Among the titles Fantasy Flight Games announced at Gen Con this year are a rerelease of a classic and a new addition to the Twilight Imperium setting which is a revamp of yet another long out of print, highly sought after game. First up is the 1980s Tom Jolly design, Wiz-War.
From FFG:
Deep in a magical, underground labyrinth, wizards scheme to steal each other’s treasures while protecting their own. Armed with an arsenal of spells as limitless as their imaginations, they venture forth, ready to duel each other at the drop of a tall, pointy hat…
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to herald the triumphant return of Wiz-War, the classic board game of magical mayhem for 2-4 players!
Players each control a wizard and begin the game with two treasures near their home base, which they must shield from the greedy clutches of competing wizards. The first wizard to score two points wins, and wizards score points by hauling opposing wizards’ treasures back to their bases, or by eliminating their opposition via an onslaught of fireballs, psychic storms, blasts of zot!, and other magical might. Of course, if you’re the last wizard standing, victory is yours.
Originally created by Tom Jolly in 1983, Wiz-War draws upon a rich tradition of entertainment and gameplay that has delighted players for decades and helped spark the introduction of an entire genre of hobby gaming. Now, veteran game designer Kevin Wilson has worked with Tom Jolly to add new spells and enhance the game through a series of subtle refinements that promote faster game play and clarify card effects.
Through these revisions, Wiz-War remains true to its roots as a light-hearted and imaginative game in which wizards can cast fireballs, create rose bushes from thin air, manipulate gravity, and turn themselves into slime.
Players create a labyrinth from maze boards, and their turns each follow a short sequence in which their wizards can move, cast spells, and make a single attack. Within this snappy turn sequence, though, lies a plethora of potential for poetic play.
Spells each belong to one of four types–attacks, counters, items, and neutrals. Each spell also belongs to one of seven schools of magic–cantrips, alchemy, conjuring, elemental, mentalism, mutation, and thaumaturgy. While all wizards who enter the labyrinth can recite their cantrips backward and forward, each game offers a different mix of the other schools of magic. This mixture means that players constantly discover new interactions between different spells and schools of magic. Fire magic can destroy magic stones, but a well-timed flood can put out the sparks of flame before they consume precious items.
Wiz-War rewards creative and spontaneous play, often with humorous results. When two or more wizards confront each other in this spell spectacular, anything can happen… and often does!
Look for Wiz-War to appear on store shelves in the fourth quarter of 2011. While you wait to procure your copy, keep an eye our website for previews and other magical delights related to this breathtaking board game of battling casters!
The second game, which we have very little information about, is Rex: Final Days of an Empire. All we know for sure is that it will be a reworking of the Avalon Hill classic Dune. When we first saw some of the components at Gen Con, we assumed that this was a space combat game and then we learned that this is what for all purposes will be Dune for the 21st century. Obviously, the acquisition of the rights for the Dune license was not in the plans for FFG so another option, outside of a straight reprint, would be to utilize the classic game’s mechanics instead.
Rather than create an all new back story for Rex, FFG will replace the various factions of Dune with those of the Twilight Imperium setting.
This is a title we’ll be keeping an eye out for and as we learn more, we’ll be sure to get the information out asap!
Rex: Final Days of an Empire should be released in fourth quarter 2011.
