Jeff’s Custom Wiz-War
Please note: Wiz-War is copyright 1985 by Jolly Games. This material is posted with his permission for individual use, but is not to be sold or distributed otherwise.
Like many Wiz-War fans who became frustrated that such a great game was so long out-of-print, I eventually invested the effort to make my own set. If you can find one, I highly encourage you to buy the real thing, but if you are desperate for something to tide you over, feel free to use and/or modify what I’ve done.
Each of the components is described below, and you can download them all individually. If you prefer, you can also get everything at once by downloading the following file:
Boards
I used the standard layouts from the six boards in the 5th edition & expansions, and I added two original layouts. I printed each of them onto full-page labels , which I then attached to scrap matte-board. (At 200 dpi the boards will be 7.5″ square, but you can make them whatever size you like.) I sprayed “Super Grip” on the back to keep them from sliding around on the table.
Tokens
These were also printed onto full-page labels, then attached to matte-board before being cut out. (Print them at the same dpi setting you use for the boards.) They are designed to be used two-sided, so that some tokens (such as the Portcullis) have distinct “open” and “closed” sides. Of course, you don’t have to use them that way.
- Tokens, Auto-Warps and Home Bases (jpg versions – 1.2 MB)
- Tokens, Auto-Warps and Home Bases (layered Photoshop – 16 MB)
(allows replacement & editing of tokens, background, shadows, etc.)
Cards
The following cards are designed to be printed on 2″ x 4″ labels (Avery 5163 or equivalent, 10 labels per sheet) and stuck to something cheap, such as penny-each Magic commons.
You should be forewarned that I’ve rewritten almost all of them to some extent, so they won’t match the official versions. The only set our group plays with is mine, so making things consistent and clear for our group eventually became more important than matching the original text.
- Number Cards (pdf)
(print more as needed) - Spell Cards – Basic Set + Expansions 1 & 2 (pdf)
(includes multiples of common cards) - Spell Cards – Additional (pdf)
(one of each; various sources)
Cards last revised: 12-23-2003 (text revisions and several new spells)
LOM: Line of Motion — a straight line not blocked by obstacles. In general, something must be in LOS (line of sight) to count as being in LOM. In the case of the Crossbow, for example, a bolt cannot go through a glass wall, even though an LOS spell could.
Spell/Card Database
I keep all this stuff in a Microsoft Access database for easy customization and printing. (If you don’t have Access, Lindsey reports that the free Open Office database can import the file as well.)
Simple Spell Table
For those seeking just the raw spell data in an editable table:
Alternatives
Kwanchai Moriya has paired my spell cards with his own custom artwork and boards, creating a single PDF containing the game rules, counters, boards and cards. Check out Kwanchai’s Wiz War Package at boardgamegeek.com.
Very cool! I’ve been thinking of printing up cards to replace the old, worn out paper versions in my set.
Would you be willing to post or send the template you used to make the PDFs of the cards? I’d like to add the artifacts and such from the second expansion to the deck.
Oh, and it was fun to see a few of my own expansion cards in the set! The modifications make sense, too — Making undead immune to the Stinkstone was a good addition. I’ll have to keep the Creeping Horror, though, instead of changing over to a Stone Golem — I just like the silly looking bug counter too much to switch.
Thanks for the kind comments, Lindsey, and also for your own contributions to the Wiz-War community!
The printing template for the cards is part of the MS Access Wiz-War Database, which is available for download above. (The cards are printed via a custom-formatted database report.)
You’re welcome for the card ideas!
And I had read your post too quickly — Having the cards in a database format is very nice, since that lets me fiddle with the colors and layout. I don’t have Access, but the Open Office database was able to import the cards just fine.
Am i missing where the wizard counters are? Also the squares with the colored starting areas seem too big. Am i doing something wrong?
Hi Chris,
There aren’t any wizard counters; most people use colored pawns or miniatures, since they stand out better amongst all the tokens.
As for the home base counters, the files seem fine as far as I can tell. If you print the boards and the counters at the same resolution, then the sizes should be just right. You can always stretch or shrink them as needed, though, if for some reason they don’t match by default.
Jeff,
THANK YOU. I can not say how grateful I am that you had this available. My brother-in-law has had WizWar on his Christmas list for the last two years and it could not be found. When I learned of your site, I decided to make it for him. Printed everything on nice velum stock in a high quality color laser printer, glued the floors to Elmer’s foam board, printed the cards on labels, stuck them and glued the game pieces to poster board and hand cut them all. Even made a box from poster-board. The quality is actually quite remarkable and reminds me of the more “small company” produced war games of the ’80s. Thanks so much for all your work. After he opens his gift, I will take some photos of the final product. Drop me an email and I will share them with you.
Thanks again and Happy Holidays.
Mark