2. The World

The map on which War of Wizards (WOW) is played consists of many types of terrain and holds many special sites such as towers, caves and graveyards.

The world is divided into 3 planes: Astral, Ground and Underworld. The Astral plane is located somewhere well above ground level. It is a land made up of strange colours, plants and animals. The Ground Plane is the surface world, made up of a variety of terrain types, such as forest, ocean and mountains. The Underworld is found deep below the surface world and consists of dark tunnels and caverns.

2.1 REGIONS

The map is divided into a number of regions, depending on the world being played. The world mainly consists of land but also has sections of ocean. Each region consists of a single terrain type and hosts a single race. Each region is further divided into 5 shires organised as in the diagram below. Note that the central shire (5) only connects to the other shires in the region but the 'outer' shires will connect to other regions (with the exception of connections from and to Underworld and Astral Plane).
 

2.2 SHIRES

The shire is the basic unit of area in the game. Each shire contains a population of peasants (of a certain race) and various resources. If you control a shire, you can use the shire's peasants to produce resources, which can then be used for a variety of purposes, such as erecting buildings or raising armies.

2.3 SPECIAL FEATURES

In each shire there may also be special places which may be entered. These include sites such as graveyards and structures such as towers. Special places may only be entered by special units known as "Heroes". Only one hero can attempt to enter a special place each turn (a hero is randomly picked if more than one player issues the EXPLORE order). A hero must be standing at ground level (or on a boat in the case of an ocean shire) to explore a special place. Each special place has a challenge associated with it, which the hero must beat to explore and conquer the structure. Each challenge requires a particular hero skill.

The challenges can be divided into Combat (Offence and Defense), Puzzle (Intelligence), Guardian (Stealth), Trap (Awareness) and Obstacle (Dexterity). Once the challenge is beaten the hero will be rewarded with resources and possibly an artifact. Artifacts are objects carried by the hero, which may improve the heros' abilities, possess various other functions. Five objects (the Spirit Lava, Spirit Smoke, Spirit Sponge, Spirit Root and Saint Relics) are required for certain magic spells to be cast. These will often be replenished when the hero leaves the site, so each wizard may end up with more than one and valuable spares to trade with other players.

After a hero has successfully explored a special place, it may add an extra region exit to a new shire - for example, an explored cave may permanently add a link to an Underworld region.

Special Places are also the lairs for various wandering monsters. They will breed in the special place before venturing out into the world and attacking all they meet. Once a special place is conquered, it no longer produces wandering monsters. Upon entering a special place, all creatures inside will rush out and attack, so be ready.

Random Events can also take place in shires. Random events can be either good or bad. Some of the bad random events can be countered, by building certain buildings, while others cannot. You will discover these during the course of the game. The events that can be countered will tell you which buildings are required to stop them. Most of these random events are localised to certain land types - for example, Volcanic Eruption will only occur in regions that are classified as Volcanic.

2.4 ENDING THE GAME

The game ends when only one player remains, all remaining players are allied and agree to a draw or all players not involved in an victory declaring alliance, concede defeat. All remaining players are declared winners and enter the WoW Hall of Fame. Each player is vanquished from the world as soon as their castle is defeated by enemy units. As soon as a player's castle is defeated, the castle is razed, and the shire becomes a town. Any city only buildings will also be automatically destroyed.

When an enemy city is conquered, the sole victor will claim half of the loser's accumulated resources as spoils, a dual victory will yield a third of the resources to each victor, and if there were three wizards involved each will receive just a quarter share. The loser escapes with their spell book and artifacts, so accumulating magic from another wizard is not possible. Upon being vanquished a player will get one last turn report, after which they will cease to be sent. The rankings table will then list them as vanquished and the turn number in which they were defeated. When that player is vanquished all the shires that were once controlled revert back to being uncontrolled and the wizard's units are disbanded.

There are three ways in which a wizard can be vanquished.

1. Players directly attack a wizards city and win.
2. By an enemy wizard casting the "Armageddon Spell".
3. Summoned monsters that directly attack your city. (Most powerful is the Dark Lord).

There are of course ways to defend from being vanquished. Keep all this information in mind whilst building cities and researchig magic. To protect against the various types of defeat, keep in mind the following.

1. Always try to keep a couple of heroes in the city to help defend it. Keep a decent army in the city at all times to protect against attacks. Build defensive city buildings such as WALL, TURRETS and MOAT, and upgrade your castle. Each building can increases the defensive and offensive strengths of your units inside the city.
2. There is only one way to protect against the Armageddon spell and that is with the "Ultimate Shield". Not only do you have to research the spell and recast it every turn using the order @cast ush <region number>, but you'll need to have built the Anti Magic Wall in the region.
3. There are a few defences to counter Dark Lord Attacks. The first is having lots of archers in the city. They seem to have the best effect. Some people prefer other methods, so ask around. Basically make sure there is a large army in the city. The second is to prevent the Dark Lord from arriving in the city. This can be done by shielding the city with either the "Anti Magic Wall" spell or the more powerful "Ultimate Shield", both spells require the Anti Magic Wall building to be built. The Anti Magic Wall spell and building require certain levels in the Sorcery and Construct disciplines of magic.