Wiz-War

Wiz-War

In Wiz-War, wizards wage no-spells-barred magical duels deep in an underground labyrinth. This classic board game of magical mayhem for 2-4 players, created by Tom Jolly in 1983, pits players’ wizards against each other in a stupendous struggle for magical mastery. Win by stealing other wizards’ treasures and hauling them back to your base, or just score points by blasting the other wizards. The last wizard standing always wins.

Staying true to the spirit of the game that has entertained players for years, as well inspiring an entire genre of games, this 2011 edition of Wiz-War caters to the imagination and the funny bone. Casting an enriched array of spells, your wizards race through an underground maze, avoiding fireballs, werewolves, and psychic storms. Subtle game enhancements by Kevin Wilson and Tom Jolly promote faster play and clarify card effects.

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SU&SD Play… Wiz-War and Malefic Curses!

SU&SD Play... Wiz-War and Malefic Curses!

You there! Browsing the internet without a care in the world. Don’t you know there’s a war on?!

…It was a Wiz-War, technically, and it took place this week in Quinns’ flat, but still! Show some respect. This venerable old game was originally released in the 1980s, and the new, eighth edition is a cardboard monument to EVERYTHING that was wrong, and right, with game design at the time.

It’s complex, yet stupid. Competitive, yet unfair. But with the right people? There’s a very real magic to it, and that’s why we had to film this video. Plus, it was a chance to test the new expansion, Wiz-War: Malefic Curses.

WARNING: This is unquestionably the most swearing we’ve ever had in a video. Sensitive viewers? You may want to wear ear muffs.

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Viticulture

Viticulture

In Viticulture, the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meager vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success.

The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There’s competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers.

Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful.

Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures and planting vines (vine cards) and filling wine orders (wine order cards), players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.

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Review: Viticulture

Review: Viticulture

Quinns: Readers with their finger on the pulse (of strategic wine-making board games) might be aware of this Kickstarter for Tuscany: Expand the World of Viticulture. Totaling $277,258 at the time of writing, it offers a copy of the much hyped Viticulture, unavailable since the first Kickstarter in 2012, as well as a new, massive Tuscany expansion.

In other words I finally have a reason to review the ludicrously heavy copy of Viticulture which Stonemaier Games sent me a year ago, before triumphantly flinging it out of my window, killing a passerby in my desperation to get it out of my life.

OR WILL I? As you’d imagine from Viticulture’s continued bobbing atop the public consciousness like chunks of cork in a bottle, this game’s really very good.

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Daft Souls is a new gaming podcast! With us!

Daft Souls is a new gaming podcast! With us!

Quinns: Sound the competence klaxon! Matt and myself have a quick announcement. We’ve joined forces with a few other UK games writer luminaries to create DAFT SOULS, a new weekly podcast about video games! And much like SU&SD, it has the single, lofty goal of not being shit.

So if you like SU&SD and you do play video games, give the first episode a listen. Underneath your seat you’ll find the iTunes page, SoundCloud, RSS feed, and even Youtube. Oh, and you can follow Daft Souls on Twitter here.

It’s kind of amazing how good a job Matt and I do of seeming like we’re not hurtling towards 30 when we’re talking about cool games like Luftrausers, Dark Souls 2 and Heroes of the Storm. And no, this doesn’t mean we’ll be spending any less time on this site or the SU&SD podcast. We’ll be revealing a similar refurbishment of our own podcast in just a couple of weeks.

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Terror in Meeple City

Rampage

In the game of Terror in Meeple City players each control one of the four monsters and their objective is to cause the most damage to the city while eating the Meeple citizens.

Each turn consists of choosing two actions to complete. These actions include: Movement, Attack a Building, Hurl a truck, or Monster Breath. Eating Meeples does not take an action, however, players are limited each turn by the number of teeth their monster has remaining.

The game ends when the buildings are destroyed. Buildings, Meeples eaten, and the Other Monster’s Teeth are worth points. To be victorious, players will need to use a combination of dexterity, planning, and luck.

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Review: Rampage

Review: Rampage

Quinns: A lot of you guys said you were really excited about Rampage, and it’s easy to see why. A game of destroying a real-life three dimensional city? AND enjoy misadventures with real-life spit? Sold!

I just gave my review to the mighty Eurogamer. It starts like this…

In Rampage, everybody plays a big, stompy kaiju monster, and the game ends when you’ve all levelled a town. Like a board game from the ’80s (think of the merciless TV advertising, the photogenic kids shouting and high-fiving), a game of Rampage starts by offering you an immaculate, three-dimensional city, and wants you to delight in knocking it over. At the end of the game, the player who caused the most destruction to the city, its inhabitants and the other monsters is the winner.

And then, like the lashing of a great monster tail, the review goes on to have not one, but TWO separate twists. Go have a read, people! And definitely don’t write this one off as too silly for you. It has a lizard brain to it, full of animal cunning.

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Games News! 24/03/14

D-Day Landings

Quinns: Guys. GUYS. Before I went to bed last night I said a little prayer to the Gods of Gaming. I asked for a very special game to be announced.

I wanted a game from Bruno Cathala, the designer of Shadows Over Camelot and Cyclades, where the players all control wizened undersea lords. A game of politicking and pushing your luck, where you can ally with crabs, control the algae trade and stockpile pearls. A game with beautiful art that’s at once ridiculous, otherworldly and beautiful.

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.

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Skull

Skull

Skull is the quintessence of bluffing, a game in which everything is played in the players’ heads. Each player plays a face-down card, then each player in turn adds one more card – until someone feels safe enough to state that he can turn a number of cards face up and get only roses. Other players can then overbid him, saying they can turn even more cards face up. The highest bidder must then turn that number of cards face up, starting with his own. If he shows only roses, he wins; if he reveals a skull, he loses, placing one of his cards out of play. Two successful challenges wins the game.

Skull & Roses is not a game of luck; it’s a game of poker face and meeting eyes.

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The Opener: Skull & Roses with Fresh Pizza

The Opener: Skull & Roses with Fresh Pizza

We end Simplicity Week with a bang, and the bang in question comes from you executing your friends, one after another.

Skull & Roses is the game Matt’s reviewing here, although throughout the review he calls it Skulls and Roses, and actually, the new, gorgeous edition is just called “Skull”.

But never mind our charming incompetence! This isn’t just one of the simplest games we’ve ever played. It’s one of our favourite games, period. And just to make sure your friends come over and get involved, Matt’s also going to teach you the single darkest secret known to SU&SD. How to “make” “pizza”.

But what if I were to tell you that for the next Opener, we’re planning something even better? Ah, it’s a good time to be a board gamer. A very good time.

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