Although our focus here at Chicago Dice is tabletop gaming, from time to time a video game pops up that demands our attention. SOVL: Fantasy Warfare is one such game. SOVL (pronounced SOUL) is a wargaming ruleset for the tabletop (digital and real) that takes clear inspiration from Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Kings of War. That would be interesting on it’s own but how the battles are presented on the screen is the real genius.

Hot

• It’s a White Dwarf Battle Report – As many readers will recall during the Golden Age of White Dwarf, the highlight of each monthly issue was often the Battle Report. Each game included commentary from the players, lovely photography and most importantly, the diagrams breaking down unit movement, actions and causalities. Those little graphics made it easy for the reader to follow along as the action unfolded turn to turn. That is exactly how SOVL is presented. Each unit is colorful rectangle. It’s like an early 2000’s WB Battle Report come to life. It’s a shock that we haven’t seen a game use this presentation before.

The elegance is in the simplicity.

• Unit graphic design – Not the art for the unit portraits (those are passable). I’m talking about the icons for you units on the battlefield. It’s classic White Dwarf Battle Report style and it’s perfect. It needs no improvement. It’s peak Warhammer. Look at that image above! Look at it!
• Trail of Death – The single-payer campaign is a delight. You start with just your leader, their retinue and two small supporting units. By the end of Act II, if you make it that far, you will be looking at a full army of veterans. You upgrade and recruit units along the way. Fight battle after battle. Risk random events and purchase new equipment. It’s everything you want in a classic escalation campaign!
• Easy to learn, difficult to master – The game is simple. Each turn in just three phases. You declare and move charges, do remaining moves and actions (shooting and spells) and then fight combat. That’s it. Players alternate activations as each unit completes their move. On the surface there isn’t much to it. The simplicity of the mechanics is where the deeper strategy lies. Activation order is critical. Getting your charges lined up a turn or two early makes or breaks your game. You need to know where you want to be on future turns. Playing reactive will get your nowhere. The more you play, the more the strategies develop.
• The factions and units – It’s all here! Empires of Man (Empire), Dwarf Holds (Dwarfs), Deepwood Guardians (Wood Elves), Elven Conclaves (High Elves), Goatmen Raiders (Beastmen), the list goes on! Make no mistake, these factions are pure Warhammer Fantasy Battles and that is ok with me. The SOVL Devs are not reinventing the wheel with their unit options either. The Dwarf Holds have Warriors and Rangers and Miners and Crossbows and Cannons and so on. It’s pretty much a direct 1:1 representation of WFB circa 6th Edition.
• The price – SOVL is free. For the price of $0.00 you get the single-player campaign (Trail of Death), multiplayer (1v1s) and access to five factions. You can purchase the other five factions for $5 each for all four for $20. You can get a full, rich experience without spending a dime.

Not

• Tutorial – There isn’t one. To learn the basics you need to read the documentation on the SOVL Github. I realize this is small operation but even a super basic tutorial game against AI just to show you the controls and how combat is calculated would be a big help. Luckily the game is simple enough that’ll you’ll figure it out after a few matches.
• Hot Keys – I can’t tell you how many battles I played before I learned that you can press X and C to see charge arcs and Shift+X to see ranges. I suppose this note should be included with the lack of tutorial but it really needs to be called out.
• Jank– Honestly this could go in Hot section. SOVL has just enough silliness to really hit the sweet spot of old-school WFB. Sometimes the charge moves make no sense and your unit can fit into space they surely should not. Or a feeing unit makes a random move that perfectly blocks your next charge. Or you get stuck between a unit and impassible terrain. Or the AI dice rolls are just a bit too good. None of this is game breaking by any stretch. Just know that you are gonna see some silliness from time to time.

The Takeaway

If you are at all interested in Rank & Flank strategy games (especially ones with an old school Warhammer lean) you need to give SOVL a try. The cost of entry is only your time. Hope over to Steam and give it a download already. Play some Trail of Death games against the AI and then get with a buddy for some 1v1. You won’t regret it.

You can find out more on the SOVL website and Steam page.