Arcane Wonders Forum

Mage Wars => General Discussion => Topic started by: silverclawgrizzly on January 06, 2018, 01:15:02 PM

Title: Favorite aspect?
Post by: silverclawgrizzly on January 06, 2018, 01:15:02 PM
What's your favorite aspe t of Mage Wars? What I mean is what do you live most about it.

For me it's the competition I have locally.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: drmambo23 on January 06, 2018, 01:33:19 PM
The fact that i can make any book concept i want with very little to no restrictions.
Also choosing any card at any time is sweet!
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Karadox on January 06, 2018, 02:00:10 PM
Mage wars feels real, every creature, every attack magic ... have the qualities one would expect from them.

A good example is "Geyser" not only that he is a water attacking spell he can extinguish fire.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: drmambo23 on January 06, 2018, 02:29:29 PM
Mage wars feels real, every creature, every attack magic ... have the qualities one would expect from them.

A good example is "Geyser" not only that he is a water attacking spell he can extinguish fire.

Yeah, when i first started playing i thought it was awesome that knight of westlock had lightning +2 because he wears metal armor
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: SirJasonCrage on January 06, 2018, 03:26:05 PM
It's the feeling of scale, for me.
The game's just so authentic in making you feel like there's an actual battle between two powerful Mages going on.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: silverclawgrizzly on January 06, 2018, 03:26:11 PM
I'm just a huge fan of the feel of the game in that it's very much a duel. Just your book, your wits, and your skill against your opponents.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Karadox on January 06, 2018, 03:35:55 PM
Speaking of this topic, if the artwork were not as good as it is I would not be so excited about mage Wars.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: DaveW on January 06, 2018, 04:14:17 PM
I remember playing a PBM (really... by mail... that long ago) that was similar... only on a big hex grid instead. The mages cast spells, and gained power from controlling the hexes. This was a reminder of that game when I saw it... so it had fond memories going for it.

What I like about Mage Wars is three-fold: 1) The strategy involved... the movement around the arena, and the flexibility in how you use your resources, 2) The similarities to chess as a game, of which I am a big fan, and 3) The fantasy setting, which I enjoy as well.

My interest is kept in place by not having "killer" spells that can take out one's entire opposition (though some of the recent ones have started to come close... Tsunami and Pillar of Righteous Flame immediately come to mind).
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Reddicediaries on January 06, 2018, 04:22:00 PM
My favorite part of Mage Wars is being able to play mind games and predict my opponents move.
There is no better feeling than directly countering your opponents play by correctly reading them and the board state and prepping accordingly.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Sailor Vulcan on January 06, 2018, 06:23:31 PM
The sheer amount of freedom to customize the game to play it however I want. I actually think of Mage Wars as a tabletop fantasy combat system rather than an individual game by itself for that reason. It's also why I really wish there were a lot more people playing this game. Most people play only vanilla of any particular game, and Mage Wars has SO MUCH potential for customization of strategies and formats that is largely untapped and probably always will be, judging by the fact that the game is 5 years old and there is basically no competitive 2v2 meta that I've heard of. Or domination for that matter.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Obsidian Soul on January 06, 2018, 06:27:44 PM
I like the fact that they have strong female characters that play as hard as the male characters.  The Forcemaster is the equal of any other mage in hand-to-combat, especially with the introduction of Academy, and the Priestess is still arguably the hardest mage to kill in Mage Wars.  It is one of the reasons why I think a Mage Wars video game would be so successful because girls and women would have strong female characters that they could identify with.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: zot on January 06, 2018, 09:10:05 PM
miniatures as cards that enable such a nuanced strategy game that can also be played at a competitive level.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Puddnhead on January 06, 2018, 09:40:13 PM
S-P-E-L-L-B-O-O-K-S

The pure genius of Mage Wars is the removal of the Draw mechanic.  All of a sudden you have unrestricted access to the spell that you put in your book to deal with that other spell your opponent put in his book.  No hoping for enough land, no hoping for enough removal no hoping for enough pressure no need to draw more cards.

Which, incidentally, is one of the major selling points of Academy to me.  No planning phase.  Go and grab your reaction card instantly.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Grimstringer on January 07, 2018, 04:32:07 AM
Tactical gameplay, you have to outplay your opponent, actualliy piloting the deck matters! the player matters much much more than the deck.

the distribution model is great! (except in core ) you can get all the cards super cheap, with playsets!

great deckbuilding,  picking any card you want,  grid,movement, the cards much the flavor

each mage is unique with his own strategies

the art is nice, i dont like the flavor text on many cards , and sometimes the game can take too long, but that's the only things i dont like in MW
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: SirJasonCrage on January 07, 2018, 06:10:46 AM
I like the fact that they have strong female characters that play as hard as the male characters.  The Forcemaster is the equal of any other mage in hand-to-combat, especially with the introduction of Academy, and the Priestess is still arguably the hardest mage to kill in Mage Wars.  It is one of the reasons why I think a Mage Wars video game would be so successful because girls and women would have strong female characters that they could identify with.

Is this what you like most about Mage Wars?
Your reason to play this game?
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Obsidian Soul on January 07, 2018, 07:31:45 AM
The reason I play the game is to have fun with my friends.  My favorite aspect of the game is that it possesses strong female characters within a wonderful wonderfully constructed game.  I also like the fact that it is not a ln overpriced CCG that requires you to dump $200 a month to remain competitive, that it is not a miniatures game that charges $5 for a $0.10 piece of plastic, and that it is relatively balanced (even though there are better and worse Mages against my play style).
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: exid on January 07, 2018, 09:15:39 AM
-> the quality of the strategy/tactical game
-> time with the friend i play
-> building time
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Biblofilter on January 07, 2018, 01:55:18 PM
two man enters, one man leaves :)



Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Kelanen on January 07, 2018, 02:14:25 PM
I like the spatial aspects of the game play - it's essentially miniatures skirmish game, that uses a board and cards instead of minis and a table.

I also enjoy the bookbuilding and customisation aspect - I love spending countless hours, tuning and optimising books.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Jock McFistpunch on January 10, 2018, 06:01:14 PM
I too like the spacial aspect.  I play a minis game on a regular basis, but this game takes the card game aspect and mashes it together.  I get the tactical movement aspect (no! I'm one zone to far away!) and the casting fun (traps and creatures and walls, oh my!) without having to measure distances all the time with a tape measure.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Brian VanAlstyne on January 10, 2018, 06:08:43 PM
It's fantasy chess to me. It's why I hate rush strategies. I like the idea of building up an army, equipping myself and my friends, and then finding the best way through defenses and the cat and mouse game.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: iNano78 on January 10, 2018, 06:11:19 PM
Favourite aspects include:

- how well the theme is tied to the mechanics (complain all you want about the number of conditions, etc, but no other game makes as much thematic sense to me as MW in terms of what a condition ability does in game mechanics vs what it's supposed to represent)

- no luck-of-the-draw (e.g. spell books replace shuffled decks)

- no uncertain resource system (e.g. no "lands"; predictability of resources; can save mana or spend mana, but aside from some small unknowns like Mana Siphon getting dropped on you, or Essence Drain, or whatever, you can usually predict with reasonable certainty whether or not you can cast your spell this turn/next turn or by turn 7/8/9)

- Dice. In general, I'd much rather have uncertainty come up in the power of an attack or whether an effect triggers or a defense works than on luck-of-the-draw in when I get mana or a powerful threat or a needed counter to an opposing threat.

- Balance, including skill to luck ratio. A good experienced player will generally win against a weaker inexperienced player, but there is some chance that an upset can occur. Also, there are good and bad match-ups between mages, but player skill and outguessing your opponent at a key moment, or even a good/bad dice roll, can still flip the balance, and allow you to pull out a win in a bad match-up.

- The game outside the game. I enjoy building books, just like I enjoyed building MtG decks. The difference is that a MW book is much more likely to play the way I expect than the luck-of-the-draw of a MtG deck, which might work as intended 1/4 of the time (at best).
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: Karadox on January 11, 2018, 03:21:55 AM
iNano78 that's exactly what it is for me, too. it really feels.
Title: Re: Favorite aspect?
Post by: silverclawgrizzly on January 11, 2018, 04:08:12 PM
The other aspect I love? The community. I've met some cool people playing this game. Made some good friends doing it too.