Is mage wars losing popularity?

[exid]

I like long games (under 4h it doesn't worth starting to play !).
And I admit that we take time to think, have a beer, a smoke&talk break on the balcony,...

[sIKE]

And AW wouldn't be prioritizing a variant with objectives and a boardless version of the game if these complaints had no merit.

I find this interesting, in the times I have taught new players the game, I have come across two distinct groups one is the mini's wargamer gamers camp (long games don't bother them a bit) and the other group is the boardless deckbuilding style gamers camp. This is the group that (I am from neither believe it or not I am more of a Euro kind of guy and don't mind long games) seems to have the largest amount of having game time be an issue. Quantity of games is higher on the list. The latter group is a much larger group of players and therefore (and smartly I may add) they are working on something the meets the Quantity need of the group but provide as the thread here has named it dice RNG over draw variance. I hope that this encourages more players to get involved in the larger MW world but if it is a hit in and of itself I will still be tickled pink....

[wtcannonjr]

The last session I played with my friend Nick lasted 12 hours. We played 6 matches over the course of a Saturday and had a mixture of see saw battles and dominate wins. We use a randomizer deck of the 12 Mages to select match ups for each game. Even though we didn't play the same spellbooks each time we still got faster at playing. This game definitely plays faster with time as you learn the individual spells and the patterns of combinations that are effective in different situations.

I agree with sIKE. Those who view Mage Wars largely as a card game want faster play to meet individual and gaming groups' expectations while those who view MW as a non-euro board game find the game experience more often exceeds their expectations.

I am looking forward to the new expansions because I have gaming friends that fall into both groups and it gives me more options to offer the Mage War experience to more players in a format they find appealing.

[Laddinfance]

Everyone, keep in mind it is totally possible for someone to love a game, and be frustrated with aspects of it. I may not agree with ProjectMayhem, but I can totally understand his points. However, we need to keep personal attacks out of it. This is a reasonable discourse, lets keep it that way guys.

Thanks.

[silverclawgrizzly]

We just had the joy of watching a new mage warrior make his first spell book in my kitchen....and the face palm of another wizard being born....lol. In the end though he went with another mage. It's picking up some steam around here.

[Coshade]

Chicago is really picking up in popularity. I am seeing new players out here all the time.

[wtcannonjr]

Chicago is really picking up in popularity. I am seeing new players out here all the time.

Great news. How about some new videos? We miss your sessions.

[Coshade]

Chicago is really picking up in popularity. I am seeing new players out here all the time.

Great news. How about some new videos? We miss your sessions.

Aww thanks guys    Intangible and I are both ready to make some more videos. There were a few outside stuff that prevented us from making videos (had nothing to do with us) for a few months but we are hoping to bring out some more soon! I can't wait to show you guys my Beast slinger in action   I'm hoping to start releasing videos in the next month.

[exid]

I thought yesterday about your "less than 2 hours games"...

we begun a Dwarf warlord vs Miss warlock shortly after 6pm, at 2am the bar closed.
I had to abandon an arena full of golems (I could have won in a few rounds), he had to abandon a spellbook full of demons (he would have won after a few rounds)... argl! far more frustrating than a good defeat!

[sdougla2]

8 hours to a draw?!? That is one seriously long game of Mage Wars. My initial reaction is, well, clearly the Warlord and Warlock spent too much time dithering and not enough time kicking their opponent in the face.

To give you some idea of play times I experience, one of the most long term, attrition focused games I've ever seen was a game where I played a hardcore attrition Priestess against an attrition Earth Wizard, and I won after killing 3 Iron Golems, a Gorgon Archer, an Earth Elemental, and Malacoda. My opponent still had another Earth Elemental and another Gorgon Archer on the board, but by that point I didn't care. Once I actually started focusing his mage down, I won pretty much immediately. I think that game took about 2 hours. Other times I've played 3-4 games of MW in about 3 hours. Of course, I've played 146 games of Mage Wars, and my play has sped up considerably since I started playing, but still, I've never played a game of MW that was even close to 8 hours.

[Boocheck]

They must throw you something into your drink at the bar . 8 hours? My first 2v2 match was about 4 hours. But 8 hours beween 2 players?

I played my first game as if i was a pokemon trainer. My creatures against his creatures. Now i understand, that name of the game is not creature wars but mage wars and i focus on enemy mage more often

I would recomend to chack one of "arcane duels" episode.

[Wildhorn]

I thought yesterday about your "less than 2 hours games"...

we begun a Dwarf warlord vs Miss warlock shortly after 6pm, at 2am the bar closed.
I had to abandon an arena full of golems (I could have won in a few rounds), he had to abandon a spellbook full of demons (he would have won after a few rounds)... argl! far more frustrating than a good defeat!

Did you spend 30 minutes every time to choose your 2 spells? Did you know that the goal is to kill the opponent mage? What made that game last so long?

[Biblofilter]

Yesterday i played a really interesting game on OCTGN which lasted 4,5 and which we didn't finish and a second one where my opponent died in turn 3.

I enjoyed the first match and kind of regret the second game (but he said he only had half and hour or so)

We had players in our Group that wanted shorter matches so we started using tournament rules - 75 min/game + finish the round.

I had an effect on my choice of mage and spellbooks, because i sat down and tried to make a faster spellbook.
Tried making a spellbook without a spawnpoint or mana-increasers.

Me personal - i like long games, but not unnecessary long games.

[Coshade]

Yesterday i played a really interesting game on OCTGN which lasted 4,5 and which we didn't finish and a second one where my opponent died in turn 3.

I enjoyed the first match and kind of regret the second game (but he said he only had half and hour or so)

We had players in our Group that wanted shorter matches so we started using tournament rules - 75 min/game + finish the round.

I had an effect on my choice of mage and spellbooks, because i sat down and tried to make a faster spellbook.
Tried making a spellbook without a spawnpoint or mana-increasers.

Me personal - i like long games, but not unnecessary long games.

Personally I like playing Mage Wars without the tournament time limits. I remember some of my biggest problems with tourny rules during a tournament is new players asking the ref  for rules because they didn't trust what I told them. It was understandable but it took a lot of time (like 5 minutes) to get everything clear. I also think the distraction of a time limit takes up more brain power that could be used toward game play. That being said I don't think I've ever gone to time in a match (although spellbooks like the blasting banker tends to go toward time more).

[Intangible0]

Yesterday i played a really interesting game on OCTGN which lasted 4,5 and which we didn't finish and a second one where my opponent died in turn 3.

I enjoyed the first match and kind of regret the second game (but he said he only had half and hour or so)

We had players in our Group that wanted shorter matches so we started using tournament rules - 75 min/game + finish the round.

I had an effect on my choice of mage and spellbooks, because i sat down and tried to make a faster spellbook.
Tried making a spellbook without a spawnpoint or mana-increasers.

Me personal - i like long games, but not unnecessary long games.

For those who want quicker matches or like the idea of going to tournaments playing with the time limit is a great idea. Most players don't realize the stress and tactical errors that comes with a time limit. Practicing under these conditions could make you a reckless player but could also train you to be more decisive and gain those instincts needed to thwart your opponent no matter the situation.

I feel that most players are with you on longer games. They prefer to play a deck that performs exactly as it should and that may take some time. All the while games that take too long can really put people off. If you keep throwing some games around with the tournament rules you and your players will, without a doubt learn to make faster decisions. Then you won't have to always use the timer.