Against the Undead in Wizard Kings

While back in the UK over the Christmas break, I dug out Wizard Kings again. I was newly enthused because I had managed to get hold of new maps and some of the expansion packs that I have not previously seen on sale round these parts. This turned out to be a game changer. Literally!

The basic Wizard Kings set is nice, but it always felt a bit limited. You get eight blocks for each army, which is enough to get started, but it constrains your choices quite heavily. Having the Heroes and Treasures boxes has expanded my armies massively, and given me the opportunity to personalise them. Heroes and Treasures contains new units for each army and also chaos creatures that can be stuck to any type of block. You are not limited here and it really comes down to what suits you thematically. Suddenly, Wizard Kings feels like a complete game where the boxed game feels more like a taster set.

Getting the extra maps was cool too. The maps are mostly geomorphic. There are a few limitations but not many, and now I can have a lot more variety in my battlefields.

The Elven task force has made a beachhead on Undead Island

All enthused by the new bits, I set up the solitaire training scenario from the basic game to see if my Elves could defeat the Undead and wrest control of the island from them. The Elves have to fly over and take control of a port so that the rest of their force can sail over. Then they need to take out the Undead capital, all within a turn limit. The undead have a very basic AI that sees them moving towards the Elves if they get within two hexes. As all the cities are two hexes from each other, that means that the cities get reinforced quickly by nearby undead. The key to winning seems to be gaming this AI so that the undead move to attack one of your forces, while another one then swoops in to take the city. It's an interesting challenge. The game was close but I succeeded, so this is obviously a great game. Now all I need to do is find an opponent willing to play me at it so that I can test out the rest of the stuff.

I also wonder about using the maps to create fantasy wargame campaign maps. The maps and the blocks could be used for manoeuvring at the campaign level, and it would save on drawing my own maps. We'll have to see about that as I have little opportunity for a larger fantasy wargame campaign at the moment, unless I set it up solo or run it online.