First step up from vanilla apprentice

[Fentum]

Picked up the game yesterday and played three solo apprentice games of BM v PR. Great fun and plenty of emergent strategy. Swarm, big one, big few, beat up, etc. Got tired of vanilla mages so went to apprentice book, half map but full Mage abilities.

Oh wow. How on earth can the PR deal with the BM swarm in this set up? Is this a poor way to take a step up from apprentice?

All help appreciated.

Played another solo match and found the fairly simple solution. Brogan guarding.

[reddawn]

I would suggest using the full board.  It can be a little intimidating at first, but it's necessary for getting the proper impression of what works and what doesn't in the game.

[Fentum]

I would suggest using the full board.  It can be a little intimidating at first, but it's necessary for getting the proper impression of what works and what doesn't in the game.

Thanks - I'll do that next. Two things seemed to cause issues in the set up I tried. The half board saw the BM swarm close very quickly and the apprentice spell book for the PR had few if any anti swarm spells. I figured that keeping vanilla apprentice other than introducing the actual mage abilities was imbalanced. I might even risk full spell books next time. The Hand of Bim Shalla looks interesting...

[Lightseed]

Use the full board it is awsome

[Shad0w]

Fentum try the full board with apprentice books and you will already see a change in game play and tactics. The biggest difference is on the large board the priestess as more time to develop her line of play. I have found good teaching matches are Lock v BM and Wiz v Priestess. When I fist teach I always have them play on the small board just to get used to the game by about the third to fourth game players should be on the large board.

 

[Fentum]

Thanks Shad0w. I am VERY excited about this game, so I am making a determined effort to take ... it ... slow.

 I have been playing boardgames, rpg, wargames and minis for thirty years. My three theme passions are fantasy adventures, civilisation strategy and WW2 tactical. There have been several very good releases in the latter two recently, but I have yet to find THE game in fantasy.

Mage Wars could be it.

I played an online game three to five years ago called Pox Nora. It has an almost identical theme to Mage Wars and many similar mechanics and systems. I racked up perhaps 5,000 matches and hundreds of hours. It is my favourite PC game by a long way.

So far, Mage Wars has the potential to be my Pox Nora of boardgames. I want to take it step by step and savour the emergent strategy and the learning of new tricks. The forums seem active with good contributors and mods so I'm looking forward to getting into it.

Thanks again.

Fentum

[Fentum]

Use the full board it is awsome

OK!