Piss Fight - A review of Wiz-War and it's expansions.

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Great article about a wonderful game, JonJacob. I think you're 100% correct about the necessity of player elimination in the game and the reasons for that necessity.

One criticism of the game that I do not understand is that "it's random!" one that you allude to. Granted Wiz-War revels in mayhem and excess, but what card game doesn't have that random element? If I'm approaching an enemy wizard who is acting strangely fearless, and I have noticed that they've never had fewer than two cards in their hand, well guess what? I shouldn't be surprised when they "randomly" throw out a counter to my counter to their counterspell! That would be like getting butthurt when I'm playing Texas Hold'em and holy cow, that opponent draws to a straight flush. The randomness!!!

In a game like Wiz-War you definitely delight in creating or watching amazing combinations, but you'd better be playing your opponents too or else you'll continue to be shocked by the chaos and randomness far more than your opponents are. Strange how that can happen...

Yes, JJ, Yes! You nailed everything I really dig about this game. My only complaint I have is that there should be a variant where I can summon Big Man and have him last more than 2 turns. That's some weak game design bullshit right there.

Most of the "optional" rules were not optional at all in the older editions.

"Deadly Treasures", wherein you lose if both of your treasures are down on opponent bases is one of those, and I strongly consider it not optional.

There is no reason to play defense without it, and it drastically changes the game. Obviously this game's a little close to my heart, but it's a fine review. I can nitpick for days about versions and changes, but there's no need. It's proven itself fun in many different ways and across a lot of printings and variants.

Also, there must be some sort of in-joke I'm missing, because Big Man has always been a duration=number spell, so you can power that sucker up with whatever your best Energy card is.

Go big, stay big.

Thanks everyone, this is my first review in a long time and I'm still not sure how to go about writing them. The couple I wrote before kind of sucked and I'm still trying to find my feet. But I'm going to try and go through some of the games I've played a lot and get a little something together for F:AT if I can. I even have a few other ideas that I don't think anyones touched before... shhhhh.

Feelitmon - Great point about playing the players in this... I should have mentioned that but I'm glad you did it. That is a quality I find in most of my favourite games. Thanks for bringing it up.

Doc - It's your copy I've been playing so thanks not only for that but just for being a cool gamer dude in general.

Not Sure - I've never played any other edition of this game and you made me realize that I should have made that disclaimer at the beginning of the review. This is a reasonably old game and that deserves to be stated. This review is strictly about the FFG version and nothing more... and there is an in-joke about Big Man going on. Whenever Doc plays him someone (usually me) cancels him right away... occasionally he lasts a turn before being cancelled but he's never really got to use him. None of us have actually it's the curse of big man in our lunch group.

What side of the board do you guys think is better for 4 players?

-still a newb

I'd be interested to know everyone's standard "optional" rules. I'm our resident Dr. Orpheus (the title given to the last winner of our semi-regular games of Wiz-War; next one tonight!)

We play with:
Both expansions and all the cards, but we did thin out the number of counters and shields in the deck, such that there are only 1 or 2 of each (we like our games bloody and it tends to get frustrating when you pull off that bouncing lightning bolt through a wall and someone stops it with a shield spell every time...)
Permanent objects that don't need to be maintained (Uncluttered Minds.) So if you make a wall, it's a wall and it remains until someone destroys it and it doesn't take up part of your hand.

I am also an advocate of using all the optional rules in the back of the rulebook. The only caveat of that is that Bestial Forces does rely on a lot of different card interactions that call upon the other cards in that expansion. Bestial Forces remains woefully underplayed by me (the game has a bad rap among my Texas friends), but the times I have played I have used the FFG setup to get more synergies with the cards. Do you still get some of that when playing with all the cards in one giant brick?

Also, I almost always use the old version of the map tiles (side B?). It has more straightaways and makes the players slightly less mobile, so that it's harder to avoid stuff.

We've never run into problems playing with all of the cards. We still get tons of interactions and weird combinations. However, as with the counters and shields, we did take out a couple copies of the Bestial Forces card that lets you look through the deck until you find a creature, since there are only six creatures in the rather large deck. It just took too long. Creatures are a rare (and powerful) enough addition that, when they do turn up, it's exciting and unusual enough to still make it worthwhile, even if it's rarer than it would be while playing with a smaller deck.

So is this on for the next Trashfest NW? I ain't coming out to play no Mysterium (or whatever the hell the Czech name was)!

Also, nice review JJ!

I can't believe I've never played this. I've got to get on that!

In terms of what board side we prefer, I honestly don't have a preference.

For our main deck, we use the white hand and three random decks. There seems to be a better chance of getting more of the environmental reliant decks ( looking at you Totems) in play, that could be lost in a bigger deck.

I've also played 2-5 player games to equal enjoyment. This game is pretty robust and can be tailored to players' tastes with little to no chance of breaking it. That says a lot to me.

Almalik wrote: So is this on for the next Trashfest NW? I ain't coming out to play no Mysterium (or whatever the hell the Czech name was)!

Also, nice review JJ!

It will be, if you come out next year.

Great article that makes me want to get this game out again.

Sorry to be a nitpicking pain, but watch those incorrect apostrophes - "it's" in the title, "combo's", "it’s objectives" and "DoaM’s".

I know, I know, but it drives me nuts and marrs the flow of the reading for me.