Tips and tricks

[RafiRomero]

Hi,
I thought it might be nice to share tips and tricks. Here are some things I've had people do to me or done to people that seem to work nicely:
1) Unicorn rush - if you got the first move, move your wizard 2 tiles towards your enemy, cast unicorn (or other 4-tile-moving mount); next turn, mount unicorn, move up to enemy, magic bolt. You may even get away with an illusion unicorn, your enemy only has 1 turn to react to you, so they may not choose to disbelieve.
2) Camping behind tanglevine or scary trees - if you take the high ground adjacent to a 2-level drop and can block the route up, you become immune to anything other than ranged attacks; you can still drop summoned creatures onto ground level to attack your enemy. This works best with magic shield and/or mount, otherwise you're kindof a sitting duck. A flying mount is best, as you can then run away if you have to. Magic bow would also be useful. It is bad news if you get blobbed, and tanglevine is weak vs magical attacks, but I've still found this a useful technique if my spells are weak offensively.
3) Spamming with illusions - if your opponent is already engaged, especially with something toughish, they won't have time to disbelieve, so you can pile on the illusionary dragons:)

Anyone else care to share?

[NoWorries]

Someone else said, and I've since repeated, "Wizards are glass cannons." I generally win more games when I remember... and act on... this maxim.

In this regard, the best tactic I've found is to summon as many beasties as you can early in the game and send them straightaway to harass your opponent. The sooner you can get to having your opponent focus on reacting... the sooner you can go about finding more ways to win.

[Obsilium]

Things I think are useful to keep in mind (in the context of 4 player FFA):

I) Gooey Blob and Subversion do not require line of sight, so they can be used from behind terrain or tangle vines. Some maps allow you to place an eagle on high ground at once, but at the price of being susceptible to a blob attack from the other side of the terrain.

II) All else being equal, attack the person whose turn comes after yours, especially if you bring your wizard along. That gives other wizards the least amount of time to meddle with your assault.

III) A mount is an extra life, and you can attack enemy wizards a lot more safely on a mount than without. Say you wish to bolt an enemy wizard with a shield, that works 53% of the time, but if you don't have a mount (or a shield) then you will probably die 47% of the time, which is a pretty high risk.

IV) Think about the order in which you move your creatures. You may want to cast spells (or maneuver your wizard) conditional on the outcome of your combat moves.

V) When ramping in a particular direction (i.e. to law or chaos), sometimes you want to wait to cast your powerful spells of that type until other people continue to increase the percentage. In my 1st tournament game (against FWG, can be found on his youtube channel) I cast creatures every other turn to maximize their casting chance.

VI) Ramping II: If you are powerful in the ramped direction, casting powerful creatures of the other alignment (like red dragons in a law ramp) can be clever. You either get a real dragon or you don't change the percentage.

VII) Ramping III: If you aren't powerful in the ramp direction, cast things of the other alignment to slow it down. Chances are your spells of the ramped type will still be pretty high regardless.

VIII) If I have good spells of both law and chaos, I often cast a neutral spell turn 1 to allow the other wizards to bring on a direction. Once it comes back to you, your spells of that type will be more likely to cast.

IX) It can often be easier to kill an elephant with a magical attack or a disbelieve than a bolt.

[Prudent Viper]

I'm going to take VoodooFrog's mantra, and remind everyone that you don't have to cast a spell every turn.
I'm also going to say not to immediately cast dragons on a 20% chance. In the late game, a illusionary dragon can be as effective as a real one, and is much more useful than a failed cast.

I'm rather hesitant to share anymore, as I don't want to hobble myself in future matches

[SpiteAndMalice]

Mine is simple.... don't trust anyone.

[toutai]

My greatest tip is be careful when you get within the range of a wizard because if you fail your bow, blob (only stop movement and basic attacks if they don't kill) or magic bolt then you have to be prepare for that they might have/haven't got magic bolt and/or blob too.

[worto03]

If you gooey blob someone on a mount, unless the mount dies straight away or the blob covers all possible exits, the wizard can just hop off the mount and walk away. This can obviously work to your advantage the other way around.

[Houchou]

The sooner you can get to having your opponent focus on reacting...

- Absolutely this. Keeping your opponents on their back foot is one of the best ways to maintain the upper hand, in just about any scenario.

- In 4-player ffa, if you find early on that two adjacent players are both sending armies your way, don't dig in your heels as you're most likely going to get smashed. Stay mobile and try to outmanauver them, ideally getting both opposing armies to clash with each other in the process. This is much easier now wizards can move 2 spaces! If you can get behind whichever of the attacking players isn't getting harassed by the fourth player, then you can resume a defensive stance. Or, suddenly breaking off and rushing one of the attackers remains an option

- Going for dragon casting early on has been covered - one more thing to add to that, they also have big decree/dark power etc bullseyes painted on them. If you try to gauge when other players have already used up these kind of spells, then your powerful creatures like dragons, vampires etc can be cast with less chance of being wiped straight off the board.