Reviews

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  Mortifer

  Feb 11, 2022

  I would LOVE to play this game. But the rules are missing. There is a link, that goes to a google drive folder that denies me access. This is the first DLC game i buy for TTS and I do expect to get the rules INCLUDED. I should not have to go looking for them. So, no. I cannot recoment you purchase this product.
• 

  Ohmu

  Jul 10, 2016

  Just finished our first game, with two players, and jumping right into "Advanced" setup, the game took 12 hours between mucking through the initial setup, and spending half our time in the Grimoire to learn how all the game elements interact. Future games will definitely run much quicker, and with how many elements are randomized per playthrough, and the differing setups for each scenario, I can confidently say that this game has hundreds of hours of replay value. Getting through the rule-set the first time was definitely the worst part of the experience, maybe moreso than other complex board games due to the way that the manual pushes "Basic Gameplay" setup, and then modifies it in slightly unclear ways further in the manual. So, if you want to jump straight into the full experience (as the Basic rules seems extremely stripped down), be prepared to endure a lengthy first-time experience. Once you are actually in the flow of things the game is extremely satisfying and teamwork oriented. Discovering all the spells, sharing your resources with each other, and finding ways to face all of the (increasingly dangerous) threats with minimal losses makes for a very immersive gameplay. Nothing seems unfair, as even the disasters are revealed a turn before they take effect, meaning that you always have time to prepare. All that said, after 12 hours, we were utterly and completely decimated by the challenges of the Academy. Definitely can't wait to jump right back in and attempt the scenario a second time. (Did I mention that each scenario has an additional Hard and Easy mode modifier for triple the variety?) Even with all the endurances required to get to the meat of the game, I would recommend this game to anyone with some board game experience (or an experienced friend to help with the first play-through).
• 

  Coverchrg

  Jul 11, 2016

  "What a friendly looking game" I though. I mean, it has a teddybear front and center on the box. I was wrong. This game can be plenty mean. I'm quickly running out of time and I still haven't found the spell I need to seal the Mana Chamber, but there's only 3 spells left to research. However, one of the spells requires the 3rd glyph, which is in a room that was randomly rotated because of an event and no hallways now lead to it; so hopefully one of the two spells we can research will be the winner. I've been running around putting out fires (there's been a lot) while the second character is mostly researching spells. Three imp portals have appeared and imps are over-running the Academy because the only spell we have to hurt them requires that 3rd glyph (which is in the rotated room), so we are massively outnumbered (20 imps running through the halls by the end of the game). Also, the last three spells need the 5th glyph which is in a room that currently has 5 imps in it who aren't wandering far and keep coming back. If I run into the room to grab the glyph, I'll get hurt by the imps, forcing the Mana Crystal to discharge magic to save me. The Mana Crystal has 2 charges left after being over-run by goblins and burned in a massive fire I hadn't been able to put out yet, and when it runs out of charges the Academy collapses and we lose. I had an idea the bend space and swap two of the rooms so we could reach the 3rd glyph and maybe take out some of the imps but guess which glyph THAT spell needs? The 3rd one! Oh, and another fire just started. WE DID IT! Ran into the room with the 5th glyph, got attacked by the imps and used a mana charge so we're down to the last one. Grabbed a second of that glyph on the way out and went to the Mana Crystal room. Researched a spell but it was the wrong one and got teleported to a different room. Ran back into the Mana Room, used the last of the 5th glyph to cast the only spell we could research since the 3rd glyph is still is locked in a room, and it was the right one! My other character had just put out the last fire for the victory! I'm elated and exhausted. That was just the basic scenario. Can't wait to see what the advanced ones are like.
• 

  Xekura

  Aug 23, 2016

  Great Coop game and nice component with ton of scenario! Endless possibility with random disaster and spell! Btw, where can i find rule book online [ the one that look like in the actual game ] Thank you.
• 

  Cyrix

  Jan 6, 2017

  The font in the manual is so small and thin it's nearly impossible to read. It's a shame they put so much effort into everything else but didn't care if people were able to read the rules.
• 

  Phishfood

  Feb 5, 2017

  Great game, really well transfered to TTS. All the pieces look great, rules are available in and out of game, board is practically set up and ready to go. Random setup of the board means that every game comes out different, with a whole book of possible objectives to keep you occupied. Despite other complaints we had no trouble getting multiple people playing from one purchase, nor did we have any trouble reading the rules.
• 

  Dragon Dai (Uey)

  Mar 5, 2017

  Fun, unique concepts, interesting mechanics, and a great co-op game (so long as you don't 'cheat' at the spell portion with memory aids). If you enjoy co-op games, get it.
• 

  the4thdunkel

  Dec 4, 2017

  Where in the world are the gaurdian pieces?????? I've spent like an hour searching everywhere for them. In the base setup it says to put guardian pieces on Glyph 4 and 5, but I can't find them. At first I thought they were imps, until I got to the part of the rules that said imps and guardians can't be in the same square. If it's true that this game is missing pieces, that makes me hesitant to even give it a try.
• 

  Astrobia

  Jan 9, 2018

  Had to google a few things to figure out fully what was going on. For example I spent 15 minutes looking for the "Guardians" the rules kept referring to only to later find out whoever did the digital conversion named them Golems. This would have been obvious to anyone who played the game before but as a new player I had no idea what was going on. It was a little complicated to learn at first, but this is par for the course for Tabletop Simulator DLC. Once you figure out the setup, the actual gameplay is easy to figure out and once you have a grip on the mechanics it all falls into to place and future games are easy to setup and play. My experience is normally it will take about 15 minutes to setup game once you get used to it. This is because you only use about half the cards in a given game and have to sort through them to setup a given scenario. This is the trade of for quite an ingenious little system that gives a great amount of diversity to the game so no play through plays out the same. Once I understood how the setup worked I made special save states for each scenario in which I had done a large chunk of that scenarios specific setup ahead of time and rebuilt the decks so they could be quickly shuffled and combined without extra sorting and now my average setup time is about 5 minutes. The game is cleverly setup so things progress at the same rate almost regardless how many players you have. A typical turn usually takes less than a minute on average (some longer, most shorter). The game has several deadline which means players will lose the game in less than 120 turns, this gets slightly longer or shorter based on player actions but the scenarios are all set up to be winnable in that time frame. But having that hard limit before you lose means there’s no dawdling and you can plan on a game taking less than 2 hours. We've had much shorter games and average somewhere between 50-70 minutes not including setup. The game itself is fun. It encourages co-operation as it's an everyone wins or everyone loses setup. You can play it solo if that's your jam (it was useful for learning the rules before bringing other players in). If you like the mages running around an ever changing magical building theme I'd say getting it is a no brainer as it delivers well on that premise. There spells system is easy to use once you've got a handle on it and stays interesting due to the system requiring you to discover your spells each game not knowing which are in the deck. They also have plenty of variety and fun uses so that goes a long way. The extra affects caused by the ever changing rooms of the academy spice this up even further. Content is king and players always want more. I kind of would like to see a bit more variety in the threats you are faced with, but just for flavours sake. The ones they already have in place can easily spiral out of control and add plenty of challenge even once you know your way around the game. More scenarios would be nice but the system is flexible enough you could easily design your own with a little inspiration. I really appreciate how clever the designer has been in coming up with system where you have escalating dangers and opponents to deal with but doesn't fall back on a dice rolling combat system at all. On any given turn you can see if you are going to be able to handle any upcomming threat, plan for it and either avoid it or deal with it on the spot as things unfold. There's no drawn out process you either triumph or fail. While there is a little luck involved it is largely limited to how the challenges ahead of you form, if you fail it's due to tactical error not due to diceroll deciding you did. All in all it is an easy recommendation. You get a lot of replayability for your money and plenty of flavour to boot.
• 

  Kitta

  Jun 30, 2020

  Fun cooperative board game (DLC for tabletop simulator). 1-6 players....working together to achieve a scenario objective. The map (or academy) is randomized every game, there are 5-10 scenarios to choose from, and 7 characters to choose from with different special abilities. I bought this game for $2 during the summer sale, definitely worth the price! Wizard's Academy is complex at first with a core rule book and a grimoire (that contains more details, explanations and rules). At first I was a bit overwhelmed trying to set-up the board and learn the game, but after a couple hours learning the rules and watching a couple rule videos on Youtube-- it makes a lot of sense! It's a fun co-op game with friends and I'm excited to play more! =) Check out Wizard's Academy on Youtube or BGG to determine if you would like this fantasy, co-op, strategy game-- and if so-- its totally worth $2!
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  RandomPerv

  Oct 3, 2020

  Fun and versatile game with many different scenarios to set up. This and he amount of spells (and thus the potential spellboard setup) also bring variation to every game played, making it a nice, semi-complex non linear game experience. A very nice addition to the game is the splendid custom room, giving it a nice and unique atmosphere. While the game puts emphasis on spell experimantation the actual gameplay and achieving the goals are actually quite far from it: You seek at most a handfull of spells and once you got them you rarely cast any other spell.
• 

  John Battman

  Oct 27, 2020

  If I could give it a neutral review I would - as it stands, I think the game is a lot of fun but the technical execution appears shoddy and it really impacts the gameplay. Like I said the actual game is fun, but I play board games on TTS for the convenience factor and other than not having to put the game away this doesn't have any (functional) convenience features and some of the standard features are buggy. The "Basic" (introductory) rule set is a good way to get started, but the full scenarios are, for the most part, really fun. The first one is a bit underwhelming but the others have really fun / interesting mechanics involved and I think they're great. Just be aware this game is more complicated than it looks. I love Mage Knight and Gloomhaven, so I'm not rule-shy, but frankly I wasn't expecting to spend hours pouring over the two manuals before having a good grasp on it. In retrospect though, I think that's because the rules are poorly split up into two manuals - A lot of time was spent trying to figure out where I saw something previously to refer to it again, switching back and forth between the books. My primary source of complaint is the functionality of the DLC its self. There's supposed to be a randomizer to help with setup (basically reorganizes the 16 tiles for you) but as far as I know, it doesn't work. EDIT: It does work when you open the mod, but the instructions to reopen it if you wish to play again just don't work. Sure, you can reload the mod, but you shouldn't have to. Almost none of the setup is scripted. It offers to randomize the board for you once when you load the game, but then grabbing the correct spell cards for a scenario and laying them out in their correct locations takes several minutes whereas there are mods for much more complicated games that have a fully scripted setup. It's not a tremendous amount of time but honestly I expect a paid DLC to be at least on par with most workshop mods and this isn't the case. For some reason, the paths connecting each room start out locked and facing down - you have to go over them individually, unlock them and flip them. Wouldn't be such a big pain if there wasn't (I think) 24 of them. There are two rule books, meant to work together to teach you the full rule set, but it's poorly laid out in the sense that some basic information is missing from the more detailed book which leads to confusion when searching for something specific because you end up having to read the particular section in both books instead of going "Oh this one is the basic, lighter version - I don't need it because this other book is comprehensive" a-la-Dawn Of The Zeds. I get that the idea is to use the second book as an aid to the first one to provide more depth but the division of info, in my opinion, just isn't great. Some of the pieces are a bit wonky - I don't know if this is a TTS problem or specifically the mod, but for example the Mana Well tends to clip through the board and then when you try to remove tokens from it to reduce the counter (basically your hp) you instead end up pulling out deconstructed pieces of the well its self? Idk man, it's confusing and weird. Seems to work fine off the game area, but then put it on the tile it should be on and a good chunk of the time it acts super weird. I think this might be TTS though because I've seen a similar problem with some workshop mods, though no DLC mods aside from this one. So in summary, definitely a fun game, but plagued by poor technical execution both in transitioning from physical to virtual and as far as the manuals go. I've seen worse, but it's just not great. I'd recommend the physical copy if you can find it, though. EDIT: I should say that I really only had complaints about the technical elements and rule books, the presentation is actually pretty nice. There's a neat little effect on the crystals you spawn figurines from and everything looks good.
• 

  DFuxa

  Nov 12, 2020

  I wasn't impressed with this one. The premise of the game is that you are clueless wizardry students trying to defend your magical academy while your teacher's are away. Many a threat or problem will arise that you will have to use your spells to tackle - spells of which you have no idea what they will do. Unfortunately the cluelessness doesn't end there as the rulebook is just as clueless in telling you how the play the game and the rest of the board isn't all that helpful! Direction is key in any boardgame and like many of the failures of Tabletop Simulator's DLC, it comes from their rulebooks.... I won't say it is the worst DLC I've played, I did have fun playing it. But it isn't one I recommend either.