Differences between Wiz-War's 8th and 9th edition: Game's rules

Overall, the rulebook seems pretty simplified, and way shorter than the 8th one. I was afraid that they had removed many parts, but the changes are all about speeding the game up. They removed many limits, and they left different schools concept to welcome back a single magic deck. At first, as I reported in the preview, the game seems better suited for new, casual players.

The rulebook itself is pretty smaller because the tone used in this version is way more practical, sometimes avoiding confusion as we founded (and loved) in 8th. I don’t like, though, the fact they printed it in a foldable 6 pages sheet, since I’m sure i twill be ruined in less than a dozen of games.

 I will list all the difference you can find between the 2 games, according to the rulebook. Since I don’t want to write all rules again, I’m going to write only the rules that have been changed, and I’ll provide you the rulebook scan (look at the end of this post) for the whole read. Update: I’ve tried the game in a game with a 8th ed. veteran friend of mine and a new player.

-          At the end of your turn, you may discard AS MANY CARDS you want, and then you draw UP TO 7.

-          No more Energy but Numbers. These number works exactly as the energy before, but while the limit of 1 number boost per spell remains, you can now boost EVERY ACTION, both spells and movement and so on. There stilli s “Add” letting you to combine 2 numbers for a single spell, but you will also find more cards that allow using multiple number. Nevertheless, the Number cards are considerely less than old energy ones.

-          Pick up now don’t differ from Treasures to Items. Anytime you want to pick up an object (both items, magic items or treasures), your turn ends immediately.

-          Speaking about objects, they are now well divided into “Normal Items” and
“Magic Objects”; the key difference is that you can pick up normal items and bring back in your hands (and even discard it at the end of your turn), but if someone had played a magic objects, from now on it must be showed (faced up in front of you) no matter what, so if you pick up one from floor, you must put it in front of you. This count as a carried items in your hand’s card limit. Lastly, the 9th ed. focus on the return of Magic Stones, I’ve founded a great numer in the deck.

-          Even with this distiction, Objects rules are a bit confusing. For example, they don’t state precisely that Treasures are now considered just a type of object. Nor they don’t tell players if the spells that create something (i.e.Thornbush) are maintained spells (so you can dispel them) or they just create the object and you simply discard them

-          Walls and doors are now identified as “Terrain” (this would just change how cards and rules refer to they). They lost the crack feature, and now they just have hit points like creatures, and you have to keep track of the damages:

o   Wall 20 hp

o   Door 10 hp

o   Thornbush 5 hp (it’s resist fire now)

o   Granite block infinite hp

-          They put a great focus on declaring doors left opened. You cannot left open a door while not adjacent, even if it’s yours (every door in your sector). It’s not forbidden to place a door between 2 sectors, and walls created between 2 sectors must roll a die to know if they stay there or they are destroyed. If they remain, they stay in position. You can apparently create Doors on Walls. On the other hand

-          Rotate sector work exactly as before, so portals stay in place. In addition, another card which return from the old times is “Swap Sector”, which allows you to swap 2 sector boards without thouching anything.

Since spellcasting went into major differences, although hidden, I’ve decided to give them a proper post next to this.

Everything considered, these rules don’t look capable of making the game much easier. But surely the rules are pretty different in some aspect, and I believe the focus here was to bring back to life old version’s flavour. I believed this would speed up the game, but as we played our first match, we found it more about preparing a big, scenographic end than speeding up actions. It’s a matter of time finding out if the unknowledge of this new deck played a major role in that match or not.