One minor addition you might consider is swapping one of the Hurl Boulders for a zone-attack spell like Firestorm. It costs more in the book, of course, but it punishes an enemy who defends themselves by clumping their creatures. (Plus I always seem to find myself mid-game *wishing* I had an area attack spell, whatever the spell book I'm playing.)

Also, is it pronounced "Ick-the-lid" or "Itch-the-lid"? Anyone know?

My necromancer just got paddled by the druid. I built up an army of skeletons while he summoned vine raptors and spread vines across the board. A few well placed walls by him and my army was at a standstill. His plants ate it piecemeal. When I lit his mage on fire he extinguished it with purifying (cleansing?) rain. Deathlock scared him for a turn or two but vine raptors ate it. Malacoda gave him a brief scare but he took out M's armor and killed it with a full court press.

I made a few errors with the Necromancer, but the Druid was flexible, unpredictable, and resilient.

This is not Nam. This is Mage Wars, and there are rules.

Your apology (if one was necessary -- I didn't read the offending post) is accepted. If I had a nickel for every time I lashed out at strangers on the internet, I'd have a few bucks in my pocket with which to purchase Mage Wars accessories.

I posted a similar thread on BGG, but this seems like a more appropriate venue.

I'm interested in knowing if anyone has invented MW shorthand that can succinctly summarize the action in a game.

I'm imagining something analogous to chess notation which enables famous and interesting games to be saved and studied.

If no one has anything, maybe this is a place to brainstorm such an undertaking. I'm not sure if Mage Wars lends itself to shorthand, given the variables, but it might be worth some thought.

I've got a few ideas, but our collective hive-mind can probably produced a smarter result.

Here are a few thoughts:

The board should be lettered to facilitate precise tactical positioning as opposed to 'near center' etc. I think this makes sense:

abcd
efgh
ijkl
mnop

Mages start at A and P.
(A grid is another idea but having single letters as opposed to a grid numbering system uses 1 less character.)

-- the mages need shorthand 'names' for easy description, but 3 start with the letter W so...
WZ is wizard
FM is forcemaster
PT is Priest
PS is priestess
WK is warlock
WD is warlord
BM is beastmaster
BK is kumanjaro beastmaster
NM is necromancer
DR is Druid

If more than of the same mage they get a number so FM1, FM2 etc.

***

Movement could be something as simple as a carrot symbol so

FM>a,e means the forcemaster moves from a to e

*******

Thats all I have at the moment. Comments/critiques and (especially) additions and suggestions welcome

That's because a large portion of the forcemaster's mental faculties are spent on FORCE, so there's not enough left over for common sense.

This is true. The Sensemaster was unavailable for duty. She fled the arena entirely and devoted her power to the culinary arts.

Yes -- I revise my hasty opinion about the Libro Mortuos. I used it to pump out a vast quantity of skeletons quickly. So powerful...!

Mr. Saucy -- we definitely need an after action report of the necromancer duel.

I managed to get in a partial game last night, Necromancer v Wizard.

A few quick observations:

The Wizard uses a lot of poison effects (Gorgon, Basilisk, mine uses poison gas cloud) which are useless against the Necromancer.

A Deathfang with Eternal servant is an early, potent threat. Mine got on the board early & ate the Gate to Voltari, dying once in the middle of the feast. Fortunately the reanimate ability allowed it to keep the pressure on until the 3 round meal was over (*buuuuurp*)

Eternal Servant is a nice mage ability because it is free.

I'm not sold on the Libro Mortuis. If it channeled faster it might justify its 10 mana but it took 5 turns so spit out a minion. (10 mana + 5 turns to get a 5 casting cost creature is not a good rate, IMO)

While my skeleton dog was rampaging through enemy territory, the wizard was turtling up and I got out an idol of Pestilence, a brace of evil Clerics and Altar of Skulls. We had to end the game before the Altar got going but the prospect of dishing 3 damage to each enemy creature while I was bringing out hordes of cheap baddies warmed my necromancer's cold, rotten heart.

I give Bryan Pope & the folks at Arcane Wonders three thumbs up for this expansion.