User:Slimy asparagus/sandbox

Ex illis is a miniature wargame universe set in a realistic-fantasy world. The game was originally released by Bastion studio but is now managed by Chinchilla Games.

Origin
Originally called Wargaming 2.0, the game used software called the Rule Keeper to create an interface for actions management instead of relying on rule interpretation by players. This has the advantage of making the game very easy to play for new players. The software is also goof at calculating many modifiers and random numbers. This gives the game depth and complexity. Armies are built outside the Rule Keeper software on the website.

Features
Ex illis Wargaming 2.0 also features:
 * Unit leveling
 * Unit specialisation on some units
 * Talent trees for each unit
 * Square based movement
 * Color matching between your miniatures and the software (done in army builder)
 * Game data tracking

Ex illis : Wargaming 2.0 falls in the category of digitally enhanced board games and might actually be the first physical game to use an iPad as a companion.

Universe
Ex illis is set in an uchronia where Angels, Demons, Faeries and Magic has been revealed to the middle-age Europe around 1246 A.D. The setting is backed by a rich narration available to players through the game's wiki. Many factions are available to player via a soft faction system where units can be set to one of many allegiance. That faction will grant bonus and the player can use the faction system to create synergy betweens its units.

Miniatures
Staying consistent with the narration, Ex illis offers a realistic look and feel for their miniatures. Details, weapon sizes, hands, heads and other anatomical proportions are much closer to actual human proportions than it would be on other tabletop wargames.

So far, 12 units, 4 heroes and 2 named heroes have been released.

Paper rulebook for Ex illis
In September 2013, Chinchilla games announced on Facebook that they would release a paper rulebook to please old-school gamers that prefer not to use the Rule Keeper software. The rulebook will be the object of a Kickstarter campaign.

Reception
The innovative combination of boardgame and software did not go down well with some critics. The software made the rules opaque. The boardgame components were not really essential to game play. Limited strategy was required. The figures required assembly, painting and were incompatible with figures from other sources. The software was buggy. However by July 2010 some of these issues had been addressed in software updates.