Field of Glory – Expansion Packs

Rise of Rome
Storm of Arrows
Immortal Fire
and
Swords and Scimitars

By Slitherine, Osprey, and Matrix Games

Field of Glory Expansion
Rise of Rome

Field of Glory – Rise of Rome is the first expansion pack for the Field of Glory game. This expansion brings new content and adds new features to the core Field of Glory game such as a Line of Sight rule. In addition, Rise of Rome introduces the Digital Army Generator (DAG) which lets you create your own armies from scratch. As if all this wasn’t enough, Rise of Rome also adds 5 new terrain types, 6 new battles, a random battle generator and over 100 new units into the game, including camels, scythed chariots, and artillery to name a few. Now that you have an idea of the new features that have been added, let’s take a look at how it’s all integrated together to make the Field of Glory core game a better game.

To begin with, let’s look at the Baggage camps that have been added to the game. These Baggage camps can be attacked and looted for additional bonus points. Some of the armies also have the option to fortify their baggage camps which makes them even more difficult to attack. A quick mention above about the Line of Sight (LOS) rule means that units can hide in forests, behind hills, or in back of other units and spring traps and ambushes on unsuspecting enemy units. Then there are the temporary fortifications such as palisades that can be defended from attacks.

New civilizations are also introduced in this expansion. The new armies include;

Finally. to put the expansion in perspective, Rise of Rome provides the gamer with the following new features;

• A comprehensive Digital Army Generator which allows you to design armies to a specific number of points!
• Over 100 new unit types including camelry, scythed chariots and artillery!
• 6 new battles from the Greek & Persian wars, Macedonian & Punic War’s and from Rome’s expansion.
• A new Line of Sight option. Games can be played with or without LOS. Hide battlegroups in terrain, behind hills or other troops.
• Baggage camps which appear in battle and can be looted for bonus points. Some armies are allowed to fortify their baggage camp.
• Temporary fortifications such as palisades which can be defended.
• 5 New terrain types:
• ◦ broken ground
• ◦ impassable terrain
• ◦ open fields
• ◦ vineyards
• ◦ steep hills.
• New random battle generator using armies created in the army builder for single and multiplayer games.

Field of Glory Expansion
Storm of Arrows

Field of Glory – Storm of Arrows is the second expansion pack for the Field of Glory game. This expansion pack also adds new core features, armies and units to the core game of Field of Glory. This expansion covers the armies of Western Europe from 1300 to 1500 AD. European warfare during this time was characterized by a rise of infantry and a decline of the role or mounted knights. Over 100 new unit images are included with this expansion. Also, Archer Stakes and the ability to deploy your cavalry either mounted or dismounted in DAG games is introduced. Finally, the new units that are introduced with this expansion are; Knights, Crossbows, Medieval Artillery, and Battle Wagons.

New civilizations are also introduced in this expansion. The new armies included are;

Finally. to put the expansion in perspective, Rise of Rome provides the gamer with the following new features;

• Over 100 new unit images
• Archers stakes to protect ranged units and present a nasty surprise for enemy cavalry
• Ability to deploy troops mounted or dismounted in games created with the Digital Army Generator
• Four new unit types: Knights, Crossbows, Medieval Artillery, Battle Wagons

Details about each of these armies can be found on the Slitherine website at http://www.slitherine.com/soa_armies .

Field of Glory Expansion
Immortal Fire

Field of Glory – Immortal Fire is the third expansion pack for the Field of Glory game. Immortal Fire covers the armies of the Classical and Hellenistic eras. In this expansion you will follow the development of the hoplite system in Greece in the 7^th century BC until the break-up to the Hellenistic successor kingdoms came into conflict with Rome in the 3^rd century BC. This expansion includes the armies of the wars of the Greek City states against each other and against the might of the Persian Empire. It also includes the Greek counter-offensive against Persia under Alexander the Great. Finally, Alexander’s successors are also included in this expansion. This is a period of tremendous variety as there are many different colorful troops fighting for tactical dominance during this time period. Each army has its own special character making this one of the most fascinating periods of history to explore.

As with the other Expansions in this series, Immortal Fire adds an additional 21 armies to your base game. The armies that are added are as follows;

There are a total of 55 different lists based on the above armies that are included with the expansion. For example, there are four different Thracian lists that represent critical changes to their historical armies composition.

New graphics for over 200 battle groups and their supporting information for use in the Digital Army Generator are included There are now over 300 new Battle Group images that can be used with the scenario editor for creating historical battles. Finally, there are six new battles that are added to the base game that are only available to purchasers of the expansion pack.

Main Features included with Immortal Fire Expansion Pack are;

· Enhanced A.I. opponent

· 60 new random maps for large DAG battles

· New optional game rule of “double” moves

· Units can move more than once if they have unused movement points after their initial movement action.

· New generals flags

· Improved line of sight/Fog of War rules.

· Changes to the evade and pursuit rules.

· Ability to cut and paste battle group information in the scenario editor.

Field of Glory
Swords & Scimitars

The latest release is Swords and Scimitars which is an essential add-on covering the armies fighting for and against the Crusades during the 11^th to 13^th centuries. This was a clash between opposing cultures and religions. Additionally, this was a clash of very different military strategies. The Crusaders depended on the armored knights and on heavy horses that would charge in close order with lances to create a shocked effect. The Infidels (as they were referred to) believed in the mobility of their units and used both foot and horse archers to their advantage. This contrast between equipment and tactics of the opposing armies makes for interesting and challenging wargaming.

There are also a number of new game features that have been added with the Swords and Scimitars release. A new terrain feature call “Soft Sand” has been added to terrain for those creating their own maps. Also 10 new maps have been added to the DAG map system that all include soft sand. Next, a player can now set if they want to always evade with skirmishing battle groups, to never evade, or let the AI handle the decision. A whole new interface has been created for the Scenario Editor, making editing existing or creating new battlefields even easier. Finally, 218 new historical unit images have been added to the game system with the addition of Swords and Scimitars.

As with the other Expansions in this series, Swords and Scimitars adds an additional 21 armies to your base game. The armies that are added are as follows;

Allowing for all the different historical variations on the above there are 40 different D.A.G. army lists included in the Swords and Scimitars expansion.

Finally, with the arrival of Swords and Scimitars, when loaded with the other for Field of Glory expansions, the gamer is provided with a total of 89 historical Scenarios and over 1100 different digitized historical battle group images and their associated data. Gamers can create their own scenarios from the wealth of historical information presented. The list of Scenarios a player can choose from are;

In the event these are not enough scenarios for you, there is the Slitherine website that has hundreds of player created scenarios that you can download and install on your computer. You can access the Forum Area where these files are located from either the Matrix Games website (http://www.matrixgames.com) or the Slitherine website (http://www.slitherine.com) by selecting the Forum menu item at the top of the page and looking for Field of Glory. Once you select that Forum, the next page you see will show a Forum “Field of Glory: Scenario Design”. Once in the Forum, you should register so that you will receive all the benefits of being a Forum member.

A question you may have is where should I put the downloaded scenario? You will see that a File Folder with the name “Slitherine” has been created in “My Documents”. In this “Slitherine” folder you will see 3 sub-folders which are “FieldOfGlory Armies”, “FieldOfGlory Saved Games”, and “FieldOfGlory Scenarios. The best place to put any downloaded scenarios is in the “FieldOfGlory Scenarios” folder. Unzip the files to this folder and you can load the game from the “Custom” drop down menu as seen below.

Conclusion

The Field of Glory Expansions open up a whole new world of Ancient battles to the gamer. If you enjoy one historical period over another, you can choose which expansion to purchase, or you can load all 4 if you enjoy multiple historical time periods. Also, if you combine the Field Of Glory Supplement books by the same name, you will receive background information on the different armies and their unit compositions.

If you are a miniature gamer, you can use any of these and future expansions to test Field of Glory Miniature Armies. The Digital Army Generator allows you to create armies on the computer, controlling the size of the army with a point system. You can then pit armies that you create against one another to test which is the strongest.

Field of Glory and the Supplemental Expansions provide gamers with an open ended game system. At the moment, there are 13 Supplements http://www.fieldofglory.com/catalogue/) or (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/text_search.aspx?TextSearch=field%20of%20glory&Group=1) for the Field of Glory miniature rules. Only the first four supplements have been computerized and then these are not 100% inclusive. However, with the four expansions, you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of challenging games that will test your strategy and tactical skills in battle. Whether your playing the highly popular miniature rules, or the highly rated computer game, Field of Glory with its supplements and books provide the gamer with quality, substance, and replay value that is second to none.

(http://www.slitherine.com/ – http://www.ospreypublishing.com/ – http://www.matrixgames.com/ )

Available from Matrix Games ( http://www.matrixgames.com/ )

MSRP Physical Shipment $49.95

MSRP Physical Shipment & Digital Download $49.95

MSRP Digital Download $39.95