Getting into Mage Wars - "best" path?

[MuRRe]

Probably gonna pickup Mage Wars on Friday (core set), woho .

Anyways, been reading some threads about either it's best to get a second core set or 3 Spell Tomes.
I would LOVE the extra stuff you get from the core, but it SEEMS that if you only plan on playing 1v1 or your opponents also own the game going with 2x Spell Tome 1 + 1x Spell Tome 2 is superior in terms of cards?

But, the plan is to start with the other expansions, which order would you get them in if you were buying in quite slowly?

These are the ones I seem to find:
Forcemaster vs Warlord
Druid vs Necromancer
Conquest of Kumanjaro

[Zuberi]

I believe I already talked to you about the differences in getting a 2nd core set and getting 3 spell tomes here on boardgamegeek. Thus I'll move right along to your second question.

Forcemaster vs Warlord
1) Provides two new mages from two schools of training that none of the core mages have. These mages provide very different opportunities for game play.
2) New spells are mostly focused around the afformentioned schools (Mind, War, and Earth) which balances out the spells available.
3) Provides support for an Earth Wizard build, but otherwise lacks much support for the core mages.

Conquest of Kumanjaro
1) Provides great support for all of the mages.
2) Cheapest of the three expansions.
3) Fewest spells of the three expansions.
4) Provides 2 new mages, but the premade spellbooks can not be built with just this expansion and the core set. You need additional products. You could choose to ignore the premade spellbooks however and just build custom books. However, even if you build custom books, you'll have a hard time building these mages plus the original Priestess and Beastmaster, which means these are really more replacement mages than new mages.

Druid vs Necromancer
1) Provides two new mages which provide very different opportunities for game play. These mages have some overlap with core mages, with one being another nature mage and the other being another dark mage.
2) The new spells can be quite useful for the core mages as well as the new mages (at least the Beastmaster and Warlock). Although this overlap might cause some competition over spells.

Conclusion
I think you would get the most bang from your buck out of either Forcemaster vs Warlord or Druid vs Necromancer. Don't get me wrong, Conquest of Kumanjaro is great, but it doesn't add as much variety to the game as the two bigger expansions do. Between the two bigger expansions, I think they're both good and bring a lot of interesting things to the table. Methinks you'd be happy with either one, so pick the one that most intrigues you.

I would personally get them in the following order: Druid vs Necromancer, Forcemaster vs Warlord, Conquest of Kumanjaro. That's mostly because I like the theme of the Druid and Necromancer better than the Forcemaster and Warlord though, and I could easily be persuaded to reverse their order.

[MuRRe]

I believe I already talked to you about the differences in getting a 2nd core set and getting 3 spell tomes here on boardgamegeek. Thus I'll move right along to your second question.

Forcemaster vs Warlord
1) Provides two new mages from two schools of training that none of the core mages have. These mages provide very different opportunities for game play.
2) New spells are mostly focused around the afformentioned schools (Mind, War, and Earth) which balances out the spells available.
3) Provides support for an Earth Wizard build, but otherwise lacks much support for the core mages.

Conquest of Kumanjaro
1) Provides great support for all of the mages.
2) Cheapest of the three expansions.
3) Fewest spells of the three expansions.
4) Provides 2 new mages, but the premade spellbooks can not be built with just this expansion and the core set. You need additional products. You could choose to ignore the premade spellbooks however and just build custom books. However, even if you build custom books, you'll have a hard time building these mages plus the original Priestess and Beastmaster, which means these are really more replacement mages than new mages.

Druid vs Necromancer
1) Provides two new mages which provide very different opportunities for game play. These mages have some overlap with core mages, with one being another nature mage and the other being another dark mage.
2) The new spells can be quite useful for the core mages as well as the new mages (at least the Beastmaster and Warlock). Although this overlap might cause some competition over spells.

Conclusion
I think you would get the most bang from your buck out of either Forcemaster vs Warlord or Druid vs Necromancer. Don't get me wrong, Conquest of Kumanjaro is great, but it doesn't add as much variety to the game as the two bigger expansions do. Between the two bigger expansions, I think they're both good and bring a lot of interesting things to the table. Methinks you'd be happy with either one, so pick the one that most intrigues you.

I would personally get them in the following order: Druid vs Necromancer, Forcemaster vs Warlord, Conquest of Kumanjaro. That's mostly because I like the theme of the Druid and Necromancer better than the Forcemaster and Warlord though, and I could easily be persuaded to reverse their order.

Wow, thanks a lot, VERY useful .

I will probably start with Forcemaster vs Warlord cause I'm kinda set on starting with an Earth Wizard .

[barriecritzer]

you definitely want at least one copy of each of the spell tomes so you can build more than one spell book at a time

[Mrmt]

you definitely want at least one copy of each of the spell tomes so you can build more than one spell book at a time

in a perfect world where someone has unlimited money...

If he has no issue with funding, sure. If, like the rest of us, he has limited resources and wants to make maximum use, it's probably bets to get the core, experiment, see where he feels the gaps are and take it from there. For example, if he gets forcemaster, and decides to focus on that mage, and is playing against other people with their own sets, does he really need spell tome 2?

[kiwipaul]

Of course it is always best to play with other people.  Where do you live Muurv

[kiwipaul]

sorry, I meant mrmt

[MuRRe]

Yeah, limited budget.
Was hoping to just move cards around the books to not have to buy the core spell tomes.
The best builds out there, do you need Core spell tome for that?

Live in Sweden

[kiwipaul]

bah, you can have great varied and exciting games with just the base set.  There are always people who will b uy everything and proclaim the newest and its virtues but the base game can keep you in combat and strategy for a long time.

Hmmm, sweeden, a bit far away