Welcome to Astoria, where magic radiates all around this land of Wizards and powers beyond what you could ever imagine. Here Arch-Mages battle for the loyalty of the Wizards of Astoria so that may wield the most power of the land. Will you come out on top as the most powerful Arch-Mage? Let’s find out!
Lizard Wizard is the next game in the Raccoon Tycoon series from designer Glenn Drover and Forbidden Island Games. It is made for 2-4 players.
In Lizard Wizard players will compete to recruit Wizards from 7 different schools of magic. While doing this they will also be building mystical towers, researching spells and summoning the help of Familiars. A dark Dungeon also awaits those brave enough to search it out for treasures and money for the brave enough to venture deep into it!
Components
The contents of the game include a big game board, 7 sets of the Reagent tokens, a start player token, gold coins, but mana coins, Reagent gather cards, Dungeon cards, Wizard cards, Tower cards, Familiar cards and Spell cards.
Gameplay
Lizard Wizard introduces us to 7 unique schools of magic, each giving you a different focus of power as the Arch-Mage. Will you spend more time in Conjuring where you can work on summoning and creation, or will it be Druidry where the magics of nature become your strength? There are unique aspects to each one of these schools.
To play, players will set each of the Reagent markets to a desired price, then shuffle and give each player 3 cards. Players start with mana and Regent tokens based on player count and turn order. The game continues over the course of a full round where each player will have the chance to play one action. The actions are as follows:
1-Gather Reagents
2-Convert Reagents into Mana
3-Recruit Wizard
4-Research Spell
5-Create a Tower
6-Summon Familiar
1-Gather Reagents. Here players will show one of their gathering cards and obtain the Reagents on the card and raise the stock price in mana value for each item on the card. Wizards will give you extra reagent tokens, one per token on the Wizard card. You may also cast one of your Spell cards here as well.
2-Convert Reagents to Mana. Here you can trade a single type of reagent into mana based on the value and then decrease that price down. This is a great way to earn mana to spend on future turns.
3-Recruit Wizard. Here you and your fellow Mages select one of the Wizards cards and bid around the table to see who can offer the most Blue Mana and win the recruitment of that Wizard. If the player who chose the auction wins it, the next player goes. If another player wins that auction the active player may choose to go for another action this turn.
4-Research a Spell. Here is where Arch-Mages can learn spells from any of the 7 schools of magic. Here you will select from the Spell cards on display and pay the blue mana cost for them. You put it in front of you as an owned but not yet cast Spell. When you are researching the Spell you may play it if you have the Reagents required.
5-Create a Tower. Here you may acquire the top Tower card by either paying the Reagents or the gold coins listed on it. Tower cards will increase your Reagent storage capacity by 1 and it will also give you another school of magic to try and match up to.
6-Summon a Familiar. Here you can purchase a familiar to come to your aide as a servant to help you in all things magic related. You may purchase one of two available familiars by paying the mana cost. You may immediately use it to gain coins, collect Reagents and cast a spell, add new spells or enter the dungeon. Entering the dungeon allows you to draw cards from the dungeon deck and press your luck trying to avoid monsters.
Through the game if you meet an Achievement at any time you may claim the the tile. These are worth 10 VP at the end of the game.
The game continues until any of the on of the Wizard, Tower, Familiar or Spell decks is emptied. Then you finish the round for all players and the game will end. Scoring is done based on set collections of Wizards and Towers, and if their magic types match they are worth more points. Gold coins also score VPs along with Spells and Dungeon items. The player with the most VPs wins!
Impressions
Lizard Wizards brings in the next step in the Raccoon Tycoon series in this game. I feel like my familiarity with Raccoon helped to make Lizard so much easier to understand and play. The basic aspects of that game are here as a building block but they are given a chance to “level-up” in this new game. There are so many more choices and opportunities to score points and make decisions in this game, but the fact that you still can only take one action per turn it keeps it clean and easy to play. New and less-experienced players will be able get a handle on this game because of the streamlined nature of the choices put in front of you.
If you have played Raccoon Tycoon, you are definitely going to enjoy this game as the next step up in gameplay, strategy and fun. The way the different cards work together well really has you paying attention as you think your turns ahead a step or two to best optimize your action choice. I like the different Wizard schools and how matching them up can really benefit you both in-game and at the end for points. Players new to the series will still enjoy this one and will find it easy to understand and jump right into, and after a few plays will probably also see the strategy and depth of this game. I love how easy it is to learn and play but yet has so much under the surface when you try to match up schools of magic and find ways to benefit your in-game play while also trying to balance your end-game scoring. This game is exactly what you would want the “leveled-up” version of Raccoon Tycoon. Lizard Wizard is an action selection game that will definitely be getting some play on my game table!
Overall this is a can’t-miss game for me and one I hope you have a chance to check out! It is currently on Kickstarter, follow Forbidden Games and their campaign to learn more and see all the fun surprises they have in store! You can check out the game and back it here:
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