Now that SPI is gone and Avalon Hill became a sub division of Hasbro, only companies like GMT or Decision Games are making games for those hardcore war-gamers out there. But there is a company which is enjoying a big support from not only those grognards but also the euro-gamers. It's Columbia Games.
The games of Columbia Games are very popular because of the comparatively low complexity and the sophisticated Fog of War system. And the play time plays an essential role too. For example, all their WWII Front series games have both serious 3~4 hour scenarios and shorter, simpler introductory scenarios. You can also connect all the Front series games together to play the whole ETO (European Theater of Operation) over dozens, no hundreds of hours in greatest detail. On the other hand, games like Hammer of the Scots(which is quite popular in Korea, too) plays in about 2 hours, which is not bad at all even compared to average euro-games, thus reaching out to a wider range of gamers.
Wizard Kings is a fantasy war-game which utilizes the famous blocks of war system of Columbia Games. The basic game contains one playable scenario, but they sell additional armies and maps you can combine with the basic set, making the game a multiplayer war-game. This is quite reasonable expandability I think.
All the good points about Wizard Kings are those about the blocks of the war system, so I will have to explain how the system works. The block system uses wooden blocks of roughly 2cm by 2cm size as counters. You put a sticker which shows information about the unit on one side of the block. Players put the blocks in such a direction that only he can see the sticker side. Thus you cannot know which block is which unit (a la Stratego). This implements the fog of war quite nicely and simply. It also describes the status of the units in more detailed way. Traditional war-games use hardboard counters, so you can represent two statuses of a unit with both sides of the counter(for an instance, normal and damaged). On the other hand, the block system has the status of units along the four edges of the block, and you put the block down so that current status is the upper side of the block. So we have 4 statuses instead of 2 now. In many ways, this block system is a huge improvement in war-games implementation.
The basic game of Wizard Kings has two armies (Orcs and Elves) and four maps. Maps connect in any direction, so you can connect them to make a board of any size. Players build their armies with certain number of GP (Gold Points). You can make any combination of army you like. Each races has unique units, and the units have different abilities according to their values. So some strategical plans are needed from the beginning of the game.
Each turns is composed of 4 phases. In phase 1 you roll two dice for the initiative. Phase 2 is movement. Players in turn move all their units they want to move - if units move into enemy hexes, combat is initiated. Movement is affected by terrain. Some units get bonus movement points according to the terrain. Flying units ignore any terrain effects. All units get bonus movement points if and only if they move along the roads from the beginning to the end of the movement. There is also the concept of hex-side limits when you want to go into a battle hex, which may be a little unfamiliar to some of you but are actually quite common in wargames. There is a limit to the number of units you can move into battle hexes through a hex-side in a turn. That means you cannot just move as many units as you want in a single movement to the battle hexes.
Phase 3 is combat. Units roll as many dice as their current strengths, and hit if the number is equal or lower than their attack values. The speed of units are different from each other, so some units fire before other units do. Units can retreat to adjacent hexes instead of attacking.
Phase 4 is build. Players get GPs according to the cities they have, and they can use the points to build new units or repair damaged ones. There is no supply line in Wizard Kings. The goal of the basic game is to get 15GPs (players start the game with 10GPs).
There are wizards in each race, which adds up to the variety of the races. Each race has different spells which wizards can use in movement or combat at the cost of their strengths. In combat, wizards cast spells before any units fire.
The most attractive feature of Wizard Kings is its expandability and openness. While the basic game is a conflict over 15 GPs, you can browse various user created scenarios in the Wizard Kings page of Columbia Games. Scenarios range from carrying a secret good over the map to conquering a specific city. Replayability is guaranteed I guess.
Wizard Kings has all the basic concepts of block system war-games under its quite simple rule set, so I highly recommend this as an introductory game to Columbia Games war-games. In fact games like Hammer of the Scots, or even the much more complex games like East Front of Pacific Victory have similar rules regarding combat or supply. It's simple but it's not to be overlooked - it has enough depth for those serious war-gamers in its strategy of army building and tactical operations.
One disturbing thing is that Columbia Games decided to sell their games only through their website last year, and this decision made it even harder to get their games in Korea - it's already hard enough to get war-games in Korea. If you can get your hand on this game, make sure you play it.
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© Copyright 2004 by George Phillies.
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