Fantasy General was probably the first hex-based strategy game I was able to wrap my head around as a kid, so today’s announcement of Fantasy General 2: Invasion fills me with curiosity. Developed by Owned By Gravity and to be published by mostly-serious strategy house Slitherine, it is, once again, a hex-based wargame packed with elves, goblins and wizards. Unlike the original (a fun but scattershot spinoff of the Panzer General series), the devs aim to make this one a little more story-driven and coherent. Below, the debut trailer, plus some footage from a developer live-stream earlier today.

The dev-stream below is an interesting watch. After going back and replaying the original Fantasy General, Owned By Gravity found that it didn’t quite live up to their nostalgic image of it. While still a good strategy game for 1996, time and entropy had filled a lot of the blanks in its design with imagined qualities that they want to represent for real in the sequel. Biggest of which is an increased focus on story and character, with hero units reacting to your story decisions as you make them, and possibly even leaving if they think you’ve strayed too far from their personal path.

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There will be multiple campaigns, each focused on one of the playable factions. The first they talked about being the Barbarian faction, described as a blend of Norse and Celtic concepts, with forest-monster friends. They’ll initially be fighting among themselves, but later tussle with the Empire, a vaguely Roman faction that backs up their numbers with undead servants. The game is mission-based, as in the original, with multiple objectives and set-pieces, although multiplayer is of course planned. I’ve got my fingers crossed that they can live up to their own nostalgic vision, and deliver a worthy sequel 23 years later.

While there’s no release date on Fantasy General 2: Invasion yet, they are aiming to release the game this year, and are taking beta sign-ups here. It also has a store page on Steam.