OK... even though it's one of the more difficult war-strategy games i've played, i'm still going to recommend it because it really does do everything right, it's just frustrating sometimes when a group of orc riders come out of the fog-of-war, pinpoint your captain and end the game in one turn...... *sigh*.....

Pros:
-Dialog boxes have (cool role-played) speech.
-Tutorial doesn't just tell you to do a bunch of stuff while you fumble with the controls, it shows you how to do it, explains it, then lets you have a turn doing it yourself.
-lots of cutscenes.
-control and watch from far way with one-man icons or zoom in to see the whole troop and detailed (but simple) fight scenes with each battle.
-Magic is powerful but limited.
-Gives an "estimated outcome" of each battle before you commit to them so you know what to expect. Similar to Advance Wars in this and many other respects.

Cons:
-It's difficult, even on easy mode expect to die and restart at least once per level either from a surprise attack or from being outnumbered and/or unlucky.
-The healing system is frustrating, yet still tactical. Heal your wounded for free but it takes a full turn, and if you're close to any enemy units you won't heal as much. Units dont heal when in a friendly town.
-Friendly cities do not generate gold. In fact, i have yet to find a way to continuously generate gold except "find it" in newly taken towns. This often mean that the units you start a level with are all you get, though you can build up and buy new units with the limited "found" money. This makes the game very offensive-based by nature as there is no point to waiting around to build-up resources that don't exist. This isn't really a bad thing, but i personally am not used to it. Experementing with a powerful unit basically ends with "Ok, now i know not to do THAT.... restart...." because you cant rebuild resource and get another one.
-AND A BIG ONE- When your captain dies, level's over, regardless of how powerful/large your army is. You're done. Restart. This wouldn't be that big of a problem normally, but 90% of the time your captain is your most powerful unit and if you leave him back to protect him there's a good chance you'll lose from lack of power. But if you bring him the AI makes him the #1 target. Frustrating.

All in all:
A REALLY good fantasy, turn-based strategy game. Frustrating, but rewarding and still good.
8/10 stars Worth buying, worth wasting 30+ hours on.

7.5/10 Surprisingly solid.
It's a Russian TBS in a fantasy setting. the 3 different campaigns have enough variety of units to keep you thinking, while the hex-based missions are refreshingly difficult. Story is, let's be generous and say "Familiar" to most fantasy fans and the voice acting doesn't really shine. The graphics are a little dated, but still do a good job of conveying atmosphere.
All in all, think HOMM in russian, and at quite a good price. worth it at full price, must-have in a sale.

An OK gameplay for 2007 year game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1816678656
This game was released in 2007 game, so you should expect square graphics and other outdated things. I passed 3 missions on hard, they were pretty interesting, I had challenge and it wasn't easy. I even restarted a couple times.

Gameplay is kinda usual for TBS games. You have a hero and 5-8 other units. Move/attack/perform abilities in turn-base combat.
You can hire new units if you lost some. Units can get experience and new perks. Also, new missions unlock new units, so you can upgrade them.

There are 3 campaign with 10 missions each. There are different races and a lot of units.
In overall, the game is worth of 5$ tag.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1816678707
Pros
- Nice main mechanics. Control 6-8 units in turn-base combat
- Units get level and new perks
- Different races and units types
- 3 campaigns with 10 missions each
- Missions are short. New missions offer new content

Cons
- There is a timer in each mission. You need to complete all missions in certain amount of turns. It is really annoying
- Unclear mechanics. There are numbers and explanations, but I couldn't understand how much damage i will deal
- Have no ideas why all units have 10 or 15 hp and why melee troops have more health than cavalry.
- Story is a usual fantasy. Orcs are invading, elves are arrogant and don't wanna help and etc...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1816678761
An OK strategy game. It offers a lot of content with pretty nice mechanics for a fun 5$ price. I can recommend this game.

Fantasy Wars is a game with very good tactical turn-based battles. Nothing more nothing less.

The basic idea is this. You command a few heroes and other military units. You fight a lot of enemies and achieve some goal such as conquering a city. Then you move on to a new mission and do the same kind of thing. This is a lot of fun. Why? Because the tactical battles themselves are really good. For example thee are terrain bonuses that differ between military units and make perfect sense, e.g. elven archers may gain defence if hiding in the forest while knights will have a reduced charge attack score. Add to this a large number of different kinds of units to command, many of which are upgradable, several different heroes with unique skills and different skills to choose from for each type of unit when it levels up. Together it adds up to a challenging and fun to play turn based strategy game.

The story is the weakest element of the game. I cannot even remember what it was about and i just finished the game. But it doesn't really matter. This is not a game you play for the story anyway.

The interface is well designed and easy to understand and to use. There are three different campaigns, one of which is unlocked after you have beaten the other two (in either order). You can choose one of three difficulty level separately for each mission and there are also three different victory types depending on how quickly you finish the mission. This adds some replay value to what is already a long game.

Graphics are fairly good but nothing exceptional. Voice acting is okay, not bad but could have been better, although as with the story it doesn't make a big difference.

All in all I would highly recommend this to fans of turn-based strategy, but not really to anyone else. It offers great tactial turn-based battles if you like that. If you don't there is probably not really anything in it for you.

Fantasy Wars.. I discovered this raspberry by accident and the name may sound stupid, but don't be discouraged.
Warhammer, Tolkien, Warcraft - many (similar) elements of these worlds or universities, but with very outdated graphics, but again, do not be discouraged, the fan of fantasy games will not be disappointed with the story.

My first campaign was for the orc tribes from the Wastelands, where my task was to massacre the human empires at individual levels (beautiful maps of the fantasy world of Illis). In the second campaign, I was on the side of the human mercenary army of Sylent, which mostly cleaned the mess caused by the Orc horde.. I basically followed my own footsteps from the previous campaign.
The third campaign was of epic proportions - fighting for elves and dwarves, the subsequent awakening of the powerful demon Farrakh (a very epic villain) who wants to rule the world and turn it into a hellish bath.

I am currently preparing to embark on a sequel called Elven Legacy (also a stupid name). I hope that these two games will one day see a remastered version with some achievements. 80%

This game is a classic turn based strategy game with rpg elements. It reminds me a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic just on a pure battle focused scale.

Whats good:
- Battle mechanics are fairly well cut and have understandable feedback (you know why u loose when you do)
- Unit diversity is hight and they are nonetheless well (enough) balanced some units are a tad bit too strong
- Heroes add a good boost in terms of motivation
- Challanging if you want it to (3 different difficulty settings)
- Taking your units with you and upgrading them with exp, perks, gold and items is fairly motivating

Whats bad:
- Extremly short with low replay value - if any at all
- Exploration is a bit blocked (due to the timelimit to get gold victorys on levels, although this actually adds a bit spice to the difficulty to split your army so...mh)
- There are no real choices in term of the story, its a straight line with no diversions
- Its all 100% Combat, no Base or anything else.
- Some units can become 100% useless in some missions (for example slow units in a breakthrough mission) - so if you leveld the wrong units or chosen the wrong perks, these levels can be very hard...
- Setting and story are decent at best, often they are fairly predicable and without major surprises - sometimes even uninsired.


Too long; didn't read:
If you like turn based fantasy combat and you are thirsting for a new game - try this one. Its not a must have but its nice for in-between. Its not as big as Civ or Endless as it has no base building, but it has a good pace, difficulty and the game mechanics work well :)

Firstly, whoever called the shot of naming this game Fantasy Wars in the English version should be put on trial for marketing suicide. In Russian it's called Codex of War - not particularly original as well, but still a million times better.

Secondly, what the hell is going on with this game's reviews? People are refering to HoMM, Civilization, Warcraft... Why? Fantasy Wars is just a better reincarnation of Fantasy General - apparently people didn't remember it much before Fantasy General 2 popped up.

So, essentially, this is a wargame which shares the same legacy as Panzer Corps - with the former being the descendant of the aforementioned Fantasy General and the latter - of the Panzer General.

Is Fantasy Wars good? OH YES!

The name of the game here is limitation. You are limited in everything. You can have only so many troops, and the enemy forces always outnumber you at least 2 to 1. You have only so many turns to achieve victory, and if you don't, it's game over. There are so many paths your army can take across the map unless you want to drown your cavalry in a swamp or have your siege engines stuck in a forest. Even a small mistake - the enemy overwhelms you. There is never enough money for anything.

But. To circumvent those limitations you have the tools - and those tools are your troops. As you play through the campaign, troops gain experience and with it - new abilities. And then they are promoted to a different role on the battlefield which changes their function entirely - as well as allows you to take advantage of terrain, and oh man, will you cling to this terrain! Scouts are devious saboteurs lurking in forests and picking off lone or wounded squads. Swordsmen are the backbone of the army and good luck kicking them out of a fortified position. Archers aren't particularly strong, but they can tenderize enemy defences before the main onslaught ensues. And cavalry... Well... Are being cavalry. You meet them in the open - you run. Or pray.

The result is a game with a very delicate balance between the great versatility of player's tools and the overwhelming strength of opposion. You always win by the skin of your teeth - unless you lose your troops which is unacceptable.

The story is nothing out of the ordinary, however it is not dumb. It reflects a few realia of mercenary work as well as charismatic leadership, there is little strict black-and-whiteness and the writing is generally good.

In summa: best hex-based wargame. Ever.

PS

If Fantasy Wars really drags you in and you want some more, try its expansion-turned-standalone Elven Legacy.

One of the many things which are awful about getting old is that most old people are expected to and do play mind♥♥♥♥ingly dreary, boring, games. Lament about the passing of dos,wonder why Sid's Alpha Centuri wont run on their computers and fiddle about tryng to get Age of Rifles and Steel Panthers up and running..... But its really neat when something like Fantasy Wars turns up. It's cheap, its certainly hard,lots of pretty serious wargames don't have half this much detail,it seems to have no bugs,looks good, music is fine but best is that its great fun to play.Yep good old fashioned fun...Ok I managed to last only 2 hours before I got wiped out. The AI wasn't cheating I just wasn't playing smart enough, this is a tough clever wargame.I will do better next time. This is a very good game its certainly fun and a bit of a toughie even on the easiest setting,Thats good as someone said the harder the struggle the greater the victory- 10 out 10 for Fantasy Wars a hard struggle.....

This - on the surface - is a very simple game, but it is complex in its simplicity.

It appears to be a fantasy sim with the diversity of characters you can command, and towns and castles scattered throughout the map; however, there really is no building to be done.
Gold does exist, but it is only to recruit creatures.
If a unit dies - then it is gone, and the longer they stay alive the more experience and skills they acquire.
Thus, there is a short-term incentive to win each map level...but there is a long-term incentive to keep ALL units alive through the campaigns, otherwise the player has to start over with new units with no level skills and experience, and because each level gets progressively more difficult, having an army with mostly new units is almost certain to lose.

That being said, unlike most games where the more one gains abilities and levels, the AI keeps pace so it seems the player never really does more than keeps up - this game rewards the player in the final levels with layers where the initial one should be satisfyling and expertly swept aside with the veteran army...until the real challenge is met.

Really, this game is essentially a beautiful, dynamic chess game, where each race has different creatures with markedly different attributes like Starcraft. Further, like Minesweeper, there is a way to beat each level within a certain number of turns to gain the highest "Gold" rating (which nets the player more gold and magic items) and without losing any units.

Be prepared for a deceptively simply game, which often like each individual map, begins simple and then becomes much more challenging as time goes on. Also be prepared to restart each level often as this was designed into the game.

As to the gameplay - it is a classic, turn based, hex movement areas, where each unit can move through a certain number of hexes each turn depending on a variety of factors. I believe this is a German made game, and if so, it shows in the intriate and complex level of detail and factors affecting each move and character. I also say this game has some of the most challenging AI I have ever encountered, in that the AI eerily understands the concept of finding the weakest point in your forces, and then concentrating all of its forces agains this point. Seriously, a player needs to plan for the AI to know exactly where to hit each turn to inflict the most damage.

Like a chess board one sees in movies, where two old people play each other over time and distance, I return to this game after playing it intensely for awhile. I often stop playing because I encounter a challenge which I cannot overcome and I need time and space to return and conquer the level by approaching it from a new perespective which time allows.

An understated masterpiece.

Well worth it. Saw some reviews that were overly harsh. I dont know what some of these people seem to have for expectations as for as graphics, etc., or story quality even some made comments on...wow...I thought these comments were absurdly off the mark.

This game has voiceovers, a good story, solid game play. You will get your money's worth at the current price level of $4.99.

I bought this game a long time ago and I've gone back and played it a few more times since.