Ryan B.:  Taking Flight: Giving Fantasy Flight its Due

On Monday, Fantasy Flight Games announced their 2006 line-up. I have to admit, what I like about Fantasy Flight is they know their audience and seemingly work overtime to please them and deliver games that are complex with lots of chrome. They don’t deviate from that course, so we definitely know what the company stands for.

I took in their 2006 lineup and to me one thing is obvious. While they may not be deviating from course, Fantasy Flight is definitely amping up their “game.” What Fantasy Flight has done is provide a fantasy angle across a broad spectrum of games, whether it is medieval Britian, the emptiness of outer space, the narrow dirt roads of a Transylvannian village, the dungeons of some mutant wasteland or now the battlegrounds of modern war. If you are a fan of their games, I am going to suggest you that you may go very, very broke this year. Reins of Power looks to be a massive combination of Diplomacy, Summit (1961) and Axis and Allies from its description, and Tide of Iron could be Up Front and Squad Leader cranked up with tons of bits in the traditional Fantasy Flight manner. Warrior Knights and Marvel Heroes each look very intriguing, especially if you are into that sort of thing and Starcraft: The Boardgame? I already see the Twilight Imperium fans drooling. Let me offer you a napkin to dry off your mouth.

I have to admit, with so many “huge box” games coming out from Fantasy Flight this year, this is just a massive undertaking of gaming bliss, for those so inclined and Fantasy Flight will deserve major kudos if they can pull it off effectively. Fantasy Flight is literally overwhelming the market with potentially very high quality boardgame choices this year and they are squarely seeking the mantle occupied by Eagle Games. Certainly, FFG seems committed to taking the fantasy model of business and extending its definition into historical simulation. Eagle Games, however, has the highly popular Conquest of the Empire, which was a critical success to fall back upon, and Railroad Tycoon was a huge critical and commercial success as well.

But with the pressure brought on by Fantasy Flight this year, Eagle Games will have to deliver their 2006 line-up without the production hiccups of the past and the games will have to continue to be good. They seem to be up for the challenge.

Fantasy Flight is definitely a gamer’s boardgame company, and they are all about the “epic” vision. (Boy, is that not obvious?) Look for them to be more popular than ever within their well-chosen audience in 2006.

Ryan B.

© 2006 Ryan B.

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Yes, Tides of Iron and Reins of Power (and perhaps even Warrior Knights) look unusual from the perspective of FFG the fantasy game publisher, but not at all unusual from the perspective of FFG: branching out. The good thing about an ambitious schedule with many successful deliverables is that it gets you to the next step, which usually requires rather more money, but is much more impressive than the last. One other thing that FFG is establishing, that a lot of authors would also love to do, is a very large backlist for low-key fuel for higher and/or newer pursuits. Comparing the output of FFG with the output of RGG or the German publishers like Kosmos or HiG, this is not too unusual. Posted by Ava Jarvis on Mar 15, 2006 at 04:23 AM | #

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