Spells have a significant impact, as do the special abilities of whatever wizard you're playing. Thankfully, Fantasy General dispenses with Panzer General's supply rules, which often slowed the gameplay. The balance and counterbalance among these attack and damage types makes the game about much more than mere unit strength. It's not very intuitive, but it's at the heart of the system and it forces the player to make some difficult choices about the kinds of units he wants to play with. Another difficult choice is how the player spends his gold, which is the equivalent of Panzer General's prestige.
Gold is split between buying available units and researching new ones.
The choice of wizards to lead your forces adds a lot to Fantasy General's already considerable replay value. In the campaign, it's possible to paint yourself into some frustrating corners in the later game and the puzzle nature of the missions shows through at times. Although it refused to yield up any screenshots no matter what I tried, it runs just fine in Windows, snuggled comfortably in its own DOS session. But one of the reasons I think Fantasy General works so well is that it feels a little strange recreating historical battles with this system. Non-wargamers probably wonder what the hell I'm talking about, but it's one reason I particularly enjoyed Fantasy General's flights of fancy.