Coshade has been keeping the community up to date on the development status of the Mage Wars Arena 1.0-Final Expansion.

This topic is for anyone to share updates on the development of any re-birth of the Arena product into a version 2.0. Are there any milestones in development planned for 2021? Is talent needed to lead the project and navigate the decision making process with Arcane Wonders? The last official word I recall was a survey that was sent out to customers requesting our feedback on what a re-imagined product would look like?

Curious customers are interested to learn what happened with our feedback and whether the product is moving forward at the same time as the version 1.0-Final Expansion project.

The Event form is submitted and just waiting for the scheduled dates to be confirmed.

Here is the link to learn more about the World Boardgaming Championships https://www.boardgamers.org/wbcindex.html happening July 20-28 at Sevens Springs Resort in the lovely highlands of Pennsylvania.

This years event will feature all Arena mages competing using any Arena expansion spells or mages. Academy spells and promo cards are not allowed for the tournament event but open gaming is available for the entire 9-days of the convention.


This event has no limit on the number of players who can compete, so this is a great opportunity to assemble the world's best arena players for head to head competition. The format is 4-rounds over two days which allows opportunity to play or compete in other games you might enjoy at the convention.

Tournament Overview
Player attendance dropped this year from a previous 3-year average of 16 players per round to only 8 per round. We continued with the Swiss style tournament over 5 rounds and two days. Players had the flexibility to drop in and out of the event as their schedule allowed while earning tournament points for each round they won. Players were ranked at the end of 5 rounds based on the total points scored. The tie breaker was the total score of opponents played to represent the toughest schedule. Demo rounds also saw a large drop in the number of players attending with 14 overall compared to an average of 40-50 in previous years.

Results from WBC 2018
Top 6 players for 2018 including their mage selection, win-loss record and number of mages killed.
1. Chris Byrd - Beastmaster (4-1) 4 Kills
2. James Newsome - Wizard (4-1) 3 Kills
3. Vincent Sinigaglio - Wizard (3-2) 3 Kills
4. Brad McCandless - Wizard (3-2) 2 Kills
5. Jack Howell - Warlock (2-3) 2 Kills
6. Alex McNally - Beastmaster (2-3) 2 Kills


Arcane Wonders donated gift cards for use at their online store. We also provided door prizes for each round.

Highlights from 2018 Mage Wars Arena
After 4 years of competition we finally have a repeat champion and his reign is consecutive! Congratulations to Chris Byrd on winning his second Arena championship with his trusted Beastmaster mage. While his 7 consecutive wins over a two year period ended with a loss to Jim Newsome’s Wizard in Round 4 this year, he continued to kill opponents in all the matches he won and this tenacity to finish off his opponent within the 90-minute round limit took him to the top once again in 2018. 2nd place finisher Jim Newsome continues his climb to the top after a 4th place finish in 2015 and two years in the 3rd place spot. His solid second place finish this year with his Wizard including a win by remaining health over Chris’ Beastmaster now positions Jim as a top contender for next year’s championship.

The remaining top 6 players this year includes one new comer to the Hall of Champions, young Alex McNally whose Beastmaster finished in 6th place this year. The other 3 players Vince Sinigaglio, Brad McCandless, and Jack Howell return to the top tier finishing at third, fourth, and fifth places respectively.

While the size of the field dropped this year we did manage to have two father and son combinations enter the tournament. Frank McNally joined his son Alex in first round competition while Aaron Byrd joined his father Chris on Saturday competing in rounds 3 to 5 with his customized Warlock spellbook.

Analysis
Apprentice rounds on Thursday continue to be dominated by the Warlock with a 4-2 win-loss ratio and 4 total kills. Oddly only 2 of the 7 mages selected for Saturday competition were Warlocks. The Beastmaster was second in wins on Thursday with 2 apprentice mode victories. Across all mages during the two rounds of play on Thursday there were 7 mage kills out of a total 8 wins. On Saturday the number of mage kills rose to 10 across 13 total wins. The Wizard topped the field on Saturday racking up 5 kills followed by 3 for the Beastmaster and 2 for the Warlock. This was partly due to the increased number of Wizards selected by players to use as their custom mage for day two. Mage selection for Saturday mages was 3 Beastmasters, 4 Wizards, 2 Warlocks, and no Priestess’. Only two of the top 6 players were able to improve their win-loss ratio on Saturday relative to Thursday play.

Overall the ability to kill the opponent mage in a match continues to be the strongest indicator to winning the tournament. Chris managed to win all his victories with mage kill while both the 2nd and 3rd place finishers ended the tournament with only 3 overall mage kills. The remaining field of players scored fewer kills.

Changes Planned for 2019
A few major changes to the tournament are planned for next year. One is to drop the Apprentice Mode play from tournament rounds. Second is the inclusion of all Mage Wars Arena expansion spells and mages which should add more variety of match ups and strategies to tournament play. The full range of mages that players can select from may also attract more competitive players to WBC. The demos will also change and feature an overview of the rules plus a preview of two expansion mages to be sure players have an opportunity to learn about the different opponents that they might face in the arena.

Thanks to …
Thanks to Arcane Wonders for their amazing support with sponsorship and additional prizes for players.

I posted some pics with my storage system for Mage Wars on BGG.

Here is the link - https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/4279852/mage-wars-arena

Move to the right in the list of pictures to see the different storage levels with game content.

Note - the picture to the left has a nice view of my demo kit exploded into layers on the floor with some art you may recognize on the far wall.

All - just wanted to share this fantastic deal that Miniature Market is running online for the MW Arena Battlegrounds: Domination expansion. They have lowered the price to $12!!!!

Link is here https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=mage+wars

All,

I recently submitted the event form for the 2018 tournament event at the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC). This event is now in its 4th year. Here is the link to the Event History covering 2015-2016. The 2017 results have not yet been posted. https://www.boardgamers.org/eventhistory/mgw.html

For those of you not familiar with the WBC convention, it is a 9-day event combining tournament and open gaming play with a game auction and a weekend vendor exhibit for small publishers of boardgames. Each event is run by a volunteer Gamemaster (GM) following guidelines published by the WBC convention itself. Here is a link to the WBC convention page for more details - https://www.boardgamers.org/wbcindex.html.

The WBC history can be found at this link - https://www.boardgamers.org/wbc_results.html and provides more information about the types of tournament events you will find.

I plan to be there the full 9 days and hope to see you in Seven Springs Resort this year to enjoy a weekend of open gaming or the full 9-days of tournament and open gaming fun!

Once the Mage Wars Arena tournament event dates for 2018 are set, I will update this folder.  - Tom

The WBC Mage Wars Arena tournament completed its third year at the end of July. This was our second year at the new resort location for the convention located in Sevens Springs, PA. The convention runs 9 full days and is jammed full of tournaments, auctions, and open gaming. Here is a quick recap of the results for this year.

We had a new format using a Swiss style over 5 rounds (two on Thursday and three on Saturday). This allowed players to play as many rounds as they wanted rather than have to end competitive play based on a single elimination game. This change received only positive ratings from the players so we will keep this format for next year. 23 players entered the tournament rounds this year and we had 50 players participate over 5 demo sessions. The demo participation includes some players who returned to play in multiple sessions.

Arcane Wonders donated a fabulous mix of prizes in addition to the wooden Plaque that WBC awards to the winner. We had door prizes for each round and the top six finishers received expansions. The first place winner took home one of every Mage expansion and the Lost Grimoire Volume I!

Top 6 players for 2017
1. Chris Byrd - Beastmaster (4-0)
2. Brad McCandless - Warlock (3-2)
3. James Newsome - Wizard (3-2)
4. Vincent Sinigaglio - Priestess (4-1)
5. David Wolfe - Wizard (3-1)
6. David Rogozinski - Priestess (3-1)

Tournament points were awarded based on the standard scoring system with players ranked based on their total over 5 rounds. The tie breaker was the total score of opponents played to represent the toughest schedule.

Results from the 2016 event are located here http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook16/mgw.html. Full reports for 2017 will be posted to on the convention archives in November.

AREA ratings for players of Mage Wars can be found at this location. This site currently has the 2015 and 2016 WBC results, but will be updated once I submit the WBC 2017 results.

https://area.kww.us/area/G_MGW.html#_

Thanks to Arcane Wonders for their amazing support and to my Assistant GM - Frank Hastings.

We had this come up in a game recently and I am not sure now that we played it correctly. (Sorry Nick) I thought this was discussed but couldn't find it in a forum search.

If a creature has the Siren's call marker on it, is the mandatory requirement satisfied by just moving one zone closer to the mage as the first action? This would be "at least one zone closer", but would then allow the creature to take any available quick action in the remaining part of its action phase except attack the Siren. So if the creature started two zones away from the Siren it could move one zone closer and then one zone further away from the Siren and still meet the mandatory requirements.

Is that correct with RAW?