Each turn you will deploy 1 combat unit and 1 specialist. As
you might expect, the combat units do the fighting. They start face down to
simulate radar blips, and are only revealed once they get into combat, or by
being spied on. You get a combat bonus for attacking whilst hidden, so it’s
well worth setting up ambushes. Once revealed you replace the card with a
miniature, which look very impressive from the pre-production visualisations.
Some people may find it a shame to play a game with detailed miniatures that
end up sitting on the sideline half the battle as they sneak around as cards.
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| The 4 troop types, from left to right: Assault who move quickly but aren't good at holding ground, The Prototype who is good at everything and probably a bit snobby about it, Armour which is good at holding ground against withering fire and Infantry who are.. trying their best? |
One of the things I like the most in Farsight is the importance of movement. Attacking an enemy from
behind provides huge bonuses to your attack, while crippling their
counterattack, and if you manage to get multiple units into one combat then the
enemy can only defend against one of them! Most units actually move faster
while they are hidden, so your artillery can quickly get into a good firing
position and new units can race to the front line. However, this can all be
disrupted by Specialists, who can slow or stop units from advancing.
I think my favourite part of Farsight was using the specialists to manipulate the battlefield. Each
player places their specialists on a dry-erase grid that they keep hidden.
Spies and Saboteurs can be used to provide intel and cripple enemy units that
move within their range, but, if you use them, then your opponent will know
that you have a specialist nearby. They would mark this down on their board,
and then using their Assassin they can try to take a fatal shot! The Assassin
chooses a grid reference to shoot - a hit kills a Specialist, but if they miss
then your opponent tells you the number of squares away that the nearest Specialist
is. This results in a game of triangulation, narrowing down where the enemy spy
is before finally putting a bullet between his eyes, it’s a very satisfying and
well fleshed out sub-game.
Some cards do seem very strong, for instance Supply Lines
seem a little too crucial, and managing to assassinate your opponent’s will
give you a huge advantage. There is also an event system which struck me as a little
too rare - they are meant to add some extra chaos, but in the game I played
they barely seemed to affect us. However, the dice-based combat system is well
balanced with everything from infantry, that are weak in combat unless they can
flank and use terrain well, to giant mechs which are far more powerful, but
considerably rarer.
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| A 4-player game in play on Tabletopia. |
While I only got the chance to try the introductory game with fixed forces, I was interested to see what different army decks you could build. (I desperately hope that there’s an option to take 2 Assassins.) I noticed at the back of the rulebook there was an option to remove dice from the game completely for those that aren’t a fan of dice luck, which added a couple of features like artillery having to fire in concert to cause damage.
The struggle that takes place on the board makes for a good
wargame, but it’s what happens off the board that makes Farsight really shine. The blend of hidden information with
tactical and strategic wargaming is extremely elegant and is something that
should make the game appealing to a broader audience than just traditional
wargamers. Perhaps the most important thing is that after an introductory game
on the Tabletopia platform, Farsight left me eager for more, in
conclusion I’d say it’s one to look out for when it’s Kickstarter launches
soon.
7.5/10
To find out more about Farsight,
check out http://www.braincrackgames.com/2017/02/25/introducing-farsight-a-futuristic-wargame-by-jamie-jolly/
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