Epic Spell Wars of Battle Mages
Cryptozoic Games has several tabletop diversions in its stable, including one based on AMC’s wildly popular Walking byadvertising franchise, as well as the popular World of warcraft trading card game. It was the ridiculously titled Epic Spell Wars of Battle Mages: Duel on Mount Skullzfyre which recently caught my eye.
The game is played with two to six people, each of whom takes on the role of a battle mage, such as Fey Ticklebottom the Enchanter or Krazztar the Blood’o’mancer. Usually I try to claim Princess Holiday and her Furicorn (judging from the art, that’s short for “raging unicorn”). There are no special abilities applied to a particular wizard (sometimes I like to pretend I’m a princess), and regardless of who you play with, there’s only one goal: Eliminate all other battle wizards and be the last wizard standing! !
If you want to take out your competition, you will have to cast some spells, so here is the breakdown. Spells are made up of three different component types: a source, a quality component, and the delivery. However, it is not necessary to include one of each component to cast a spell; You could cast a spell made up of just a Source and a Delivery. However, you cannot cast spells with more than one of each component type. For example, a spell with two Sources is illegal.
Once all players have determined the spell they are casting for the round, all players announce the number of cards in their spell to determine which spell resolves first. Spells made up of a component will be cast before a two-card spell, which in turn will resolve before any three-card spell. Often times, more than one player will cast a three-card spell in a given round. If this is the case, and more than one player casts three card spells, initiative is determined by a number on the Surrender card. The greater the initiative, the sooner you will act.
Once the order of play for the round is determined, the Battle Wizards then reveal their card (s) and announce their Source to Delivery spell in their best wizard voice. For example, “Sir Lootzor’s (Source) Mysterious (Quality) Power Vortex (Delivery)”. The spell components are then resolved in order (origin, quality, delivery), and the player follows the text of each card. There are beneficial effects like healing or gaining treasure, but most spells have to do with dealing damage. Spell components also come in different flavors such as Dark, Ancient, etc., which are easily marked with a glyph in the lower left corner of the card. Combining these types of spells will often make your spells stronger. In the example above, all three components have arcane magic glyphs, so when resolving the Power Vortex card text, the player rolled three dice to determine the effectiveness of the spells. When all players have cast their spells, a new casting round begins. Wild Magic cards add a bit of randomness to the mix, allowing players to play one instead of a Source, Quality, or Delivery card, and then draw from the deck until they get a matching component to complete. They are very useful when you don’t have a particular type of card in your hand.
Once a wizard dies, he immediately loses all the cards in his hand, any treasure he has collected, and begins drawing Dead Wizard cards. Once a wizard determines the last wizard standing, he receives a token and a new round begins. Each Dead Wizard card grants a boon to start the new round. This helps balance things out if you die especially at the beginning of a round. The overall winner of the game is the first player to collect two Last Wizard Standing tokens.
Epic Spell Wars it’s entertaining, but not too deep. While there is a certain strategy for composing your spells, after a couple of games you will be able to easily recognize your best choices from the cards in your hand. While it won’t offer the complexity of other games, the imaginative artwork and obvious humor of Epic Spell Wars still makes for a fun addition to any table player’s rotation. Pick it up at your local Slackers today!