PnP Wiz-War - Part 3: Cards

Last time I finished with all the pieces for the Base game and the two official expansions. This left me able to do take really nice staged pictures. Like this one:

5 Player Board in Action

Unfortunately, I can't actually play the game without the cards.

Instead of doing standard print and play using Ilya's files, I ordered custom cards through an online service. I knew that I wanted nice cards that would stand up to lots of use. And didn't trust myself to get the cuts correct on standard card stock.

After doing some research, I settled on PrinterStudio.com. They do custom cards of many sizes. I went with standard Poker Cards. It is just over $20 for 234 cards with the premium linen finish. (The linen finish is like $1 extra, so I went with it.) If you print all the cards (Base game, 1st Expansion, 2nd Expansion, Community Expansion) you will need 2 sets of 234 and one set of 54. This leaves you with 20 extra slots for anything else you can dream up. I added 2 custom cards, 8 pick locks and 10 black cards. You can skip the community expansion and fit everything in a set of 234 and one of 54. This is about $30.

To use the website you must first have a separate image for every single card. They should be formatted as 822x1122 pixels for this service. The easiest way to do this is use Ilya's source files and a free trial of Corel Draw. You can then select the card and export as a .jpg. After exporting simply expand the canvas to the correct size and add a canvas color to match the border (xFFFF00 is what I used) in your favorite editing program. This works for all but the community expansion. Ilya's is not complete. If you contact Black Canyon on BoardGameGeek.com, he can send you the community expansion properly formatted. Or you can just send me a message and I can send you everything bundled up.

Once you have the files, it is simply a matter of uploading them to the site in batches of 30. Then autofilling once they are all uploaded. The one wrinkle is the site doesn't really like files with the same art so you have to manually copy all cards that have duplicates manually. It is just drag and drop, but still a bit tedious with all the number cards.

The site often runs deals on shipping or simply larger orders, so be sure to search around for codes to reduce the final price.

PrinterStudio gave me an estimated delivery of about 7-10 days. The cards arrived at the early part of that window. They were in good condition so lets check them out.

Why is Buddy an Attack?!?!?!

Overall I am very satisfied with the cards. They are clearly of good quality and all the colors are nice and crisp. My only complaint is there is some inconsistency across the card packs. I ordered 3 sets, 2 of 234 and one of 54. One of the sets of 234 has a slight yellow-green hue and is cut a little more off center than the other two sets.

Can you tell which one is miscolored?

Honestly the difference in hue is not the big. If you are not a perfectionist, like me, you should have no issue mixing the cards. Even if you can tell the difference when studying them, given lower lighting and focus on the game it shouldn't be noticeable.

If PrinterStudio had given me consistent hue and cutting I would give them a 5 out of 5. But I can only go with a 4 out of 5  for them. And only for PnP. If you are doing a game to sell, I advise a test run first.

Now that I have over 550 Wiz-War cards, who wants to play with me?