...by the idea that we won't be getting another new-mage expansion for roughly one full year?

Please note: this assumes that what I've read on various forums is correct: that Battlegrounds and Academy will be released before Paladin vs Siren.  Assumption #2: AW is only working on perfecting one expansion at a time.  Assumption #3: AW takes its time to playtest and perfect expansions before release--something I wholeheartedly approve of, but does mean at least 4 months, and usually closer to 6 months, between releases.

We're getting some new cards in each of the other expansions, and presumably Battlegrounds at least would introduce a new style of gameplay.  But is there enough variety with the current state of the game to maintain interest for one full year without any new mages?

Or am I just posting sky-is-falling silly worries? : )

Spellbooks are heavy.

Now that I'm carrying around all four Core starter books whenever I go gaming so that I can teach new players, if I want variety in my own mage choices, I'm often carrying 8 - 10 spellbooks with me.  After I complained, a friend of mine told me to just put my books in a binder, using UltraPro card pages.  Good idea, but I still need to take them out of the binder for a game: I realized a standard college report cover with a slider clip solves that problem.  Hmm...but...then I realized: if I'm taking pages out to create spellbooks anyway, and all of my (for example) melee-oriented mages that use a Battle Forge tend to want the same cards...wow!

Welcome to the next level of Mage Wars! : )

Ultra-Pro sells double-sided pages that can hold 18 cards (http://www.ultrapro.com/product_info.php?products_id=1313).  Put them in a standard ring binder--a 1" size can hold up to thirty pages, surprisingly--and take them out as needed.  Now I can use the same page in multiple spellbooks--my books are now modularized!  The commonly-used cards, like Teleport/Dispel/Dissolve, that I always kept running out of, I now have spares for.

To use a good example, let's take two of my spellbooks, the Beastmaster Battleforge, and the Forcemaster Grizzlies:

Beastmaster Battleforge ---  Conjuration  --- 1 Wall of Thorns 3 Tanglevine 1 Battle Forge 1 Hand of Bim-Shalla ---  Creature  --- 2 Thunderift Falcon 2 Feral Bobcat 2 Timber Wolf 1 Cervere, The Forest Shadow 2 Steelclaw Grizzly 1 Kralathor, The Devourer ---  Enchantment  --- 3 Bear Strength 3 Regrowth 3 Rhino Hide 2 Mongoose Agility 1 Agony 1 Poisoned Blood 1 Falcon Precision 2 Retaliate 2 Vampirism 1 Cheetah Speed 1 Eagle Wings 1 Enchantment Transfusion 1 Bull Endurance 1 Nullify 1 Healing Charm 1 Block 1 Akiro's Favor ---  Equipment  --- 1 Enchanter's Ring 1 Ring of Beasts 1 Eagleclaw Boots 1 Dragonscale Hauberk 1 Elemental Cloak 1 Gauntlets of Strength 1 Veterans Belt 1 Vorpal Blade 1 Wand of Healing 1 Mage Staff 1 Bearskin ---  Incantation  --- 2 Teleport 2 Force Push 1 Battle Fury 2 Dispel 2 Dissolve 2 Rouse the Beast

Forcemaster Grizzlies ---  Attack  --- 2 Force Hammer ---  Conjuration  --- 1 Hand of Bim-Shalla 1 Wall of Thorns 1 Battle Forge 1 Suppression Orb ---  Creature  --- 2 Steelclaw Grizzly ---  Enchantment  --- 2 Bear Strength 2 Rhino Hide 3 Regrowth 2 Vampirism 1 Mongoose Agility 1 Cheetah Speed 2 Force Hold 2 Retaliate 1 Nullify 1 Block 1 Healing Charm 1 Akiro's Favor ---  Equipment  --- 1 Veterans Belt 1 Dragonscale Hauberk 1 Galvitar, Force Blade 1 Force Ring 1 Enchanter's Ring 1 Dancing Scimitar 1 Eagleclaw Boots 1 Gauntlets of Strength 1 Elemental Cloak 1 Wand of Healing ---  Incantation  --- 2 Dispel 2 Dissolve 2 Teleport 3 Force Push 1 Battle Fury

These two spellbooks share a number of common cards.  And many of those cards are ones I want in other spellbooks, and are hard to get in any quantity.  Almost any Battleforge deck with a melee mage is going to want certain equipment cards, and *every* spellbook is going to want 2 each Dispel/Dissolve/ForcePush/Teleport.  Just about any book with two Grizzlies is going to want to invest in enchantments to support those Big Nasties.  So!  Both of those books now use the same two pages, the Battleforge Melee Page, and the Grizzlies Page:

Battleforge Melee Page ---  Conjuration  --- 1 Battle Forge 1 Hand of Bim-Shalla ---  Equipment  --- 1 Enchanter's Ring 1 Eagleclaw Boots 1 Gauntlets of Strength 1 Dragonscale Hauberk 1 Veterans Belt 1 Elemental Cloak 1 Wand of Healing ---  Incantation  --- 2 Dispel 2 Dissolve 2 Force Push 2 Teleport ---  Enchantment  --- 1 Akiro's Favor

Grizzlies Page ---  Creature  --- 2 Steelclaw Grizzly ---  Enchantment  --- 2 Bear Strength 2 Regrowth 2 Vampirism 1 Mongoose Agility 1 Falcon Precision 2 Rhino Hide 2 Retaliate 1 Nullify 1 Block 1 Healing Charm ---  Incantation  --- 1 Battle Fury

If I want to play my Beastmaster Battleforge book, I take out the two pages listed above, and then add the other two pages that are specific to the BM BF book.  If I play the Forcemaster Grizzlies, I add that book's page instead of the two BM BF pages.  My Druid Solo book also uses the Battleforge Melee Page.  If I ever get around to creating a Johktari BM book, it would probably use the Grizzlies Page.  I now have two Necromancer spellbooks: two pages are shared by both spellbooks, and then each book uses two more pages of their own: one book with a Zombies theme, and one with Skeletons.

Looking at these two spellbooks alone, with the modularized pages I'm now using two less each of Dispel, Dissolve, Force Push, Teleport, Steelclaw Grizzly, Bear Strength, Regrowth, Vampirism, Rhino Hide, and Retaliate.  Those are all examples of cards I'm constantly running out of.  I only have one copy of the Promo card Akiro's Favor; now I can include it in more than one spellbook.  No more need for proxies!

The binder is much lighter; with four spellbooks of pages, it weighs about 1/3 to 1/4 what four actual spellbooks weigh.  It takes less space in my backpack.  It's easier to examine my spellbook during a game to figure out what spells to choose each turn, since I only have four double-sided pages to look through.  It's easier to put the cards back after a game in their original order, since I can quickly remember what spells go where when there's only three to four pages per spellbook.

There are only a few minor down-sides I've discovered so far: it's a bit harder to design and modify spellbooks using this method for example; I use a spreadsheet to list each page per book, that also totals the spellbook point costs per page for that mage (since the page's book costs will change).  It can also be a bit awkward in smaller play areas to handle a report-sized spellbook.  The actual spellbooks do look much cooler than a simple report cover; I still use the game's spellbooks when teaching new players, for example. ; )   To me, the many benefits of my modular spellbooks far outweigh the few minor issues though.

Hi all.

ACG's Portability Project (over in the Alternative Play forum) has led me to the point where I might actually be able to carry the game in my backpack.  I'd prefer to keep the cards in their spellbooks though, just for style sake (instead of using deck boxes).   So I'm trying now to find a container, cardboard or plastic, for my books and game pieces.  My crafting level is approximately minus five, so making one myself would be more hassle than it's worth.  I thought I would check here to see if anyone has any ideas; here's what I need:

1) Available in Canada.

2) Not too expensive.  ($10 - $20 ish range)

3) Internal dimensions of roughly 8.5" wide, 7" deep, and 4.5" high (21x18x12 cm)   Or preferably: roughly 13.5" x 8.5" x 3" (34x21x8 cm).  --All measurements give or take half an inch (give or take a centimeter).

4) Reasonably sturdy cardboard/plastic/'wood' material.  (A typical board game box would suffice for my purposes, in terms of sturdiness.)

Anyone have any ideas where I might be able to find something like that?

Hi all.

One thing has bothered me a bit ever since I purchased my DvN box: there are a number of cards in the expansion that are both (Druid or Necromancer) Only and Epic...and two copies of them were included in the set.

Why?

You can only every include one copy of an Epic card in any spellbook.  Since the cards are Druid or Necromancer Only, no other mages will be including them.  The only reason I can think of for two copies is for a future expansion which has the 'alternate' versions of the mages (like Conquest of Kumanjaro).  This still seems a waste to me however; why not just include another copy of those key cards in that expansion, if/when it comes out.

This isn't a trivial issue: there are 6 utterly wasted cards in a 220-card list: Altar of Skulls, Graveyard, Libro Mortuos, Samara Tree, Vine Tree, and Ziggurat of Undeath.  That's one more level-1 card we could have had to play with without changing the card count, or maybe a higher level card and a couple extra Teleports, for example.

Am I missing something?

--IndyPendant.

I don't know if this is the right forum for this post; if not, please move it to the appropriate forum with my apologies.

I would like to share my experience with AW's customer service.

About a month ago, I purchased a copy of FM vs WL, but never actually made a FM deck until about two weeks ago.  When I did so, I discovered that my FM spellbook was defective: the upper right sleeve pockets were splitting along that dotted line there, causing those cards to fit in loosely at best.  This is a Bad Thing (tm), for obvious reasons.  I'm on good relations with the store I bought it from, so I asked them, but they said I would have to contact the manufacturer.

I checked the AW website, decided to fill out the Contact Us form in brief, and wait and see what kind of response I got.  Based on my previous experiences with customer service at other organizations, I wasn't expecting much. ; )  --Particularly since I live in Canada, and there's often shipping issues outside the U.S.

That was late in the evening, Friday Oct 4th.  The *next day*, I get an emailed response from Customer Service.  (Can I say who?  She(?) was apparently the Director of Customer Service, I'm sure I can say that much.)  She says she just needs my address to send the replacement, and could I email pics so she can show it to quality control?  I fire off the info and pics that night, and mention some other minor issues I had had.  That was late Saturday evening.  Two days later, on the following Monday, I get a follow-up email from her saying the replacement spellbook has been shipped, along with replacements for some cards that I had mentioned and photographed (more for that QC part) were damaged when I bought them.

I received the package earlier this afternoon, nine days after she said they were shipped out.

So!  Prompt, friendly, competent, and efficient customer service.  Resulting in one very happy customer. : )

Thanks!