Mage Wars?

Firstly, does anyone have a copy of Mage Wars they're looking to get rid of?

Secondly, is anyone actually playing it? Is it a game that's more interesting to think about, or is it just a game that's too hard to get to the table?

I like it, I do play it, but it is thinky, and finding the time and enthusiasm can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Last time I played it was at Geekway this past May. My wife would probably be willing to play it more, and I got the Druid/Necromancer set with her in mind (as the necromancer), but other things have pulled our (my) attention away lately.

If you have someone to play it with regularly that will commit to it, then it's a great, extremely rewarding game. But it is NOT a game you can just kind of pop out every three or four months and teach a complete newbie to play. Part of the reason is that it requires deckbuilding and it has all of the attendant demand for knowing the card pool, interactions, rules, timing, etc. But it is also because you effectively play with every card in your hand at all times, like having a 50 card hand. So if you don't know your cards, it's almost mind bogglingly intimidating. Then there are resources to consider, tons of statuses, keywords, tokens...

It is truly a hobby game, not one to be played off and on because if you do, you'll never get to really dig into it if you're always learning it every time.

And it is a bear to teach...

It's really an amazing game. But like Barnes said, go balls deep or don't really bother. I don't play it nearly enough, so I can sell you mine if you wanna get wild. I have a couple base sets and maybe the first expansion or two and a few promos.

I would have been so fucking into this in middle school/early high school.

I will note that every mage, including the expansion mages, comes with their own pre made deck list.

I am certain they don't fit any sort of competitive meta, but you can have a ton of fun with these basic decks. I've done NO deckbuilding and I just have the 4 starter mages and the 4 expansion mages (Druid, Necro, Warlord, Forcemaster) and I bought another pack of binders so I can just have those 8 guys built and ready at all times, and I just play those mages. Are they all perfectly balanced? Probably not, but I don't care.

Granted, deckbuilding is half the game, but just like Magic can be a total blast with a pair of untouched starter decks, Mage Wars is a ton of fun when you don't have to worry about anything but the game on the board.

As far as complexity, there's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many ability keywords, but aside from that, I don't find it to be that complicated of a game. You get to cast one quick spell and one full spell on every turn, and then you get to do something with all of your summoned creatures, most of which is a move and an attack, and you have markers that track activation. Attack and both sides roll and then you add up the damage.

I know the spell books make it into a super deep game and the sheer number of options can be a real mind fuck, but if you and your opponent are of like mind and you both fly by the seat of your pants, it's a real blast. It's one of the best 2 player games on the market.

For what it's worth I've spent more money (probably three times as much) on X-Wing than I have on Mage Wars yet I've played a lot more Mage Wars and had a lot more fun with it.

I'm afraid to ask Loter, but how much are you wanting for that collection. Also, any particular reason for two core sets?

I finally watched a video demo of the game, and I'm not entirely sure I see where the complexity or the tactical depth come from. Obviously, the demo was quite limited, so that's why I thought I'd ask.

Does the strategic depth of the game come from the deck-building alone, or is tactical play still important? Do games play out relatively the same, or do they more or less involve summoning a lot of monsters and then piling on?

Tactical play is important. There's a lot reactionary stuff going on since you both have a broad range of spells you can access at once.

For instance let's say the opponent sends an annoying flying creature at you. Some of your options might be:
banish it temporarily
lightning bolt to death.
put a curse on it
cause it to lose flying so your grunts can chew on it
cast any number of wards on yourself that cause it to miss
or increase your armor
or a damage shield
take control of it
have one of your minions do a guard action
summon a ranged attacker
ignore it and do something else

Or various other shit. So it's definitely important to consider what you might come up against when creating your spell book as well as how you want to kill your opponent. Yeah, there is a lot of summonning and piling on I guess. Wizards are good at that. If you want to enchant yourself to godlike power and rush the opponents corner for a beat down you can do that instead. You want mostly direct damage and unholy fire and shit you can do that as well.

There are no other victory conditions other than slay the enemy wizard so I suppose one could say the game could feel "samey" after a while. It's a big duke out and that's the entire focus of it.

Count Orlok wrote: I'm afraid to ask Loter, but how much are you wanting for that collection. Also, any particular reason for two core sets?

Uhhh I dunno, somewhere between maybe $50-75? Seems like that's on the cheaper side of things based on BGG prices?

Short answer for 2 sets is I got the second in a trade, prob wouldn't have actually bought another set. Real gaming answer is that it allows you to build and keep intact more decks at once, as well as get extras of some of the single copy cards. It's solid two player out of the box, but with 2 sets you can both get into book construction more without fucking each other out of cards.

Damn you all, and especially you Loter. That's too good of a deal to pass up. PM me with details and we can get it figured out.