular than others, it seems likely that they would, in the long run, win more battles, and perhaps therefore become more powerful, or conquer more territory, so I wouldn't want something like territorial holdings, rewards for winning campaigns, etc. to have too much permanence.

I would also avoid altogether something like "such and such faction is besieging so and so's capital!"

That's more what I meant, with regards to campaign results. In the short term, it's important that players still feel like they were fighting for something, but in the long run you want to maintain a rough status quo.

Actually, IIRC, that's kind of the beginning of the story... the Gudanna have held the Durani under their thumb for many years. The Gudanna king dies and the Durani see their chance to rise up. The Zikia and Urugal fight as mercenary units early on but are slated to gain strength and become a full fledged faction soon.

So the Gudanna have dominated, in fiction, but that's about to change.



I just saw this article in Game Trade Magazine. If you scroll down to the bottom there's a pdf with more units than what's shown on the page.