Thank you so much everyone, your kind words mean a lot to me and I appreciate it!

This truly is a great set of friends and community.  Sailor, not leaving the community, just my position.  I'll keep playing Mage Wars for sure!

I'm happy to share that we have posted the rulebook for Mage Wars Academy online today under the Resources and Downloads page.  You can see more here: http://www.arcanewonders.com/resources-and-downloads

The street date for Academy is scheduled for November 11th, worldwide, and we're looking forward to getting this game into your hands for everyone to enjoy!

Hello everyone,

First, I wanted to give everyone the good news that Academy is online for pre-orders today!

http://store.arcanewonders.com/product.php?productid=17705&cat=254&page=1

We're very excited about this!  Academy will provide both fast game play and deep strategy Mage Wars players have become familiar with, and ultimately, bring new players to our game.

As you may know, I'm a pretty transparent person.  I know that while we're thrilled with this announcement, many of you are saying "November!? Great, where's everything else like PvS and Battlegrounds?" So, I wanted to address the "Elephant in the room" and be forthcoming with everyone.

As we announced recently on our web site, Battlegrounds has been delayed due to manufacturing issues out of our control, and we're targeting October for it's release.  This was unforeseen and unfortunate and while we originally believed it would not, it has impacted our production schedule for other items.  We had plans and goals with Academy to full release at Gen Con, but that is obviously not the case.  Thankfully, those who played Academy at Gen Con can tell you, the game was a big success so the full release should be very popular with many players.

This means that yes, PvS will most likely push to early next year. I can tell you that in addition to finalizing PvS, many of you have heard of some of the follow on products (through interviews and podcasts) that we have planned after it; yes, there are two more expansions in the work, set to release after PvS, for Arena.  In parallel we are planning to release more mages through small expansions for Academy too.  When it comes to Arena, PvS is THE next item in our sights.  We are very confident with where PvS is heading and we think the final product will make many players happy.

For this, I can not apologize enough to you, our community.  You love our game, and it's evident in your passion here on the boards and in public when I meet you at conventions. We love you, and your passion, and while I could use all the phrases you've heard before, I'm not here today to give you a "company line", I'm here to simply say, we have an awesome game in Academy coming out asap, and we're working very hard to get you what you want for both it, and Arena to be supported more.

It's our goal to make great games, not cut corners, and with the best intentions and plans at hand, no matter the outside forces that rear their heads in challenge, we want you to know that we hear you, we're listening, and we're working hard to bring you the best possible product we can.

As always, if you have any questions, let us know.  Aaron and I are here for you, and we're happy to answer anything and everything we can.

I'll see you in the Arena... or at the Academy

Scott

Vice President
Business Development

First, I like must say that I agree with everyone in here that AW is doing an amazing job and your transparency is really appreciated.

Second, is it obvious to keep plan as is after an incident like this?
I mean, when a new and sudden setbacks like this emerges isn't a new adapted plan the best way to approach it? Yes, we (the fan base) have been starved for new releases over a year now, but I'm not sure the cure for this is to throw out a bunch of things at the same time (or within a narrow window). Now I don't know when PVS is planned to be released, but I think AW has worked their ass off to get a really amazing product in Domination. Why not let it get its time out there for fans to try its inside out? Without disturbens of other realeases.

Academy is a different story. It is a standalone game which has a life of its own. Maybe it would be better to throw things around and release the first expansion for Academy before PVS to make the stream of products have a better pace?

We will be looking at timing and not just "flood" anyone for sure.

I just want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone.  I, personally, was very concerned about this message.  As most of you know, I came to Arcane Wonders to work, leaving a steady corporate job, as I believe in Mage Wars, and I believe in Aaron and Bryan, our design team.  I love Mage Wars, and it's my favorite game of all time, but it does my heart good to hear all the positive feedback, both here, and in the emails we've received from making the announcement on our newsletter.

We have an amazing community, and yes, we work 100%+ for everyone out there.  We know we're not WOTC with multitudes of finance and designers, but we believe Mage Wars offers something no other games offer in the space, true strategic gameplay without the luck of the draw.

I can't thank you all enough for the support, the love, and the comradery during this time.  While yes, we are pretty dissapointed with this issue, and not being able to have this on your tables as planned, it's tremendous to hear that so many of you believe in what we do.

Thank you all!

It's unfortunate but it isn't Arcane Wonders' fault. & it's certainly better than releasing an inferior product.

The question now is, how does this change the release schedule of the upcoming products, if at all?

Academy, PVS, and the DTE line are separate from this and should not be impacted.  Academy is still scheduled for pre-release at Gen Con and full release later this year, and the team is working on PVS, Onitama, City of Gears, and Royals as well for the DTE line.

The pest trait is a big deal. He would be the perfect guard without it. Also if you see him you can make a lot of assumptions about your opponents book. That being said - he is a great!

Yes it is, especially in Academy when you're all in the same zone and guarding becomes a gigantic tactical maneuver.

Is his attack "greatsword" or "Hammer of Judgement"? According to the podcast it's greatsword, but the card image says "Hammer of Judgement"

As we mentioned, he's still "under development" and the card changed from the time we recorded the podcast to the time we posted this in terms of the attack name