And so, my great tabletop gaming adventure continues. Ex Illis is a tabletop miniatures game with a video game twist. While it has physical units and is played on a table, a lot of the meat and potatoes of the game - stuff that would normally require tokens, counters and books - is relegated to a second screen.
That screen can be a PC, Mac or iOS device, and it does more than just clean up the table during play. Because the game is "played" on the screen, and that's where all the processes and rules are stored, you can open up the box, set up the board and start playing right away, with the software guiding you through what would otherwise have been a laborious learning process.
Moving the data-crunching to software also means that the game processes all the complicated battle stuff on its own, leaving you to worry about broader strategic moves (though expert players can disable this automation if they want).
There are two versions of the game available; one with a 2D game board, the other with terrain modelled in 3D plastic.
Ex Illis has been out for a few years now, and doesn't seem to have really set the world on fire in that time, but still, I think it looks super interesting.
Ex Illis [Site]