Ok so I took some time this evening thinking about apprentice mode and have started to prepare some decks. I will create my own apprentice mode I think, as the apprentice books that come with the game are by far too imbalanced. Each mage will get a book with 60 spellpoints, has 8 health points less, there won't be any conjurations (or only a few exceptions) as usual and mages can use their abilities. This way there are less cards to choose from, but it's hopefully more balanced and prepares a little better for the full game.

I'm still unsure if I want to run two separate games or a free for all or team game, might depend on if we're 4 or 5 people. If we're 5 I can let the others play 2 games and help them without interrupting my play. If we're 4 I'm thinking about running a free for all game, 2v2 or all 3 against me on a 3x3 map, whatever the others prefer but I think it's easier for me to help and answer questions if I know what happens and there is only one game.

In addition, I hope I'll have the time tomorrow to also create some full arena books, based on the smaller versions, so that we can play a domination game if we want after the introduction. I still think 1 or 2 introduction games will be totally sufficient for everyone. We just played/learned Sid Meier's Civilization last weekend, where every player had 30 technologies or so to choose from and lots of other stuff to keep track of and that went pretty well. The important part is that someone (in this case me) knows the rules and we don't need to look up too much in the rulebook. Let's see how it goes

Thanks for your answers hmm thought it would be a cool idea to start off with a team game, especially because you don't know all the spells. In a team game you can chat with your mate, ask him what he thinks about specific cards etc, so I thought that could help get over the burden of learning the cards and in addition I really like the idea of the domination mode.

I thought about the Apprentice mode, but I really dislike it. The few times I played it, it just wasn't great. But I might think about using apprentice with the team rules or maybe give it another go, have to think more about it but I would definitely perfer to start with full Arena mages and think my friends can handle it, we're used to long games, where people take their time for their turn, so flipping through the book and thinking about all the options won't be a problem I think.

Is there a specific reason you all think that a team game is not a great start? I have only played domination once so far, but that was lots of fun and it might end up being my preferred way to play the game, be it free for all or teams. Being able to play well with more than 2 players at once is a big bonus in my opinion. Sure two separate games are possible, but I think less fun than one big game

That made me smile

I think there are enough people by now who would love an updated version of the Supplement and the Card Database. And I'm mostly quiet but every few months I appear here and ask how it's going. Maybe at some point I will come back and be surprised, one never knows, but my hope is slowly fading 

A conjuration with terrain effects or an attack spell with Frost, which I hope both will be coming with this expansion

Also a vote for showing the stat cards of the mages as soon as possible!

Ok thanks for the fast reply. I ask again at the end of the month, if it's still missing 

As the cards seems to have updated by now, I still couldn't find a lot of those cards which should have gotten an text update with the Arena reprint. Is there a way you can update the following cards as well? Thanks in advance!

Banish
Chain Lightning
Decoy
Dispel
Drain Soul
Explode
Gate to Hell
Goblin Builder
Helm of Fear
Malacoda
Mana Siphon
Piercing Strike
Reverse Attack
Reverse Magic
Suppression Cloak
Teleport

Thanks for the list, but without OCTGN I can't access the data. And it seems there are a lot more spells updated than were collated by joechip90 and the updated spells from FvW might also be missing, as I think some of them might got an update as well in the Arena reprint.

I don't know maybe I'm too nit-picky but in my opinion it shouldn't be this hard to compile a pdf with the pictures of the updated spells for the 1st (2nd/3rd) edition owners. Depending on the amount of updated cards I would guess 30-60min. A simple pdf with the new updated card pictures since 1st printing as was done for the three errata'd cards and than add it to the download section. I think I am not the only one who would find that super helpful.

I know AW is a smaller company with not much manpower, but as I said I don't think something like this would take long, but on the other hand would be such a great customer service and for me especially stuff like this will decide how much more money I will spend for Mage Wars, even though I really like the game.

This thread scares me a little bit ;-) I think the changes become too many. Why not start with some small changes, like making Dispel, Seeking Dispel, Dissolve and Nullify to Novice spells and then look how this changes the game. If this is not sufficient than we need to discuss the issue again. But hopefully this and the spells released this year, adressing known problems with the other mages (nicely summed by Laddinfance in the other thread http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=13773.msg32157#msg32157), will solve the problem.

I personally really hate the idea of different spell points for all the existing mages and thematically it would make no sense for me that especially the wizard has the least spell points and I therefore hope that this won't get implemented in the game.