Wizard Würfelspiel

• Designer: Daan Kreek
• Publisher: AMIGO
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Times played: 7 with review copy provided by AMIGO

In Wizard Würfelspiel, players bid on the results of seven magical dice.  Results are recorded on a paper scoresheet, but this isn’t a typical roll-and write.  In each round, players bid on how many symbols of a certain color will be rolled on the seven dice. The six-sided dice feature blue, red, yellow, and green symbols on four faces, along with a wizard on a fifth face and a joker on the sixth.

At the start of the round, the active player makes a bid for the round on his score sheet, a bid that specifies a color and a number from 1-5, e.g., blue-4. He marks this by drawing a circle in the corresponding spot in the grid on his sheet.  In turn, each other player places a bid that differs from all other bids placed this round. After all the bids, the active player then sets the color that jokers will be counted as in this round.

The active player then rolls the seven dice.  He can keep as many dice as they like after the first and second rolls. If a non-seer’s bid is met after the first or second roll, then that player places an X through their bid. If the seer has rolled three times or made their bid, the dice are rolled no more, and the result on the faces is scored. If at this point anyone has made their bid (i.e. the number of shown symbols on the dice exactly match the bid), they mark an X in the circle; otherwise they write the difference between their bid and the number of that color rolled on the dice in the circle. Instead of writing this difference, a player can cross off the number of jesters showing on the dice in the jester row, assuming the number is from 1-5 and the player has not marked this space previously.

Whoever bid the highest amount in a different color than the active player becomes the active player for the next round. The game lasts multiple rounds, ending once one or more players has nine Xs in their bidding area. Players then score points, earning 1-5 points for each successful bid and losing points for the differences they recorded. Whoever scores the most points wins!

Wizard Würfelspiel also includes ten spell cards that you can optionally add to the game. Each spell alters the results of the die rolls or bids in some way.  However, these cards are only in German, and we have printed out a little cheat sheet for translations.

The game moves along quickly, and somewhat predictably.  In the early rounds, the usual play is for the active player to make an aggressive bid; after all, he controls the re-rolls.  The next player in turn order almost always chooses N-1 in the same color… after all, if the roller wants to get 5 red, it is quite likely that he’s going to pass 4 red somewhere along the way!  If players choose to go for a different color, usually choosing a 1 or 2 value bid is de rigeur as it is unlikely for there to be more than 2 of any color to come up.

Occasionally, if the rolling player has not chosen a high bid, he could try to pick a weird color for the jokers to try to target someone with a huge negative score (i.e. if the “leader” bid red 1, the active player could make jokers red and try to go for 4 or 5 red to saddle the “leader” with a huge negative score).

There will come a time when it might be worth it to take a higher bid than you want as the reward is being the active player next; and this is a big boon as the turns where you get to control the dice are the most likely times to score big (4 or 5 bids).

Everything works in this game, but it feels a little limited; as in, I don’t have as many interesting decisions to make.  It’s a nice small game, and with laminated sheets, this one has been nested in with a few other small roll and write games in one of my many travel kits, but this is likely not a game I would otherwise carry around. 

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor