Overview

War of Wonders is an expandible card game for two players, set in the Project H.O.P.E. Role playing game world. The players are the generals of two opposite armies of Meta-Humans (superheroes) fighting in the dark background of the World War Two.

In the gameplay, players can spend their Action Points (AP) or discard Cards from their hand to build Facilities, recruit Meta-Humans and accomplish Missions; these actions will give them Victory Points (VP). The player which will reach first 20 VP will be the winner.

Game mechanics come from the joint of two ideas: create a game with a strong link to the Project H.O.P.E. rpg setting and develope a fusion beween an euro card game and a collectible card game. The main system is based on Action Points (AP), the main resource of the game together with the card of your hand. Cards are shared in two great kinds: Facilities, played spendind AP and Meta-Humans (superheroes). Since Meta-Humans are the more specific element of the game I thought to create different categories of MH, (just like in Project H.O.P.E. rpg) with different rules of play. the heroes “recruited” cost AP, and their deployment in Missions is slightly “slow”, but they don’t need any specific Facility to be played.  Lab Prodigies need specific Facilities, but once you’ll have enough ones, they  can be deployed for free.  Last but not least we have the Warlocks and  the Adventurers both are played discarding cards from your hand. All these characteristics permit a great variety of strategies, some really immediate, some others more long-term ones. The third kind of cards are the Missions. They’re always on the table and represent the battiefield where Meta-Humans will fight, and will produce Victory Points and other game bonuses.
The game itself is substantially a development game, where a player builds its own strategy adding cards and combining abilities, like an Euro CG, but with the chance to damage (and destroy!) opponent’s Facilities and Meta-Humans that gives an aggressive trait to the game, just like a CCG. Also, the game can bel played in two ways: as an  Euro CG with the basic Box or in “Deckbuilding mode” with two or more decks.

What’s in the box

The game consists in two decks of 55 cards for each faction: Allies ( the American superheroes squad Deck, Freedom Flags, with the “torch” logo) and Axis (Third Reich squad Deck Arischer Sturm, with the AS logo). Other Meta-Human squads for both factions will be available soon. Every deck has:

27 Meta-Human Cards

18 Facility Cards

1 Base Card

9 Mission Cards

  1. We recommend you to get some small Counters, a pen and some paper sheets to take note of Victory Points. Counters will be useful as Action Points (placed in the Storage, on Facilities and on the Mission cards),as Research Points (placed on Meta-Human and Facilities cards in play) and as Mission Points (placed on the Mission cards). The official War of Wonders Counters will be available on our webstore soon.

Cards

Meta-Humans

In Meta-Human Cards we find:

Name: identifies the Meta-Human. It has no other functions in gameplay.
Class: identifies the kind of Meta-Human. It’s also shown by the glowing leds on the left side of the card.
Cost: It shows how much you have to pay to put your Meta-Human in the Battlefield Zone (see below), and it varies by his Class. Lab Prodigies and Steel Heroes cost Development Points (indicated with the cog icon), Prodigies and Keepers cost Research Points (indicated with the radar icon). Adventurers and Warlocks cost play cards (indicated with the Cards icon).
Wounds: shows how many Wound Points a Meta-Human can bear before to be killed. Every suffered wound will be indicated with a Counter placed on the Meta-Human Card.
Faction: indicates to which deck the card belongs (Allied or Axis).
Attack/Defense Ability: shows how the Meta-Human interacts with Mission Cards: this ability can be of three categories: Intelligence, Sabotage and Combat. Each Abilty has an Attack value on the left (for accomplishing Missions) and a Defense value on the right (for stopping the opponent’s Missions).
Effects: are the Meta-Human superpowers. They are of two categories: Instant Powers and Mission Powers. The kind of Effect is shown by the icon on the left (a bolt icon for the Instant Powers and a star icon for the Mission Powers).

Facility Card

Name: identifies the Facility. It has no other functions in gameplay.
Construction Cost: it shows how many AP the player must pay to put that Facility Card in game.
Damage: it shows how many Damage Points the Facility can bear before being destroyed.
Development Points: needed to put in gameplay Meta-Humans whom cost Development Points (as Lab Prodigies and Steel Heroes).
Faction: indicates to which deck the card belongs (Allied or Axis).
Effects: are the powers of the Facility Cards. They are of two categories: Actuated (with the target icon on the left) and Automatic (with the arrow icon on the left).

Mission Cards

Mission category: it shows which Meta-Humans can be deployed in that Mission. It can be of 3 kinds: Intelligence, Sabotage and Combat.
Advancing Cost: it shows how many AP are needed to Advance that Mission to the one of following level.
Difficulty: it shows how many Mission Points are needed to Accomplish that Mission.
Effects: the bonuses gained when the mission is Accomplished.
Meta-Humans slots: shows how many Meta-Humans can be assigned to that Mission.

Game table

Example of game table

The GameTable is divided in two areas, one for each player. Every kind of Card has its own position. In the Project Zone, must be placed the cards not yet put in game, because their cost is not yet entirely paid.

Cards in Project Zone are not considered in gameplay, so they can’t be hit, they can’t be targeted with Effects, but also they can’t produce Effects.

Discarded cards must be placed in the Discard Deck. Killed Meta-Humans and destroyed Facilities m be placed in the Removed Card Zone.

Getting Started

A player must choose the Allied Deck and the other the Axis Deck. Each player must divide the 9 Mission Cards in three decks of 3 cards each of the same category (Combat, Intelligence and Sabotage) and must put them on the tabletop sorted by difficulty (from the easier to the harder). Place the decks as shown in the picture of the game table.

Place the Base Card to the left of the Facility Zone with the silver side up. Shuffle the other cards and put the shuffled deck on the left side of the game area. Choose at random the player who will play first: this one draws immediately 5 cards from the deck, while the opponent will draw immediately 6. Each player picks also 3 AP Counters.

Please note: Counters are placed in front of the player and form his Storage. Every time he gets AP, he will place a Counter for every AP gained in this Storage. Every time he must pay AP he can use only the ones in the Storage, NOT the ones placed on the cards in the game area.