Wall of Fire or Fog Bank shot down by arrows

[Demyan]

Hey there,

first, congrats on this game! I´ve read its been in development for quite some time, and from what I´ve seen so far (only played it once) the time was well worth it! Since it seems to be really really great!

I just got my own game box (which isn´t easy in europe - please ship more game boxes over here!) and started building my first decks. And since no one else can buy the game, I´m going to make a deck for every class, therefore I´m limited with certain spells.

Walls seem to be pretty handy, esp. for a wizard. We did wiz vs. priestess with the rule book suggest spells as our first match, and her archers were really nasty.

While the Wall of Stone looks fine stat wise, and the Wall of Fire seems to be ok (would be better with at least 10 or also 12 life), the Fog Bank is really pretty weak.
With only 4 life even the incorporeal trait means it wont last longer than one round. The Royal Archer will shoot it down with 2 attacks, with arrows !
Or the Wall of Fire and the Poison Gas Cloud.... shot down by arrows. It´s just a game but still wouldnt it make more sense to give cloud and flame types some form of immunity to non-magical ranged attacks.

While the Wall of Stone takes some time to take down, and will force creatures around it, or hinder their LoS for a while for an investment of 7 mana, the 4 mana for the Fog Bank are a complete waste in my book. Maybe it buys you time if your opponent is ranged only but it seems too situational to be of any generall use.

But maybe I have the wrong picture of walls in this game, since in magic (which I played intensively a long time ago, before the publishers greed ruined their own game) usually a wall was meant to safe your a.. for a while and not just one game round.

So, any1 ever put it to good use ? Because at the moment i think i will give to walls of stone to the wizard, the flame walls to the warlock and the other two will have to do without walls.

[BR3AKR]

Its been my experience that an inexpensive hindrance like a wall of fog can be a real life saver under very specific circumstances (hence it being a level 1 spell, so even if it's out of school it's only 2 spellbook points).

Quick casting that fog bank during the initial quick cast phase might save a creature (or even your mage!) from being shot by said skeleton archer, even if your opponent has the initiative.

Edit: As for the wall of fire being able to be shot down by arrows, I suspect that it's a major balance issue to have a wall such as that have such strong immunities. Then the wall would have to cost more to justify its difficulty to kill, meaning more mana for less utility.

[pixelgeek]

I suspect that you can shoot down walls with arrows is just a way to keep the core rules simple. Exceptions to basic rules are what quickly complicate a game and are usually the things that people forget.

Wall of Fog is great for breaking Line of Sight. Quite a few spells require a LoS to a target and a quick Wall of Fog can stop an opposing Mage from attaching enchantments or linking your Mage to Conjurations.

[Archwizard07]

Another thing to consider is every activation an opponent "wastes" shooting at fog walls is an activiation not being used to target your mage. I like to play a minimal creature deck and love when an opponent sends thier beasties at my fog or poison wall/clouds while I target thier mage with thunder bolts!