The game was designed and published by two ex-Games Workshop (GW) employees who disagreed with the much more commercial direction that company was taking. It was supposed to rival the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game that GW published.
Fantasy Warlord featured some unusual game mechanics such as simultaneous movement, an original command and control system (units are organised into brigades commanded by characters) and fog of war rules. It also featured balanced magic and troop choice systems. However the balance within the combat system reduced the opportunity to generate dramatic victories.
Much like Warhammer, the game had its own fantasy world, called Vortimax, in which the battles were imagined to take place. There was also a related range of Fantasy Warlord miniatures cast by Alternative Armies, and a magazine called Red Giant.
The game went out of print 18 months after first publication. Some supplements were expected, such as Armies of Vortimax (expected in 1992) Besieged or Fantasy Warlord Command Pack, but none were released. Only two issues of Red Giant magazine were released. Folio Works Ltd. was dissolved on February the 11th, 1993.
Read more about Fantasy Warlord: Critical Reaction, Red Giant Magazine, Miniatures Range
Famous quotes containing the word fantasy:
“Fantasy is a product of thought, Imagination of sensibility. If the thinking, discursive mind turns to speculation, the result is Fantasy; if, however, the sensitive, intuitive mind turns to speculation, the result is Imagination. Fantasy may be visionary, but it is cold and logical. Imagination is sensuous and instinctive. Both have form, but the form of Fantasy is analogous to Exposition, that of Imagination to Narrative.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)