Wyrm’s Turn: Special Edition: Ex Illis Interview

While at Gen Con I got a chance to talk to Fred Forest, President and Creative Director of Bastion, makers of Ex Illis. Fred was nice enough to give me the low down on this new style of miniature war games that integrates your computer, iPod, or iPad into the action. Here’s the low down:

 
Stygian Jim: So Fred, what is Ex Illis?

Fred Forrest: It’s a miniatures game that uses software to resolve combat. The miniatures on the board are pretty much all of your tactical game-play. Where your units are, flanking angles, terrain features that kind of stuff. Then the software is like a giant calculator. You say I want these guys to shoot over there, the software does all of the number-crunching for you. So it allows you to learn the game as you play, as opposed to before you play. The rulebook is still there, but it’s something that you can read in your own time, rather than something you master before you play your first game. So it’s a game that can be very casual that you can play with friends who aren’t really hard core gamers, or even fun to play for younger kids. At the same time for people who are really hard core players there’s a whole lot of number crunching that goes on in the background. So those people who really want to get into it can go to the Wiki, can start learning the skills and work on their combos for the game.

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SJ: I noticed the genre looked like it has angels vs demons, and angels vs fallen angels, but you’ve also got standard soldiers. Tell us a little bit about the setting?

FF: Well, it’s set in a realistic fantasy world. We’ve taken real history, 1309, but we’ve decided to add a fantasy twist. We’ve actually done pretty thorough research about how the world would look if such events happened. We’ve consulted with historians, how different personalities would effect the world. It’s a bit of a different take on the usual high fantasy. You won’t find the big shoulder pads and the humongous weapons. What you will find are very researched characters, very intricate relationships in the geopolitical situations. It’s very much the gritty, realistic setting that you’d find for people who have been following fantasy for quite some time and are looking for something a little different than their usual games.

SJ: So where are you guys from?

FF: We’re actually Canadian, thus the accent. We’re French Canadian actually. We’re from the Quebec City area. There’s a big video game community in Canada. So half the team comes from the video gaming world, the other half comes from the table top gaming world. The blend of cultures, the blend of habits it really opened our eyes to what could be done with these different mediums.

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FF: In other markets some other guys have done things that are similar, but in the miniatures market I don’t think anyone else has done it, at least not at this scale. It’s been really fun because the community has been very active, and been really behind us, doing a lot of feedback with us on the forums. Because we have a computer solution it’s very easy for us to just implement these changes that we’re discussing with the community. Getting them out there, getting feedback, and giving that feedback loop very quickly. So overnight we’re able to just give an update to everybody. They try new features, they try new stuff and give us feedback, and we’re really able to iterate that very quickly.

SJ: So, rather than having to come out with a new edition?

FF: Exactly, so our edition cycle can be something like a month as opposed to five years. We’re really able to keep the game play balanced and tight this way. Some people wanted at one point to change the way that deployment was working. We added a new option in there so that people could choose to do that. We’ve also added a bunch of terrain features and a day night cycle, so that mixes up the game play.

SJ: That is pretty neat. I noticed that you’ve got some iPads here. Do you have an iPad app?

FF: Yes we do. We have a native iPhone app and we’re working on a native iPad app, though of course the iPhone app works on the iPad. The software itself is free, and the rules as well. What people are getting is the miniatures, and each miniature has a little identification code that people add to their account. This allows the miniature to have a really unique life. They gain experience as they battle and they can gain access to new skills. You can specialize your guys, you can name them. You can color them on the website in the same way that you’ve painted them, so that there’s a real crossover between the whole virtual aspect and the physical aspect of the game.

Fred and Jim. Click to Enlarge

FF: No these are the mats that come with the starter set. We’ve got two types of starter. The first one is the light one which comes with a laminated gaming surface. And for the guys that are more into the hobby we’ve got one that comes with a fully modular plastic board. So that’s twenty different tiles and it gives you a good base to start building your own tables. Of course people can add to that table, but at least it gets them really going quickly with the basic aspect of it.

SJ: So what do the miniatures and starter sets retail for?

FF: The smaller one, which is 54 miniatures, is a nicely sized army that you can either play for one person or split for two. That’s roughly $70 bucks, and then the one with the big board is $160. Then of course we’ve got a bunch of different expansions with different units that you can add. We just came out with a very nice box of archangels that you can use. Also you can build them as the archangels themselves or as fallen angels. Each time we come out with a box there are two versions of the unit. We have sergeants that can be used with swords or spears, and priests that can come from different schools of theology. This really gives a diverse game play very quickly within the system.

SJ: That is really neat, this something that seems very unique. Something you don’t really see in any other game.

FF: We get that quite a bit. It’s very different. It doesn’t replace the traditional form of war gaming, but it does give a new experience to the player that is looking for something new, something different. That may want a new challenge. And there’s a lot of challenge that can be added to it because we’re just on the verge of exploring all of the possibilities of combining these different media into a single big gaming experience. We’ve had a lot of questions like, “Is it a miniatures war game, is it a video game?” So on and so forth. At the end it’s just a fun moment to share with a friend. If we’re able to use different aspects of gaming that makes it a very sociable, entertaining, and fluid experience then that’s what we’re here for.

 
Thanks to Frank Forest from Bastion for speaking with me about Ex Illis, if you want to learn more about the game check out their website at http://ex-illis.com.

About Stygian Jim

Stygian Jim was born in Missouri, but his family later settled in the Florida Keys. It is there that our benighted correspondent spent his formative years, and it is there he lives to this day. A consummate gamer geek he whiles away his life planning dramatic stories and plots for people and places that do not exist, and besting his compatriots at games of strategy.

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