This is a sponsored preview for Wonderland's War Duel, two-player sequel to Wonderland's War. All components shown here are not be final. Go check out the Kickstarter for more details!

War Phase: Battling it out in five regions across Wonderland

As my opponent reaches into the pouch, stirring a handful of clickity-clackity tokens, I can see in her eyes the anticipation, the excitement…and a subtle but unnerving I’m going to bury you. In fact, it’s not that far off from how Alice looks on the box art of Wonderland’s War Duel (see above), the game we’re going head-to-head on.

She blindly draws a weak base chip that only raises her strength by a measly one point. Looking again at her eyes, I see: relief that she didn’t draw a Madness chip – too many will cause her to bust and lose this battle with me. I see: nervous anticipation. Pulling that weak chip only brings her closer to the more powerful ones left in the bag (but also closer to the next Madness chip). And I see: I’m still going to bury you.

My draw is strength two. Better..but not by much.

We continue simultaneously drawing one token at a time and revealing them to each other. Whatever number we see on it will raise our strength value by that much, and whoever ends up with more strength at the end of the battle will win it. The anticipation keeps building.

Next draw, she pulls ahead. Then I pull ahead. Then I pull ahead some more. Then she comes from behind and pulls ahead again.

I start to notice that her “pulling ahead” is >> my “pulling ahead.” And Madness chips seem almost drawn to my hands, even when the odds of not pulling one are clearly in my favor. The unluck of the draw, I suppose. Each Madness knocks out a unit or two in the region where we’re battling, and my numbers are dwindling. 

On our next turn, she draws a Tweedles (of Dee/Dum fame). For this session’s particular setup (the game offers four variations of each of five Ally chips, including Tweedles), she gets to flip it like a coin, gaining either one or four strength, depending on the side it lands on.

I already know what’s going to happen. Whatever higher power (or perhaps a mischievous invisible cat) is pushing Madness Chips into my grabby fingers will also help her out here.

Yup…a four. She pulls even further ahead.

Eventually I pull enough Madness to wipe out my presence in this region, and she emerges victorious. She snags the spoils: two Allegiance tokens that will help determine the overall game winner. Further rubbing it in, she gets a “Superior Victory” by beating me in combat by more than five strength, giving her another bonus.

Now I see: glee. And a slight shift to a more confident I told you I’m going to bury you. I feel literal defeat.

But we have a few more battles to resolve in this Phase – all with fresh starts on the strength track – that will reward more Allegiance tokens. Then it’ll be time for another Tea Party.

Tea Party Phase: War preparations

You wouldn’t think something that sounds so innocuous as “Tea Party” would also be so contentious but yet….

We actually started our match of Wonderland’s War Duel with a Tea Party Phase (it goes: Tea Party Phase, War Phase, Tea Party again, a final War, then game over). She went first, drafting a row of cards from a 3x3 grid. I went next, taking another row and column (for four cards). Then we refilled the board and did it in reverse: I drafted a row of three cards, and she took another row/column combo of four cards.

These cards provide nearly everything in a Duel: units to support you in battle, better chips to draw (for the “bag-building” gameplay that defines this game and its predecessor, Wonderland’s War), upgrades for your Leader (to make that specific unit stronger or to give you new powers), and more.

I was able to draft the Duchess and Unicorn, two special “Wonderlandian” units that add two and one strength (respectively) to the battlefield regions I deploy them to. But I was more interested in their special powers that could allow me to draw hidden Allegiance tokens that may help swing the end-game results in my favor.

My foe, however, was more interested in getting Ally chips (like a couple of Tweedles that only seem to flip to the “four” side for her) and reinforcing regions with Supporters. Underestimating the need for Supporters would later prove to be my downfall, as you “bust” when you draw Madness chips in the War Phase and have no more Supporters or Wonderlandians to remove from a region.

After our first Tea Party Phase that kicked off the game and the subsequent War Phase that kicked my butt, we do our second (and final) Tea Party to prepare for the last War Phase. This time, I draft first.

I grab as many cards as I could that would give me more of the Supporters I lacked in the first half of our match. But I also want the one card I see that lets me recharge my Shield that I used in the last War Phase. Shields can normally be used once to block and return a drawn Madness chip, and with my luck, I was going to need more protection in the upcoming battle.

Then I get another look. A combo of Oh, so you think you learned your lesson and of annoyance of having someone take the things you wanted. “You took all the Supporter cards!” she says, now having to adjust her strategy to compensate.

Doesn’t matter. I was filled with a renewed sense of confidence that I must be doing something right. But higher power/invisible cat has other ideas for me in the next War Phase.

Another war, then the finale

More Tweedle fours for her. A particularly unlucky “draw Madness chip - block with recharged Shield - return Madness chip to bag - immediately draw same Madness chip again” sequence for me. And so on and so on. She was popping off again.

The second War Phase did fare slightly better for me. I did catch up on some Allegiance tokens – and now to see if they’ve won me the game or not.

The final scoring can be quite the event on its own. Throughout the game, we’ve been winning Allegiance tokens belonging to one of five factions. Some tokens are faceup, known from when we battled to win them. Some are drawn from another bag and remain facedown and hidden from your opponent. 

You want the majority in more factions than the other player. Her face-up collection shows her clearly dominating in numbers with the “Cardfolk” and “Bird” factions. And we’re both visibly doing well with the “Land Animals.” But both of us have a healthy stash of hidden Allegiances (hers a little healthier). Maybe I can pull off a surprise upset when I finally show that I actually have a lot of “Sea Creatures” and “Land Animals”?

It’s a climactic reveal – much more exciting than simply counting up victory points to see who has the greater amount. A single tile can make all the difference here.

So who got the majority of the majorities and won this game of Wonderland’s War Duel? Well, this writer is one who feels some of the best story endings are left open-ended, for the readers to make their own interpretations of what happened. No need to spell things out. And really, winning doesn’t mean everything anyways.

We both had fun. Isn’t that all that matters?

(For your viewing pleasure: Here's a climactic finish to another game of Wonderland's War Duel between Grant Lyon of Grant's Game Recs and Ruel Gaviola of Gaming with Ruel.)

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