Game: Wiz-War

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

Donald — 2008-11-14T16:39:58+00:00

If it is FFG, I claim credit for making it happen. After Chessex dropped the ball, I put a post on FFG's general board that they should pick up the license. Obviously that was the catalyst for it being made now. PM me for my address to send all the medals and the cash of gratitute.

Although, they did say the company was promtp, which rules out FFG. Even more promtp than Chessex will be pushing it for FFG.....

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

Castef — 2008-11-14T10:39:04+00:00

StyxParadox wrote:
Tom Jolly posted on WizWar.com the following on Aug 25, 2008. I have not seen a news post of it here. Please let me know if I missed it and this is a duplicate post.

At last!

I'll bite the next guy who complaints about "big societies taking all the good old games!"...

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

rossum — 2008-11-13T05:15:00+00:00

Hooray! I'm sporting my Wiz-War badge with pride.

I can't wait to finally have a new copy.

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

watcher_b — 2008-11-12T22:52:05+00:00

SultanSevy wrote:
If FFG or Days of Wonder publish this, it goes right to the top of my MUST BUY list.
Amen brotha'!

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

SultanSevy — 2008-11-12T22:28:12+00:00

Great news indeed. Tom Jolly has made some fantastic games (Drakon is a personal fave of mine).

Wiz-War is just begging for a 21st century update. It has happened with Cosmic Encounter, Talisman, Warrior Knights, and other great classics from the 80's, so why not Wiz-War?

If FFG or Days of Wonder publish this, it goes right to the top of my MUST BUY list.

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

swandive78 — 2008-11-12T22:10:27+00:00

Yee-haw!

There have been a lot of people waiting for this a long time, and Chessex's total reluctance to re-release this baffles me.

The heck with them.

Looking forward to the classic, reborn!

Way to go, Tom!

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

anarchy — 2008-11-12T22:01:09+00:00

Tom Jolly has an existing relationship with FFG (Cave Troll & Drakon - 3rd Edition). Wiz-War fits with the FFG style of game. I'd strongly suspect them of grabbing the license.

Regardless, this is good news. Tom Jolly deserves to have his magnum opus in print.

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

boneroller — 2008-11-12T21:58:33+00:00

truekid wrote:
Chessex ->
_________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--------- O (the ball)

Glad you used a ball and not a pooch!

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

boneroller — 2008-11-12T21:57:31+00:00

Since Tom already has a couple of games published by FF, my guess is Fantasy Flight. I figure Tom says it will be 2 years because FF has a busy production schedule. DoW does seem the likely candidate because of the computer rights, but maybe FF, or some other company is following a similar model.

Glad to see Wiz-War will soon find a suitable home. It needs to be done right this time.

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

truekid — 2008-11-12T21:55:28+00:00

Chessex ->
_________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--------- O (the ball)

Thread: Re: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

CovertDad — 2008-11-12T21:53:49+00:00

StyxParadox wrote:
Based on what he wrote here, my guess is the "much prompter company" will be Days of Wonder. My second guess is FFG but I am not aware of them having online games.

Then I will kindly point you here, sir...

A publisher could also be interested in online rights as a reseller... I.e., they resell the rights to a software publisher, taking a cut of the profit... No offense to Tom Jolly, but I imagine software development houses would prefer to talk to FFG/Mayfair/GW than l'il ol' Tom.

Thread: Contract with Chessex Cancelled - Contract Made with "much prompter company"

StyxParadox — 2008-11-12T21:37:50+00:00

Tom Jolly posted on WizWar.com the following on Aug 25, 2008. I have not seen a news post of it here. Please let me know if I missed it and this is a duplicate post.

Hi, all.
The good news is, with some negotiation, in a few weeks I should have a contract in hand canceling the Chessex contract and replacing it with one from a much prompter company which shall, for the moment, remain nameless. But, WW will be out in less than 2 years once the contract is signed, and it'll look *nice*.

The downside is that they want exclusive computer rights. I've thumbed through my contracts and figured out what's cancellable and what isn't, but I wanted to verify that nobody out there thought they had an agreement with me that I didn't know about.

Naturally, this means that any "wild" versions of online WW out there should dry up and disappear by Jan 2010, which is when I've told the company that they can gain exclusivity, since the numerous non-exclusive contracts I've got going right now should be terminated by then.

So, anyone know of any commitments of mine out there (i.e., contracts or permissions) that exist, or can't be closed by then?

Tom Jolly

Here is the link to the Post:
http://wizwar.com/wizboard/viewtopic.php?t=1807

Based on what he wrote here, my guess is the "much prompter company" will be Days of Wonder. My second guess is FFG but I am not aware of them having online games.

Image

GerryRailBaron — 2008-11-12T19:16:56+00:00

Fifth Edition and 1st Expansion: The Six Sector tiles. Each unique, near as I can tell.

Image

GerryRailBaron — 2008-11-12T19:15:30+00:00

Fifth Edition and 1st Expansion: All spread out, and ready to play!

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GerryRailBaron — 2008-11-12T19:14:15+00:00

Fifth Edition: Everything has packed to gether well, it is still in great shape. This is NOT one of those games with a "too large box"! Thank goodness, cause after 17 years, it has not rattled around too much.

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GerryRailBaron — 2008-11-12T19:12:25+00:00

Fifth Edition: Ah, those pristine contents of a soon to be played game. This copy also contains Expansion Set 1! A pleasent surprise from my dusty games shelf.

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GerryRailBaron — 2008-11-12T19:11:00+00:00

Fifth Edition Box Cover. Basically the 4th edition cover, with a stripe claiming its been updated.

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

Zygote — 2008-11-11T07:11:24+00:00

Here is my new copy of Wiz-War. ]]> Many thanks to kwanchai.

Image

Zygote — 2008-11-11T06:43:47+00:00

image of my new game. With thanks to kwanchai for the PDF.

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

ScottE — 2008-11-05T00:10:23+00:00

What is it with Chessex? They have a heavily in-demand game and even started art for it, but won't ship a game? I'm sure there are publishers begging to release this game and they just sit on it year after year. Tom Jolly must be very pissed by now.

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

abodi — 2008-11-04T23:21:23+00:00

they looked pretty cool i think

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

boneroller — 2008-10-31T18:58:58+00:00

For those who are curious, the scrubbed 8th edition Chessex version cards looked like this:

And the board sections like this:

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

kwanchai — 2008-10-30T19:48:10+00:00

FakeDutch wrote:
These include the expansions? Any suggestions on a "how-to" to get the best out of it?

Honestly, it really is up to you, because I might recommend one way to go, but another Wiz-War veteran will suggest something completely different. I've heard that a good way to start newbies is to just go with the Basic set (of cards) first, and add in expansions and fan-made content later. But I think creatures are super fun, and they aren't in the Basic set. So my personal suggestion is to use the Basic set and add in a few summon creature spells, like Troll or Skeleton or something. I've appended a list of what cards are in each set, below. Note that there are at least a handful of cards listed below which you won't find in the redesigned package. For example, none of the artifacts are included. This is because Jeff (www.jeloba.com/wizwar/) has rewritten some of the card text in his set to streamline play, and left out a few of the really imbalanced spell cards (like the artifacts). And of course, anything in the redesign package that is not listed in one of the sets below, is fan-made content.

Basic Set
ABSORB (2)
ABSORB SPELL
ADD
AMPLIFY (2)
AROUND THE CORNER
ANTI-ANTI
BLIND
BLOODSTONE
BLUNT (2)
BRAINSTONE
BUDDY
CARD ERASURE
CREATE WALL (2)
DAGGER
DESTROY WALL (2)
DISPEL CREATION
DRAG
DROP OBJECT (2)
EXTEND
FILL SQUARE WITH STONE (2)
FIREBALL (3)
FULL REFLECTION
FULL SHIELD (2)
GO AWAY
ILLUSION WALL
INVISIBLE
JAM LOCK
LARGE ROCK
LIGHTNING BLAST (3)
LOCK IN PLACE
MASTER KEY
MEDUSA
MIST-BODY
NO SPELL
PASS THROUGH WALL
PICK LOCK (4)
POWER DRAIN
POWER RUN
POWERSTONE
POWERTHRUST (3)
REFLECTION (2)
RELOCATE SECTOR
REMOVE LOCK
REUSE SPELL
REVERSE
ROTATE SECTOR
SHADOWSTONE
SHIELDSTONE
SHRINK
SLOW
SLOW DEATH
SOULSTONE
SPEED (2)
SPEEDSTONE
STONE DEAD
SUDDEN DEATH
SWAP
TELEPATH
TELEPORT
TELEPORT OPPONENT
THORNBUSH (2)
THOUGHT-STEAL
TRAP!
UGLY
VISIONSTONE
WALL OF FIRE
WATERBOLT (3)
WATERWALL
WIZARDBLADE
6's (1)
5's (4)
4's (7)
3's (10)
2's (12)

Expansion Set 1
ADRENALINE
ALTER EGO
ALTER REALITY
BIG MAN
BLASTER STICK
BOOBYTRAP
BUTT-HEAD
CHAOS
CREATE DOOR
DEJA-VU
DEMOCRATIC MONSTER
DIMENSIONAL WARP
DISEASE
DISPEL CREATION (2)
DUST CLOUD
EMPATHY
FEAR
FIRE IMP
FORCEFIELD
GIFT FROM ABOVE
GIFT FROM BELOW
GLUE
HANDFUL OF TACKS
HEAVE-HO
IDIOT
ILLUSIONARY ATTACK
INTERRUPT
KILLER OOZE
LIFESAVER
MAD DASH
MEGA-MONSTER
MENTAL FORCE
MENTAL SWAP
OPPORTUNITY FIRE
PICK LOCK (2)
POWER ATTACK
REDIRECTION
REMOVE CURSE
ROSEBUSH
SAFE
SHADOW
SHIFT STICK
SKELETON
SLIMECUBE
STICKY STICK
STONE TO WATER
STRENGTH
SWAP HOME BASES
SWAP MEET
SWARTHMORE'S ENCHANTMENT
THIEF
THUMB OF GOD
TRADER
TROLL
WALKING DEAD
WARD
WARP STICK
WEAKNESS
WRAITH
2's (10)
3's (7)
4's (4)
5's (2)

Expansion Set 2
AMBER PENDANT
ARM OF THOR
ASTRAL PROJECTION
BIG BLACK BAT
BLINK
BOOK OF INFINITE SPELLS
BRAIN
BURDEN
CEASE-FIRE
CLAW OF MARS
CLONE
CONTROL CREATION
CROSSBOW
CRYSTAL BALL
CURSE OF THE LITTER BUG
CURSE OF THE MONSTER MUSK
DECOY
DISGUISE MAGIC
DOOR-TO-DOOR
DOUBLE BACK
EVIL EYE
EXPLODING DOOR
EXPLODING ENERGY
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
EYE OF CLAREMONT
FAMILIAR
FEATHERWEIGHT
FIGHTERSTONE
FILL 'ER UP
FIREFLY STICK
FIT OF FRENZY
FLAME ON
FLIGHT
FORCE OF THE JET-EYE
FULL SHIELD
GEAS
GHOST
GHOUL
HARD CELL
HEALTHSTONE
HOTFOOT
HYPNOSIS
IT
JANITOR
KLUTZ
LOAD STONE
MAGIC ARMOR OF ARES
MONSTER BANE
MUNDANE
NEGATE NEUTRAL
PASS THE BUCK
PICK LOCK (3)
PSYCHIC STORM
PUBLIC FUNDS
POWER BATTERY
PUSH OBJECT
RANDOM'S CARD
REFLECTION
REJUVENATION
RICOCHET
RING OF POWER
SHATTER
SHOCK WAVE
SHIELD OF AZPESDOZE
SPELL STONE
STICKS AND STONES
SUB-WIZARD
SUCKER
SUPER-DODGE
SWAP SECTORS
TELEPORT AMULET
TELEPORT CREATION
TELEPORT LOAD
TELEPORT OBJECT
TINY SWAP
VAMPIRE!
WALL OF FOG
WALL OF GLASS
WEREWOLF
WINGS OF MERCURY
2's (10)
3's (8)
4's (4)
5's (2)

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

FakeDutch — 2008-10-30T13:34:59+00:00

These include the expansions? Any suggestions on a "how-to" to get the best out of it?

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

kwanchai — 2008-10-29T20:24:02+00:00

ScottE wrote:
Great job kwanchai!

I did have a question, do you just print out one copy of each card? Are the number cards and other duplicates setup so one copy of each page is enough to keep the card count right? I know especially with the number cards you had to have a certain number to keep balance.

The veterans over at the WizWar.com forums usually will have your answer to just about anything. But here is a specific post about your question. My personal preference is that it doesn't really matter.

In terms of game flow, Wiz War cards can be divided very broadly into two categories: cards that speed up gameplay, and cards that slow down gameplay. Cards that speed up gameplay are: attack spells that do damage, spells that summon monsters, and spells that allow for extra attacks or movement. Cards that slow down gameplay are counteraction spells, healing spells, spells that make players lose turns or slow down, etc. If I have new players, I try to balance the cards in favor of cards that speed up gameplay, as this is usually more fun (attacks zinging left and right) and leads to a faster, meaner game.

In my opinion, in total, there are many more cards in this cards set that slow down gameplay, as opposed to speeding up gameplay. They are very interesting and tons of fun, but they slow down the playing time because they dilute the amount of attack cards that come out. So if you use ALL of them in a session, it would be a slow game. I would recommend hand-picking about half of the cards that you want to use in a session, and then shuffle in all the number cards.

But again, all of this is really personal choice. In the end, the best answer is your own.

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

Mondior — 2008-10-29T17:59:53+00:00

Just got back from the print shop with all my copies. It is supposed to be cold and rainy for the next couple of days here, so I have my project ready to go.

Thanks for all the hard work!!

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

ScottE — 2008-10-29T17:45:47+00:00

Great job kwanchai!

I did have a question, do you just print out one copy of each card? Are the number cards and other duplicates setup so one copy of each page is enough to keep the card count right? I know especially with the number cards you had to have a certain number to keep balance.

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

JohnnyD — 2008-10-29T17:30:17+00:00

Thanks for all your work on this one....have it downloaded and printed ready to go!!!!!

Thread: Re: Redesign for Wiz War

carthaginian — 2008-10-29T13:45:09+00:00

Great work, congratulations!

I've thought many times of doing my own copy, your stuff convinced me to try.

Image

kwanchai — 2008-10-28T23:30:40+00:00

Thread: Redesign for Wiz War

kwanchai — 2008-10-28T20:50:20+00:00

I discovered Wiz War a few years ago via BGG and www.WizWar.com. I printed up the scans of the 5th edition boards and counters and got to work making my own copy. The game quickly became an all-time favorite. And although I really love the comical 1985 artwork of the original counters, I've always wanted to do a redesign. Recently I found time to do just that. And to make things simple, I decided to whip up a PDF with everything you need in one place, including counters, boards, cards, and rules. With the redesign, I've tried to stay true to the simple, "tongue-in-cheek" feel of the 1985 artwork; in fact a few of the new illustrations are basically identical to the original. The only thing I did not redesign is the cards, which were done by Jeff over at http://www.jeloba.com/wizwar/. I think they are the best Wiz War cards out there, and he graciously gave me permission to include them in my package. As it says in the PDF, Wiz War is copyright 1985 by Jolly Games, so the contents are for personal use only, not to be distributed or sold in any way. So basically, while we all wait patiently for Wiz War to be published again (last I heard Tom Jolly say was 2010), feel free to use my stuff if you like it. ~Kwanchai

The PDF file can be found here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/35997

]]>
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Thread: Re: Review by SOS

Teabeard — 2008-10-27T01:31:46+00:00

cosmosaic wrote:
This is the review that led me to put the work into constructing a set. Boy did that pay off! I've had tons of fun with it since.

Me too! Just finished mine the other day, it took ages to make but already from the few games I've played I think its going to be well used in our house. Great review!

Thread: Re: New version of Computer Wiz-War released

Mishenka — 2008-10-19T01:12:30+00:00

Version 0.90 is now out. It's in the usual location.

WizWar v. 0.90 Release Notes

Changes
- An attention sound will now play when an action is required from a player (i.e. his turn starts or he need to counteract, etc.). This sound can be disabled/enabled through the Option dialog. This way you can take a nap during the other player's turn.

- Added Bankler's "DRAGON" card to the "Community 1" deck.

- The Client's "Waiting for Players" dialog now has a "Disconnect" button, allowing the client to disconnect without having to wait for the game to start or closing the whole program.

Bug Fixes
- When "Auto End Turn" was enabled, it would, in some cases, send multiple end turn requests to the server, causing player's turns to be skipped.

- Fixed a drawing bug which sometimes would cause squares to not get updated.

- Disconnected clients no longer process events (this could happen if the clients were being disconnected while the server was sending them events).

Image

kwanchai — 2008-10-15T12:04:35+00:00

redesigned wiz-war tokens (in progress)

Thread: Re: New version of Computer Wiz-War released

Mishenka — 2008-10-10T06:49:45+00:00

I just uploaded the next version 0.89 to the same location. Here are the release notes:

WizWar v. 0.89 Release Notes

Changes
- Implemented Card Decks. Now cards are collected into named decks and specific decks can be selected from a check list when starting a new game.

- Implemented "NotUsedIn2Player" attribute for card definitions, so that those cards are not dealt in a 2 player game.

- You can now Walk by clicking a neighboring square with the left mouse button.

- Added ICE STORM card to the "Community 1" deck (this is a custom Trap card I came up with).

- Implemented 7 and 8 player game board layouts.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed stack overflow crash that happened during tracing LOS in some cases

- Effects that were supposed to reveal an opponent's hand didn't do that

- When transferring hands with Mental Swap, effects of Magic Stones were not transferred correctly.

- Loading a game while a game is already in progress crashed the program.

- Alter Reality didn't update the board properly and could crash the game in some cases

- Fixed bug where Relocate Sector would report an error with some board layouts.

- Fixed game board drawing bug, where right side of the display outside the sectors wouldn't redraw propertly.

- Fixed LOS bug where LOS across sectors wouldn't work in some directions.

- Fixed bug where scripts would sporadically get mangled resulting in script execution errors.

- When Door-to-door is dispelled it reverts to being a normal door instead of getting destroyed.

Thread: Re: GenCon 2007 - WizWar 8th at last?

Mishenka — 2008-10-10T06:48:16+00:00

Tom Jolly posted on wizwar.com recently, that he is out of his contract with Chessex and has signed a contract with another (much more reputable) game company to publish wiz-war. I believe the target is for it come out sometime in 2010.

Thread: Re: Wiz-War for two. Our first game.

mbourgeois — 2008-10-09T02:48:32+00:00

Hope so, Kim likes the game and it's always nice to have something that she's interested in... she'd even like to try it with a group rather than just one of our stay in game nights. Could be fun having over a crowd as well.

Thread: Re: Wiz-War for two. Our first game.

kwanchai — 2008-10-09T00:51:50+00:00

it definately will only get better. love this game.

Thread: Re: GenCon 2007 - WizWar 8th at last?

Laudwic — 2008-10-08T20:45:47+00:00

Any news if this will ever get reprinted?

Thread: Wiz-War for two. Our first game.

mbourgeois — 2008-10-08T05:46:19+00:00

Karolyn was being a big goof tonight and totally drained us both down to the nubbins. We wanted a game to play that didn't tax our mental capacity overtly.

We started the ball rolling as I moved down the dungeonway. Nothing special except I played the Soulstone. Kim moved as well and we ended turn one. Turn two was same as the first for me but Kim found a teleport and popped onto my first treasure. A few more rounds would put my treasure back at her home base. Turn 3 saw me walk right up to the back of Kim and not even notice till she mentioned that are attack spells LOS and I realized that yes she was standing right next to me... warpwall and so I of course put up a Thornbush. I grabbed her treasure and then it all fell apart... I bibbled around throwing up walls trying to block her in but she was able to pass wall, powerrun and teleport again.

I like this game and next time I'll have a better write-up but god this game was fun.

Both Kim and I will play again.

Kim rates it a 7.5 but will check it in again after another game.
Mike rated it an 8 because I love the game. It can only hopefully get better.

Image

boneroller — 2008-10-03T21:02:49+00:00

More Unpublished Wiz-War Art

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Mishenka — 2008-09-27T18:31:42+00:00

One other issue we sometimes see in 2-player Wiz-War is that you can get into a situation where you are each holding one of your own treasures to prevent the other person from getting it and until one of you gets a card that forces the other player to drop the treasure, the game can drag a bit. One thought I had was to add a 5th neutral treasure to the game that counts for a win for both players. We've never tried this approach, but it sounds like it could work.

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

jgrundy — 2008-09-27T05:57:52+00:00

Thanks for the comments.

After a very small amount of dialog, we have three thoughts for two player Wiz War. Thought #1 is ... in a three or four player game it probably wouldn't be much of a problem if someone got sealed in a dead end for nine turns. Thought #2 is ... only one of the four boards has a treasure in a dead end so with two players we'll probably avoid that board. And thought #3 is ... we might consider lowering the amount of damage it takes to destroy a wall when playing two players. Not low enough to encourage people to blast walls willy nilly, but low enough to shorten the duration of imprisonment down to "several turns" instead of "the whole game".

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

kswingruber — 2008-09-27T01:18:25+00:00

[c]
[/c]]]>
...and don't forget G.O.O.T.M.U. as an
alternative, in case Wiz-War just doesn't
cut it. It's another Tom Jolly game, very
much like Wiz-War, only different!
[c]
[/c]

Image

boneroller — 2008-09-27T01:01:42+00:00

Unpublished Art. Most likely for the Chessex 6th Edition - Expansion #2

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Mishenka — 2008-09-26T23:03:14+00:00

I've actually played Wiz-War 2-player with my wife a fair number of times and most of the time it's a lot of fun. One feature we have that I think helps a lot is that our deck is heavily expanded with all official expansions plus about 100 community created cards. With such a variety of cards, even if you're stuck behind 4 walls, it usually doesn't take that long to either draw cards that do sufficient damage (Sudden Death, Shatter, etc.) or a card that lets you get out some other way (Teleport, Warp Stick, Destroy Wall, Create Door, Stone to Water, Tiny Swap, Ghost, or a number of others I'm probably forgetting). It's definitely true that in some cases the game can be one-sided, but honestly most of the games we have are pretty competitive and go down to the wire.

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Dan R. — 2008-09-26T21:16:07+00:00

If you cannot enjoy being BURIED ALIVE in a game of Wiz-War, I'm afraid you probably shouldn't be playing Wiz-War. The possibility of being BURIED ALIVE is one of the things true Wiz-War fans love.

When that wall comes down -- or, worse, when that block of stone comes down -- shake your fist at your enemy, curse his name, and desperately try to punch or blast your way out. Thankfully, if one of the players is BURIED ALIVE, the game won't really last that long.

And, honestly, there are few more satisfying ways to defeat enemy wizards in any other game in the universe than BURYING THEM ALIVE!

As you suggest, the game really only comes into its own as a multi-player free-for-all. With two players, it sometimes simply comes down to which player delivers the most crippling blow fastest.

But if you ask me, that's a pretty realistic outcome, considering what, exactly, you are simulating in this game.

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Geosphere — 2008-09-26T15:07:00+00:00

evilgit wrote:
Dungeon Twister is designed for two but the thinking involved is several magnitudes of order greater.

Not a positive thing.

Sometimes you just need stoopid.

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

evilgit — 2008-09-26T13:39:01+00:00

Umm, sell the game to me and use the proceeds to buy Dungeon Twister?
Seriously I don't think there is a good way around that type of problem for two players. I love WizWar but wouldn't play it with only two. There are countless cards that can screw the other person for a period of time. And then the other player will have free reign of the board. Sometimes all you can hope for is for the other player to win quickly so you can try again.

Dungeon Twister is designed for two but the thinking involved is several magnitudes of order greater.

Do you have any expansions or blank cards? Maybe you could tweak the deck composition some? Add a board in the middle so you are not so close to each other? Play teams of 2 wizards each?

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Imagine — 2008-09-26T13:37:56+00:00

Two Words:

That's Wiz-War!

Okay, technically, that's three words... Anyway, this just proves what makes the game so much fun to begin with: That practically anything can happen. Who knows, next time she hits you with a 12-turn slow death attack and watches you sitting on your butt hoping for teleport spells.
hehe

BTW: The same thing happened to me once, only I got WASHED in the corner by a collapsing Water Wall before getting sealed. Three turns later I got the SWAP card...

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

Geosphere — 2008-09-26T13:37:36+00:00

This type of game, Joe, is why WizWar is somewhat legendary.

You simply cannot predict what happens in the game.

Sometimes, this is a negative.

Its part of the package.

Thread: Re: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

martimer — 2008-09-26T13:16:19+00:00

Aaah, the Walled/Solidly Stoned in dilemma. Other than eliminating those cards from the deck, there is just no way around it. (ALL) card games suffer from this sort of problem - one never knows where or when in the deck some dreadful thing awaits. We once experimented with a mulligan rule wherein if you are trapped in a cave, you could ditch your ENTIRE hand (but only if drawn up to full) in the hopes of getting some damage spells. We also decided that casting Waterwall (or similar) in a cave was an instant death due to drowning.

Thread: Sealing a 2P victory with a wall - suggestions?

jgrundy — 2008-09-26T12:34:06+00:00

My wife is not yet sure whether she likes Wiz War. (In spite of this session.) Personally I'm pretty sure there's a fair chunk of fun to be got from it.

In this evening's game, my wife took the meagre five steps she needed to grab my first treasure on her first turn, but by dint of a Relocate Sector I was able to reach her on my first turn... and seal her in with a Create Wall.

During the next seven turns, she punched the wall four times, did nine points of magical damage to it, drew a Trap! and missed a turn, and in passing I dropped a Thornbush outside the wall she was bashing down while I went about my other business. On the eighth turn she cast Sudden Death (thus destroying the wall at last) and chose to simply step into the Thornbush, accepting the point of thorny damage and missing one more turn before escaping.

So with nine unencumbered turns to play with, and with gaining about an extra turn's worth of leverage from using a Drag spell to haul one of her treasures behind me down a corridor, I was just able to fetch both her treasures and bring them home. (Early on I also got a Stone that raised my hand limit, and later I got the Stone that adds one to all your number cards... though honestly I generally got very few number cards and only actually benefited from it once.)

All in all this isn't a satisfying or fun way for the game to unfold, for either player. And when my wife stepped into the dead end in the first place it didn't look feasbile for me to block her in, so it's not like it's just a matter of "don't step into a dead end if your opponent can reach you".

In a three or four player game I imagine this wouldn't matter (?) since the remaining players would still hinder each other. I know some gamers would simply say this example makes the two player game "broken", but I'm more inclined to think that either (a) more experience shows ways to avoid this situation or (b) a simple house rule would remove the possibility.

So... I am wondering if other people have house solutions or words from more experience to diminish this as a "problem"?

Thread: Re: It seems "all my worldly goods" are not enough.

rossum — 2008-09-20T18:36:01+00:00

This is why I love Wiz-War. Epic!

Thread: Re: It seems "all my worldly goods" are not enough.

jgrundy — 2008-09-20T14:30:30+00:00

Grimstax wrote:
That was a fun session report to read!Thanks!

It was fun to write. I'm glad it was fun to read as well.

Grimstax wrote:
It seems you are enjoying the game more than you did the first time. The complete randomness of WizWar can make for fiendishly one-sided (or short) games, but it is still lots of fun if you can get past that fact.Yes there really wasn't enough time or turns or meat in the first session to get a feel for it.

I don't mind "unfair" games. I play to have fun and face a challenge, not to measure myself up against my opponent/s.

Thread: Re: It seems "all my worldly goods" are not enough.

Grimstax — 2008-09-20T14:06:25+00:00

That was a fun session report to read!

It seems you are enjoying the game more than you did the first time. The complete randomness of WizWar can make for fiendishly one-sided (or short) games, but it is still lots of fun if you can get past that fact. Some who are more "competitive" think the game too random because they can't metagame the perfect strategy to win. WizWar is the epitome of a "beer and pretzels" game and you are fortunate to have latched onto a copy of this gem.

It would be great if we could get the game out of the limbo that it constantly finds itself in and get it reprinted and/or a computer version done. There used to be a version on the old TEN game subscription network that was a blast to play. You'd think SOMEONE could make a good CD-ROM out of that...

Thread: It seems "all my worldly goods" are not enough.

jgrundy — 2008-09-20T10:03:47+00:00

Hot on the heels of yesterday's really short first game we got to play a fuller game with many more turns this afternoon.

The promise of delicious chaotic silliness appears well delivered, from an almost-first-game perspective at least. We still spent the first half dozen turns making repeated reference to the rulebook over questions on the general framework of the game, but that's often the nature of this kind of "lots of arbitrary powers and items" sorts of games.

The Game

My end of our mansion had a dead end corridor in it, and I immediately conceived the notion of acquiring one of my own Treasures and secreting it away down there. I even found, about my person, an obstructing sort of spell, albeit only a Thornbush (destroyable with 5 points of damage) so off I went. My wife chose to pursue me personally rather than covet my other treasure to start (as if "all my worldly goods" were not enough for her) but after a little jostling about I managed to achieve my objective. I will say... I of course love my wife dearly. On this occassion I'd say she seemed glowing and radiant to me as her Lightning-stunned statuesque figure adorned the halls behind me while I popped the treasure in its cul-de-sac and magically engendered a Thornbush in front of it. Chalk one up for the good guy.

(Only one point of damage to her though.)

A most unusual arcane artifact came into my possession at this time, in the form of a Visionstone, which I found enabled me to see through walls and spy on my wife. Apart from other obvious uses any gentleman would put such a device to (ahem) I held great anticipation at the prospect of pottering along the corridors on the other side of the wall from my wife and tossing spells at her.

But, gentlemen, let this be a stern warning to you! "Don't cross your wife." (Not before she's had a chance to cross you anyway.) "Hell hath no fury like a woman", and her hellish Fireball (which destroyed my Visionstone, alas) was followed soon after with a mortal blow as she reigned down Sudden Death upon me. My usual robust vigour abandoned me and I found myself twitching on the floor with a miserable and meagre 2 health points left (out of my starting 15). Thus, even without the entertaining Visionstone, I would spend the rest of the day as much as possible skulking behind walls in a cowardly demeanour which I admit is rather unbefitting of a wizard of my mighty station.

No doubt you are eager to apprehend the final outcome of this sordid affair. And surprisingly (given my feeble state) it was many turns later before there was a conclusion to it. Along the way, I'd chanced upon a Create Wall spell and toyed with the notion of trapping my wife near the "dead end" along with my treasure, but the presence of a door along that section of corridor (even a locked door) swayed my thinking and instead I further secured my treasure from her grasp by closing the dead end between her and it. We'd also had an intriguing situation of a Dagger thrown into the other Thornbush. And there was the attempt I made, mid contest I may say, to Powerthrust her with 7 potency AND a double damage, which would have claimed her 14 health points on the spot, but she became Invisible and I missed the chance. Not to mention my long-thwarted intent to use a Drop Object spell to claim a magic stone from her at some point... thwarted because she insisted on repeatedly discarding the blessed things instead of, as any good wife should, putting them to good use trying to defeat her husband.

But "the end" unfolded in the following manner.

I had, at least, managed to lay my hands upon one of her treasure hordes and by jamming a door behind me and running like the blazes I had brought it to my gentleman's den. But she knew of other corridors and came around a different way. Here, at last, after so many failed attempts, I managed to get a spell through on her and it caused her to become magically impotent for five (!) turns. I had also recently learned the secret of creating Solid Stone from mere air, and thus closed the corridor between us. So back we ran in our different ways to where her second cache of treasure was still waiting, and we arrived with me almost out of breath (only a 3 number card left in my hand for further running) and her still unable to invoke her fiendish magical arts for another turn. She was still five steps away as I gathered her treasure into my arms, and with a few twists of the corridor to hide me all I needed would be to get my second wind to outdistance her.

So I dropped the Dagger I was still carrying, along with dropping some other inconsequential thing I don't recall, to enable me to rummage for something that would aid me (ie so I could draw two more cards).

The first thing I found, presumably tucked away in a forgotten pocket somewhere, was another scroll to Create Wall.

This was indeed the break I needed... and would enable me to seal the corridor between us along with her fate in one fell swoop!

The second thing I found (second replenish card I drew) was a Trap!

The trap left me stunned for one turn, during which time my wife reconnected with her sources of magical power, and fried me promptly with another Fireball.

So here I sit, watching from the shadow-world as my wife enjoys the fruits of her evil deeds wallowing in the wealth she has unjustly acquired.

But the good thing about being a wizard of untold arcane power is, even after death there will be another chance for my revenge!

Thread: Re: Is Wizardblade multiple attacks in one turn?

jgrundy — 2008-09-19T23:33:48+00:00

martimer wrote:
... You can make multiple attacks in a turn... what!?martimer wrote:
...(if you play a card(s) that permits such)Oh. Startled me for a moment there.

Thread: Re: Is Wizardblade multiple attacks in one turn?

rossum — 2008-09-19T18:43:04+00:00

By all means, Martin- the fifth edition card reads "Does NO damage without a NUMBER card."

I stand corrected. Teach me for talking about Wiz-War without cards in front of me!

Thread: Re: "Display when used" - leave face up on table?

martimer — 2008-09-19T18:31:35+00:00

rossum wrote:
what's the difference between a ROSEBUSH and a THORNBUSH, or what the heck happens with a PIT, etc.

Thornbush comes with the original game and Rosebush is a card in the expansion that I "designed" for the game. I requested it to make the game "prettier" and get more girls to play...