39 replies to this topic

[rafastr]

I love this website, but I really miss here Mage Wars. Please, can you add it?

[Darksbane]

I'm working with the Mage Wars folks now to make this happen.

[rafastr]

I'm working with the Mage Wars folks now to make this happen.

GREAT =)

[Asmoridin]

Oooh, what is this Mage Wars? As an LCG fan, can someone give me the spiel as to why I'd want to play this?

[Nihilistiskism]

It's a hybrid between a LCG and a board game. There are dice involved. There is a board. You get to choose your hand every turn. Magewars.com has links to several informative videos. Dicetower named it #4 in the Top 100 games of all time this year. If you like games were strategy trumps luck, and building your deck is as (and, indeed, more) important as matchups and luck, then you might like Mage Wars.

-nihil

[dboeren]

Dice Tower ranked it highly because it's exactly the sort of game Tom likes. I wouldn't read too much into that part. It's a solid game but I think we're really waiting to see how it develops and what expansion model they settle into.

My only experience is playing their demo at Gencon.

Anyway, here's the skinny...

You do build a deck. There are mainly three kinds of cards: Spells you cast, creatures you summon, and gear you can equip. Mechanic-wise though they all work the same way. Unlike an LCG, all your cards go into your spellbook so effectively you have your whole deck in your hand at all times. Once you cast a spell, it's removed from your spellbook but you can have multiple copies. There is no concept of decks, searching, etc... You also pick a character, each one has different spells but you can take cards from foreign schools of magic for an extra cost.

For resources, you start with a certain amount of mana and generate more each turn. How much depends on your characters and possibly your equipment, etc... Each card costs so much mana to use.

You're fighting on a 3x4 board, starting in opposite corners. Creatures summoned occupy the board as well, more than one thing can be in a square. Movement costs actions. Their actions are, IMHO, a little futzy. There are two types of actions and they could use a clearer way to track them. I'm sure on BGG they've got a better explanation/solution listed by now.

Anyway, the mages and creatures beat the crud out of each other until one of the mages is dead. I'd say it's more like an advanced version of Summoner Wars than an LCG overall, but it's a solid game and it seems fairly popular.

[Asmoridin]

Huh. So there are some LCG components to it, but no random deck distribution (no shuffling), and no idea on the expansion model?

I think I've played Summoner Wars, back when it first came out, and had a decent time with it (reminds me of a better version of Anachronism), you said this was an advanced version of that?

[dboeren]

In a sense. For instance, both use the "cards are minis on a board" concept. However, Summoner Wars has a deck and card draw and things like that, so it's actually closer to an LCG in many ways except for the crucial "design a deck" part which is mostly not there. You can swap a few cards out in Summoner Wars, but not really make your own deck in the same sense as an LCG.

They've said something about expansions where they expect to put out more cards and mages every few months I think, honestly I haven't kept up with it. But, as far as I know they don't have any of them out yet which in my mind translates to "unconfirmed" until they start showing up and the company shows that they're committed to keeping a schedule.

It's definitely got potential though. Probably once the expansions start showing up I'll pick up the game and give it a more detailed try.

My biggest concern is that if you can play any card at any time in the demo your decisions seemed rather obvious. There wasn't much tension in the game because you never were looking for the right card or making hard choices based on not knowing what was going to happen. You always knew because you always got to pick exactly what you wanted and so did your opponent. Combat is done with dice so there's some uncertainty with that but I don't know if its enough. I'm hoping that expansion spells will inject a lot more tough decisions into the game, so I'm going to wait and see how that goes.

[Nihilistiskism]

I'm not sure what was going on at Gencon, but I don't think you've really described gameplay accurately:

There are two types of actions: Quick Actions and Full Actions. Creatures get 1 Action per round, which they can use for a quick action or a full action. Mages (the main characters) get both a quick action and a full action. I don't know what your experience was, but calling actions a little, was it "futzy?" doesn't make much sense for my interpretation. You use a marker to denote whether a character has acted or not in a round.

For the decks:

You get to build your custom spellbook (deck), and then each round you may select two cards from your spellbook to go into your hand. Your spellbook is not your hand. Your hand is 2 cards from your spellbook, chosen at the beginning of each round.

Since you never know what your opponent may or may not have included in his or her spellbook (deck), much like an LCG, you are actually always wondering what your opponent may have in his or her hand of 2 cards. There are lots of counter-cards in the game, right now, everything from cancelling spells to destroying equipment. To say that there's not "tension" in the game because you "know" what your opponent is going to do is simply inaccurate.

And the 1st expansion with new cards and Mages is supposed to ship the 1st week of January.

-nihil

[dboeren]

Some of this may be because it was a demo rather than a real game? We weren't instructed to keep our spellbooks secret for example.

We were given a weird 2-ended wooden cylinder to track actions and they probably explained it poorly because both of us kept asking questions about it throughout the game. It might be simpler than it felt then.

They did have us pick 2 cards, but it wasn't clear how this mattered much since you picked them immediately prior to playing them. ie - if you can plan 2 cards ahead it didn't seem like much of a limiting factor so that the difference between a 2-card hand and a spellbook-sized hand was small. Granted, sometimes you might change your mind depending on how your combat went I suppose.

I'm getting the overall vibe though that we simply received an inadequate demonstration of the game and I need to give it another try. I've seen that happen before at cons where they're under time pressure to cram in as many demos as they can and end up pressing people into service who may or may not have a deep understanding of the game

[Nihilistiskism]

Some of this may be because it was a demo rather than a real game? We weren't instructed to keep our spellbooks secret for example.

We were given a weird 2-ended wooden cylinder to track actions and they probably explained it poorly because both of us kept asking questions about it throughout the game. It might be simpler than it felt then.

They did have us pick 2 cards, but it wasn't clear how this mattered much since you picked them immediately prior to playing them. ie - if you can plan 2 cards ahead it didn't seem like much of a limiting factor so that the difference between a 2-card hand and a spellbook-sized hand was small. Granted, sometimes you might change your mind depending on how your combat went I suppose.

I'm getting the overall vibe though that we simply received an inadequate demonstration of the game and I need to give it another try. I've seen that happen before at cons where they're under time pressure to cram in as many demos as they can and end up pressing people into service who may or may not have a deep understanding of the game

Basically you are correct. I did not demo at Gencon (my friend did), and he has expressed that the demo was "different" than actual play, and I didn't bother to get him to expound. It seems that they dumbed things down significantly for the demo due to time constraints.

The cylinder is a solid color. On one end there is a symbol, and on the other end it is blank. When you play a creature it gets a cylinder, and it has a "summoning sickness" so the cylinder is blank-side up. At the beginning of each round you turn all cylinders over to symbol-side up. When you use a creature's action you turn the cylinder to denote that the creature has acted.

What makes the hand unique is that you get to pick it. You have a full spellbook at your disposal, but in a given turn you get only two spells from your spellbook, baring special circumstances. Players pick their hands simultaneously, and they are hidden from the opponent. It's a huge strategy to decide what you need to do proactively for your strategy vs. what you might need to do reactively to protect your strategy. Since you never know what your opponent has in his or her hand, much less what kinds of spells your opponent is even running in his or her deck, it can be highly suspenseful from turn to turn.

-nihil

[Darksbane]

For those wanting an update. The database is done with the exception of a couple of artists I still have to fill in, the advanced card search is working although I'm likely going to be adding to the searchable fields, and the deckbuilder is coming along nicely.

Current deck builder items that are done

• choosing a mage (including picking what type of school the Wizard uses)
• Searching for and returning cards
• adding and removing cards from a deck
• exporting the deck as BBCode and Text file
• Saving the deck online

Items to be done before I can do some beta testing

• loading a saved deck and updating a saved deck
• Submitting a deck to the site
• graphs
• card popups
• submitted decks section

I'll keep everyone posted on the progress,

[sviftrup]

Items to be done before I can do some beta testing

• loading a saved deck and updating a saved deck
• Submitting a deck to the site
• graphs
• card popups
• submitted decks section

I'll be happy to help testing. I'm new to this place but was lured here with the prospect of Mage Wars being added. Great site. Makes me want to play even more games.

With Best Regards,
sviftrup

[rafastr]

Great!!!
Thanks for your work.

[Darksbane]

Just an update, the database and card search will be opened on Saturday and I hope to have the deckbuilder done and in beta testing not long after that.

[sviftrup]

Just an update, the database and card search will be opened on Saturday and I hope to have the deckbuilder done and in beta testing not long after that.

Great news! Thanks for working on it!

[MisterL]

Found this website here because of a thread on the magewars.com-forums. Awesome!

Seems like im here at the exact right time, few minutes after registering i saw you added the "magewars"-button on the topmenu.

Just checked the database and found three things i want to mention:


Missing Cards

1. Deathlock (Conjuration)
2. Emerald Tegu (Creature)

Typo

1. Gate to Hell



Thank you for the effort!

[Bjorne]

Great, thanks for doing this. Can't wait to get the deck builder!

[Deefer]

I too came here by way of Mage Wars (although I've been here before when dabbling in GoT and W:I).
can't wait for the Mage Wars deck building aspect.

As much as I like GoT and W:I, MW is the first one that has me wanting to get in there and really do some customization.

Really lookinf forward to the deck builder portion.

[Koz]

Any word on when this will be done? The expansion is due out soon which means that almost as soon as this becomes available it won't be up to date with the current card pool. Hopefully it won't take to long to get the expansion put in after it comes out, but is there any word on when the deckbuilder will be ready for general use?