First time teaching: Types, creatures, goran, Stun, aegis

[Moonglow]

Just tried teaching my first game.  Now have a lot more appreciation for the person who taught me!

Having read through a lot of the early board game geek (BGG) posts, I just want to add my appreciation for both the apprentice spell books and the ‘how to teach mage wars’ resource.  While I love the spell building aspect to MW, if that’s all it had, I don’t imagine I could get many friends to invest the time the game needed to get hooked.  Even the starter spell lists have a fair bit of complexity.  The apprentice books and starting rules are perfect for getting us going, still feeling we’re having a good game yet not burning out the games welcome.  We’re all commited to learning games, but 3-4 hours when you know you’re going to lose is a big ask!

Anyway, we had a couple of questions.  I noted them down as we went and have managed to look some up and answer them.  A couple I didn’t think I’d found a solid answer to.

I do have one request.  The codex seems to skip a lot of functional game terms, like enchantment, mage, creature etc.  These terms are key to interpreting what a spell means.  It seems surprising that they aren’t defined in the codex.  I know many are in the rule book, but the codex is the quick reference guide. If stuff isn’t in there… we’re seldom going to find it mid game…It would be great if a lot of these commonly used terms were referenced in there, we were often discussing what an 'object' was, which are 'creatures' which arent.  Im sure we'll get to know these things over time, but today we didn't.  The codex could have helped us.

So our questions:

Is ‘equipment’ an ‘enchantment’?

Our call was no.  It seems implied, but not stated, that spell types are exclusive.  This was argued a little, as living creature does include mages, which are other times are excluded by stating ‘non-mage living creature’, but we thought it seemed a reasonable starting point.

Is the mage a creature? 

We decided Yes, and I then clarified it with this post:
http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=6442.msg6444#msg6444

However, references page 3 of the rule book which seems to have changed.  Anyone got a more recent/up to date reference?


Does stun negate both the quick cast (QC) phase and the Action phase?
Guessing not, as stun is removed after action, so would negate first QC, but stun is removed after mages action phase.  So a final QC spell would be possible.

Nope, turns out we played this one wrong.  Under Incapacitated in the codex, a mage can still cast quick but not full action spells.  This is where the best codex in the world doesnt help those who don't read it

I take it this then doesn’t affect the QC option then.


How bloodthirsty is Goran?

The card states that he is bloodthirsty +1, but goes on to say is bloodthirsty +1 when in same zone as his controller.  Does this mean he is +2 when in the zone with his controller?  (or just +1 with controller and is ‘normal’ the rest of the time?)  We played +2 with his mage.

Aegis X – We were playing that this applied to every attack, even doublestrike etc.  I found this link confirming this, but wondered if anyone could point me to a section in the rule book or FAQ?  I guess its covered by the wording of the FAQ that says ‘All attacks…’

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=3024.msg3032#msg3032

PS.  When I went to post in the rules discussion/general question section, its got the 'read before you post' sticky.  http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=48.0

This takes me to the main AW site and not to anywhere ummm more helpful for someone about to post...

[Master Ruprecht]

Hey Moonglow,

I feel your pain, the first time explaining this game was much harder than it looked like 
I will give some answers to your questions:

So our questions:
Is ‘equipment’ an ‘enchantment’?

nope, the spell types are exclusive, and they are not including another spell type

Is the mage a creature? 

yes, he/she is, and still a level 6 creature, only now (with rulebook v2) it can be found on page 13 (upper left)

Does stun negate both the quick cast (QC) phase and the Action phase?

you pretty much answered that yourself

How bloodthirsty is Goran?

if the ability reads +x, it is additive, so if you get Bloodthirsty+1 two times you are Bloodthirsty+2, with Aegis 1 twice you would still be at Aegis 1.

Aegis X

I don't know of any position in FAQ or rules where it is clearer than in the codex (as you said "all attacks"), so you played it right.

[Moonglow]

With Goran, we weren't so much confused about whether it was additive, but whether the second mention was just describing the condition for the first or represented a whole new bloodthirstyness.

[Master Ruprecht]

doesn't it say "an additional Bloodthirsty+1"?
anyway, he has Bloodthirsty+1 as his trait, and he gains another +1 if in the same space as his mage...

[Moonglow]

Ta. That's how we played it, just felt it was somewhat ambiguous and wanted to clarify.

 

doesn't it say "an additional Bloodthirsty+1"?
anyway, he has Bloodthirsty+1 as his trait, and he gains another +1 if in the same space as his mage...

[zot]

Does stun negate both the quick cast (QC) phase and the Action phase?

    No, the stun condition does not negate both full action and quick cast markers. It does for all nonmage creatures, but not for the mage himself. The mage is so powerful he can still function even while stunned. He is just severly restricted in what he can do. With his full round action - he cannot move or cast any full round spells. He cannot even make a melee or spell attack. He can however, cast non attack spells of any kind that are quick spells, such as enchantments, equipment or incatations. He is not restricted from revealing enchantments. Once he has used his full action marker, he is no longer stunned and can then use his quick marker to perform any quick action spells including attack spells.