Wizard Kings

A war game played in a fantasy setting
From: Columbia Games
Reviewed by: Marc Shayed


Wizard Kings is a new fantasy war game from Columbia Games. Using their familiar block systems for their war games, Columbia Games have created a new exciting game that can handle up to seven players, each in command of a different army of fantasy creatures or heroes.

From the website:
“Wizard Kings is an exciting fantasy battle game with armies of elves, dwarves, orcs, undead, and three human armies (feudal, barbarian, amazon). Players customize their armies and fight for control of strategic cities and terrain on geomorphic maps. Wizard Kings 2nd edition is a highly anticipated re-release of the sold-out 1st edition.

The new version is multi-player out of the box. A collectible expansion blockset has been released at the same time.

Wizard Kings 2nd edition includes 4 new maps which are compatible with existing maps from the first edition. There are many new unit types and artwork, although first edition units remain valid for play.”

Like other “block” war games, all the playing pieces are colored wooden blocks with a label on one side that describes the unit. Each unit is labeled with its “to-hit” value (target number on D6), a “build” cost, and then has its strength listed as 1-4. The block is rotated so that its current strength is on top. This allows players to bluff their battle strength, and keep their weakness secret until battle.

There are seven individual Armies (and numerous inexpensive expansions), and each has a very different feel and an interesting variety of units available. Different unit types have a variety of strengths that range in use and theme. The units range from powerful units like “Trolls” and “Minotaurs”, slow-moving units like “Treeks”, to the fast units like “Unicorns” and “Varghan”, to the flying units like “Shakla” and “Pikies”, to the extraordinarily powerful (and adequately expensive) units like “Ice Dragons” and “Demons”. The strategies tend to revolve around choosing the best units for your army, when to deploy them, and what other units should be deployed with them. All units are marked with their native to terrain types, which allows players to actually make use of the terrain to help their cause and battles.

Each army seeks to control the cities on the maps. Each city is valued in a number of “gold pieces”. These gold pieces are spending in the “build” phase of play to refresh and expand your armies. Each game will have a preset number of gold pieces/cities that need to be controlled to win the game. In a two-player game that number is fifteen gold pieces in cities, and that number goes up when more maps and players are involved.

So… what does Marc really think? This is a fun game that has a reasonable set up and learn time. The rules book is pretty clear, and explains the game well and there is also outstanding on-line support and content at Columbia Game’s websites, as well as plenty of scenario and variable play that the game plays out differently each time.

Where this game comes up short (only a little) is in only one area: Play length – While having a long game isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I have found that many of the games of Wizard Kings that I and my play-testers have played can take a lot longer to play out… a lot longer than expected to play to completion. I have played games that have lasted almost 5 hours. That’s a bit too long when looking for a shorter two to three hour game.

Above all I suggest you judge for yourselves. Check out Columbia Games and their new fantasy war game Wizard Kings at their websites http://www.WizardKings.com and http://www.ColumbiaGames.com …and of course at all of your local game stores!

Wizard Kings
From: Columbia Games
Type of Game: Fantasy War Game
Game Components Included: 4 geomorphic maps, 7 Armies: Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Undead, Barbarians, Feudals, Amazons, Wizard Kings Rules, 4 dice
Retail Price: $ 49.99 (US)
Number of Players: 2-7
Player Ages: 12+
Play Time: 2-3 hours
Item Number: 8501
Websites: www.ColumbiaGames.com & www.WizardKings.com
Review Score: 9 out of 10 points (4.5 stars)


Reviewed by: Marc Shayed
Review Editor
http://www.GamingReport.com

Added: May 18th 2008
Reviewer: Marc Shayed
Score:
Related Link: Columbia Games
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Language: eng