Throughout the craziness of my life, I added a
move...
Fanticide the game was a collaboration between Rick Priestly, Alessio Cavatore,
E. Skye Chaney and Ernest Baker. Now, long out of print and defunct, like a
Creep it lurks in my collection waiting to leap out into the light and deliver
a bite!!!
My teenage son, a former wargamer, stumbled across the Fanticide rule book in
the process of moving. Surprisingly, he expressed an interest in playing a
game. Imagine my shock and pleasure...
The game was written in 2012 and is a large skirmish
game for battles between opposing homicidal warbands. It is very whimsical but
also quite grim and does have some PG-13 elements. The system is a card
driven sequence including random events. As it's card driven and not I-GO-U-GO,
command & control choices for determining what units can move and act keep
the players engaged throughout. A card is assigned to each unit, character and
monster in the game and also includes random events which produce random
outcomes like killer unicorns enraged by the ‘Rainbow’ Event. While not a mass
battle game it is also not a skirmish game. The "typical" battle is
30 to 40 figures per side.
The universe is friendly to all miniatures and genres. There are very clear
guidelines for building four of the Fanticide specific war bands with some guidance
for use of any figures including SciFi and Historical collections. The four
starting bands were the Liberi (Native American themed centaurs), The Fae
(Faeries and Forest creatures), Creeps (a bizarre race of skin eating Cylops
that run from the very small to the terrifying grotesque), and Flying Monkeys
(think of Wizard of Oz with guns and dung bombs).
Is there a downside?
Although open to
inclusion of any genre of figures, there is no large list of special abilities
with balanced point costs. I am not a fan of points based games; but, some
guidance would have been nice. You will have to make things up and balance them
yourself to add something not covered. We plan to play it a bunch... in the
mean time. I do suspect to ultimately end up back playing the excellent
go-to fantasy rules for me: Dragon
Rampant for the large skirmishes; and, Song of Blades and Heroes for the smaller
skirmishes.
Where to get the
rules and figures?
Architects of War created
the game under its Alien Dungeon line. Unfortunately the company is no
longer. I am told that many of the figures they used were made by other
manufacturers like Eureka so you can still find them. Sadly, the pieces they
made specifically for their game are gone. Evil Bob tells me purchaser of
the liquidation did not save all of the molds so some are now lost. Let's
hope the the others may resurface some day. The figures and terrain were all
sculpted by Mike Broadbent, Alan Marsh, Paul Clarke, and Ernest Baker
Here is a list of 28mm manufacturers that might provide some forces:
Where to get the rules?
What does a force look like?
I have been sorting out the Fanticide collection from my unpainted and painter
figures. I do not seem to be able to find the time to paint; thus, I asked Evil
Bob to paint my Fae army. He agreed as an experiment to cycle it into his New
and VERY popular Express service. You can see all of the pictures and read his
post at his BLOG.
Enough typing...here are images of a recently completed Fae army and a few
extras by Evil Bob for
the game Fanticide:
Satyr Legend and Unicorn
The Satyr legend may appear at battle and are stronger, faster and
quite a threat on the battlefields
The unicorn is NOT part of the Fae army and are a much feared,
deadly and CARNIVOROUS random event which disrupt and otherwise ordered(?) battle.
Satyr Infantry & Satyr Master with club.
The most common types are shootists (missile troops) and stickers
(spears). Additionally, a much tougher type (Female Thumper--which I do not yet
have a unit of figures...yet) can be added if the army has Sprytes who are
required to urge them to come forth from the forests and do battle.
A Spryte Swarm which can be used as swarms or
to attach to units to provide magical defense. They do have a soul-searing
scream which can cause insanity. Sometimes hidden in the swarm is a Spryte
Master that have magic and are destined to become a May Queen or Faery.
Brownie Heroes on snails (heavy cavalry?!?) and Heroes on squirrels and Swarms
can be a nasty force to overwhelm much larger opponents.
Forest Fathers and Bogies are large immensely strong tree spirits which can be
infested with Sprytes to give them magic resistance.
Dryads which are not part of the Fae army, nor do they appear in the book. I
will have to stat them up or possibly use them as a "counts-as" the
very rare and tough female Satyr unit.
Fungal Herd is not actually part of the Fae army. They shoot spores and feast upon dead flesh. Only the Creeps are immune.
Lastly, the Iron Wind Kickstarter has
plenty of figures usable in the Fanticide universe. and is closing soon...check
it out.
