Bastion announce the Ex illis 30-Day free trial
September 3, 2010 by lloyd
The Ex illis guys have decided that now is the time to unleash their 30-Day Free Trial so everyone can have ago with the software to see how the game plays.
So here’s what they said:
“By popular demand; Bastion is pleased to announce the Ex illis 30-Day free trial. Try the richness of its gameplay for yourself and share the experience with friends and family, it’s easy! All you need is a temporary account you can create for free on www.ex-illis.com and you are ready for battle!
For 30 days, you’ll have access to all the features, including leveling and mustering your armies to battle in the fantastic and highly strategic universe of Ex illis.
To make your account permanent all you need is activate any miniature within a months following the end of your trial period (in other words, you have a couple of months to decide what kind of army you want to build). Thus you’ll get to build on all your stats and player level.
For more information: http://ex-illis.com/wikien/Trial”
Well as it’s free I don’t think it wouldn’t hurt to check it out and let everyone one on Beasts of War know what you think of it.
Here's a link to the Ex illis Group:
//www.beastsofwar.com/groups/ex-illis/forum/
BoW Lloyd.
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Nice to be able to try before you buy 🙂
Interesting concept. I’m just not entirely sold on the whole “software” aspect of the game. I’d love to have the option to give this game a go with pen and paper. It would be cool if we actually had the option to see ALL of the game mechanics, that way, we could appropriate, synthesize, and tweak what looks like a very deep and complicated system.
I just feel that the software part of it kinda limits where and how you can play the game….unless some lgs’s decide to buy a computer for each table I doubt this is going to see widespread tournament play. I would like the option to play “analog”…..i’m very analog…..that’s why i play TT games.
Either way, each new system improves the hobby to some extent and i’m sure that for the right person, this game will be amazing.
Going by the video it doesn’t look that deep to me – movement seems pretty simple, the computer handles hit/wound/save resolution, the only thing that’s new (to me at least) is the fatigue aspect …. probably have a better idea after trying it 🙂
I got the impression that the hit/wound/save aspect was rather complicated (factor in fatigue), and that’s what I’m interested in. I think the video even says that it’s some kind of complicated algorithm. I’m just saying I’d like to see these mechanics so I “could” play around with them in home games (borrow ideas for more fun toy soldier games). It’s not like they need to put up some kind of “wizard of oz” screen to save us time and effort…besides with the lack of any real competitive prospects it might be nice to tinker a little to make the game more fun.
It took the game designers about 3 days to play a game of Ex illis on pen and paper, and 8 hours with the help of an Excel spreadsheet…
Trust me, it’s deep 😉
Well can’t say no to something that they are letting me try for free. Gonna give the game a go this weekend with a buddy and see how it plays.
That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. From this video I get that I would basically play a board game (because there is no actual measuring) and instead of rolling dice or comparing stats the software decides the outcome, the player is reduced pushing horrible looking minis across the table
If you want to go through the mechanics of the game I recommend you to read the Wiki:
http://ex-illis.com/wikien
All the statistics and the odds, the meta-gaming, is available in game, at any time.
Thank you. This is quite useful. From the video I got the impression that all of the mechanics were somehow invisible.
the game looks very interesting. I was wondering how the game flows. I do not like games were you have to keep on checking books for every action taken
You’d all do much better playing Battle For Wesnoth, a PC game that’s free to download and play with hundreds of expansions.
This Exilis really is just a fancy pants version of old computer games that you’d find of flash game or java game websites. You’re limited by your map, as well as the models. Even the tactics will soon become generic as you find out the models traits and preferences. So why not just read flow diagrams? That’s basically all you’ll do anyway.
Not to mention you will be finding players who have used two computers or accounts to play endless amounts of biased games against themselves to cheat themselves to elite units.
The same can be said for warhamemr 40k, at the end of the day haters are gona hate. The game opens up so much more, and will bring more people into the hobby then gw or warmachine, ever will, when this game kicks off? why? because it is the bridge between two worlds, the world of computer games, and the world of miniture games. You say you are limited by your map? erm… you are limited by your “map” in the real world, computer games and in other miniture games. You say “Traits and perefences” well be come generic? well that might just be your play style, if you are not willing to explore the game and get into the detail , i would rather not have you in the game. You say people will cheat just to level up their models? even if you do their are level caps and point caps, so you can not take your gazllin point army, with units that are level 50 vs some one who has just started out. Same as other games that will not let you take to many point to keep things fair. you can cheat in say flames of war, by pushing your tank folward when the other player is not looking. IN this it is very very hard to cheat in the real game. ” so why not just read flow diagrams” erm ? do people not sit at their desks or computers spending hours on army lists? with this you could do one in 5mins, and in yes a graph instantly see if your army is more shootie, elite, how well it works with this. Ect. If you have nothing Nice to say , dnt say it at all 😉 just cause you want to hate on it does not mean others want to listen to it.
on a second note, their are more female wargamers playing Ex illis then you find in other games, and since i am a very flirty guy 😉 that sits okay with me.
@ tony88 – Tony, I dont mean to be rude, but your comments lead me to believe you have never played Ex illis before.
To start off, the board and terrain are modular so you can set them however you like. The game also includes different calculations for fighting in the day and at night. Also, we have been promised weather, time and more terrain effects.
Second, all games are limited by an army choice. However, because of the soft faction system, 2 new releases per month, the leveling and specialization systems, you will find ot is difficult for Ex illis to become stale.
@drchaos – I believe there is more to war games than measuring and dice. Personally, I play for the social interaction the neat story creation before and after battles, the unmatched aesthetic of playing two painted armies on well crafted terrain, and (most importantly) matching witts with another person as we develop and adapt our tactics and strategies. To me ( and this is just me) rolling dice and measuring are just low level mechanics that get me to the parts that really matter.
@t9nv3 – The gameplay can be very deep. The neat thing about it is that the software allows you to ease into playing and go as deep as you choose to go. The software will function as training wheels for a non war gamer, so it will be easy, quick and fun, to have a game with a kid or spouse. However, because the software handles upkeep and random number generation (actually the algorithms mainly use are weighted
random draw and asymptomatic ratios, whatever that means) the gameplay can easilly take into account many more variables and give much more granular results, without bogging the game down to a crawl.
My fav game thus far was a 10,000 pt game with over 15 units per side (about 120 models per) which we were able to play as a six player team game in under 2 hours.
What ever happened to the interview with Ex-illis’s creator?
Beasts of war never uploaded the video, they put a video out ages ago saying they were doing a interview but never one out. If you go to the Ex illis group on the bow website, in the groups section we have videos their of interviews and stuff.
THis is a really good offer, Ex illis is hard to come by in the uk, and it is nice to sit down and try it out. You should never knock a game with out trying it, i hated the idea of using a computer till i played a few games with my russian friend, and after that what did i do ? i went out and bought a starter set. Bastion looks out for their customers, i put up a review for their starter set, even though i bashed a few parts of the set, they still enjoyed reading it and thanked ,me for the reivew! do you see that with other companys? I do not see games workshop saying here is a trial offer you can download all this stuff for free print it out, and play the game? yes you can go into gw stores, but really ? most of the time you are harrsed into buying stuff. The software allows your models to level up, sort of like dungons and dragons but less messing around with 100s of data sheets. On the Ex illis forum i have seen people that have never played any other minis game but came into Ex illis since they did not have to work with dice, they did not have to buy 100s of rule books. Bastion trys to give out as much stuff free as possible. Now people who bash this game should stop being fan boys(and girls) and open your minds, Ex illis is a hard core tatical minis game. Games like this would take days to play out but with the software only hours! 😀 i am also doing painting vids for it! so try it out!
If its not out yet, it should be out soon. I was at gencon when they where talking. The interview took place during the ex illis open.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/gencon2010/chat-fred-bastion-game-illis/
Interview
@t9nv3 Id have to agree. It looks like a very novel concept, but I’m not sure how technology would mesh with an otherwise analogue genera of games. I have often wondered and wanted a way to incorporate digital media with a table top game, but i fear that it may also overwhelm. I think that being able to track statistics, level up units and characters, and that they have servers to track everything is a big bang for your buck and really freakin cool! I think that balancing analogue and digital aspects would be a very hard to pull off, but I like to see that the creators of Ex Illis are giving it their all! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I am curious if anyone had any trouble trying to get there trial to work.? I never recieved my activation email and sent an email to the contact address at Ex Illis and have not heard anything back from them.. kind of dissapointing as I was looking forward to trying the game out.. so was it just my bad luck or anyone else have a problem?
@caamora: I have sent you a PM. 😉
Just wanted to thank Richard from Ex Illis for responding to my account activation problem personally and helping to get my free trial account working… thats excellent service… Thank you Richard.. looking forward to trying the game this weekend…
@caamora: My pleasure! We pride ourselves to be very community oriented. Let us know your feedbacks on the trial 😉