Hand Management

"Join the Convocation of Wizards in battle against the ancient enemy - The Fallen! Do you have what it takes to become the next Grand Siege Magus?"

In Wizard’s Gambit, players become wizards who take turns placing Magical Components on Spells in a common Spell Pool in the center of the play area.

When all of the required Magical Components have been placed on a given Spell, the wizard who completed that Spell claims it as their own, creating a Spell Book face up in front of them. Once the Spell is added to their Spell Book, a wizard may immediately apply the effects of the Spell, giving him more power to defeat his competitors.

Wizards can further affect the course of play by casting Incantation cards during their turn, which can provide advantages in playing the game. Additionally, wizards can invoke the highest power, the Wizard’s Gambit, to thwart other wizard competitors and increase their chance of claiming powerful Spells for their own.

Each Spell has a point value, which adds up cumulatively to represent their Spell Book’s score. The first wizard to reach a Spell point total of ten (10) points wins the game and is proclaimed Grand Siege Magus.

Wizard's Gambit is a light-hearted game for the casual gamer and for family play.

Players place track and cities, create routes, and deliver goods. Bonuses are awarded to players who deliver multiple types of goods. This game requires careful management of steam to move your train as well as hand management to thwart other players as well as enable your own route.

500 copies manufactured for Essen 2008.

Days of Steam is #5 in the Valley Games Modern Line

Game description from the publisher:

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.

Re-implements:

Wiz-War

(This entry is separate from Wiz-War based on reports from the designer that the new edition has expanded components and significant rules changes; it's also easier to merge two games that are the same than split two games in one listing that turn out to be different.)

Description from BoardgameNews.com:

Dragons, knights, trolls, princesses, dwarves, and other fantasy characters make up the world of Drachenherz. Dragons are searching for treasure, of course, but they're being pursued by dragon hunters, and those are the two sides that face off in this game. On a turn, a player plays one or more cards with the same motif, then refills his hand to five cards. The cards are always played onto the part of the gameboard that has the same motif. By laying out cards, one collects point cards that are already present. This is how a dragon collects treasure cards – but the third dragon hunter defeats the dragon, while a second knight protects the princess. Other combinations await the players, and whoever collects the most points wins.

Drachenherz is part of the Kosmos two-player series.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)
Board Game Arena (real-time)
BrettspielWelt (real-time)

Here's a description of the game from Phalanx Games:

In the late 18th century, the fast growing population of the emerging United States of America showed an increasing interest in the Wild West. Millions of poor immigrants were arriving from Europe, and the population of cities on the East Coast swelled enormously. Endless plains and huge mountain ranges – thinly populated by Native Americans and rich in game, farmland and minerals - started luring large numbers of them. Settlers traveled in wagon trains, and established themselves ever further west until they finally reached California and the Pacific coast.

The players represent shrewd businessmen who benefit from passing wagon trains, continuously moving westward across the North American continent. It is divided into huge vertical tracts of land: New England, the East Coast, the Great Plains, the Midwest, the West and finally, California.