From: RWalenciak Subject: Re: AH Reviews V-Z (Wizard's Quest, a little long) In a message dated 5/26/98 11:37:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ezbanter@qni.com writes: > Wizards At last, an AH game I feel like commenting on! (The only other one I currently own is Storm over Arnhem, but I've never got around to playing it.) There are a lot of interesting rules in this game, and I hope you don't mind if I comment on a bunch of them: Wizards Quest is a great game for a group of people (6 max) that plays pretty much like Risk, adding modifiers to combat for terrain such as castles, mountains, woods, and cross-river/thru-tunnel (!) defense, as well as leader- type benefits for 1 sorccerer and 1 hero who each cost the equivalent of 2 men in reinforcement points. There is also the ability to pull units in from adjacent territories during an attack in order to reinforce an attack that may not be going well. It's a good intro to wargaming in that sense, imho, as it helps you to master many of the concepts that we commonly use in hex-based wargames. The game can take varying amounts of time; I've won on my first move (the Wizard blessed me with some extra attack cards and boat card, and my opponent misplaced one of my treasures.... described later), and I've had games last for hours. The game map is an island divided into 6 sections each of which is further sub-divided into 6 areas. Each section also has a castle that's sort of a home base. (There is also a tunnel connecting one of the northern-most to one of the southern-most areas.) Placement is like Risk, with each player claiming one area going in turn until none are left. Reinforcements are given based on strings of contiguous areas (longer than 4, I believe, which isn't so easy), so placement means something. There is also a "7th" player, called the Orcs, that attack adjacent players when they frenzy (4 or more in an area) starting with the lowest numbered adjacent territory and attacking clockwise until defeated or spent. Since the Orcs attack at the start of each player turn, the game goes faster for 3 players than it does for 6 (less figuring what the Orcs do.) Each player has a set of 3 treasures and a blank treasure counter; these are placed on the map by an opposing player (interesting strategy choices: put your opponent's treasure in your castle and defend it? Put it in someone else's castle/area and hope they will defend it? Put it at the farthest point away?) Each player therefore has the goal of fighting thru the map area by area and eventually conquering the areas containing his treasures. As you conquer an area you can move as many of your men in as you want, leaving at least 1 behind to "garrison" the area you attacked from. Combat is simultaneous and "bloody", based on the number of units the attacker and defender have. For example, if I have 4 units attacking your 2, we each roll one die; on a roll of 1-4 I kill that many of yours, while on a roll of 1-2 you kill that many of mine. Then, the attacker can continue the attack or quit. There is a limit of 4 as the upper range, even if you have more units in the area. However, the sorccerer adds 2 to the upper limit and the hero adds 1. So, a sorccerer and 4 units guarantees you a "kill" no matter what you roll. (Actually, to make it more interesting and magical, units defeated by a sorccerer are not removed from the map, but are placed in any other territory occupied by that player.... a great way to build up forces guarding someone else's treasure!) There are cards that affect the play of your turn. Normally, you are guaranteed to get some reinforcements and allowed to make one attack. The cards take away your reinforcements or give you more, give you an extra attack, give you boat privileges for cross river attacks with no penalty, or allow you to move an opponents treasure! Some are played immediately, some can be held for a future turn. This is a great game for non-wargamers. I've had so many people play: my wife (who hates wargames and even Risk), my sister-in-laws (one of whom went out and bought her own copy; the other has a great killer instinct and subsequently got into an all night Axis & Allies game with her brother and I), my mother-in-law, brother, other in-laws, friends, neighbors, etc. Another gamer posted house rules and solitaire rules a while back (maybe to consim-l); I could probably forward them to anyone who was interested. Ron