A grand strategy wargame /civilization building game?

[Sailor Vulcan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_strategy_wargame

I really think it would be awesome if Mage Wars had one of these. Have no idea how it could work though. I mean, the current spell cards that exist are designed for individual mages to cast in an arena, not for entire countries to use in the world of Etheria. There might be some way to synchronize it with Arena tournament data, but I have no idea how. Still, if it's possible, this would be a really awesome and fun thing that I would really love to try!

Thanks!

[Ganpot]

Well it's certainly not any more of a leap than a Mage Wars dungeon crawler (I am quite curious about how that is going to end up working). 

Truth be told, I don't think a Grand Strategy variant would be all that hard to implement.  Mage Wars already has a simple built-in economy model (mana) and positioning of units.  Additionally, Domination added variable terrain and control points (as well as a 2nd economy resource with V'Tar).  There's only a couple things that would need to be changed / added:

1. Larger Scale - you would need a LOT more tiles to approach something like a real Grand Strategy game (we're talking 50 plus).  Plus a very, very large table.  You'd also need to use more cards (not a problem for people who have bought the expansions) and implement limits on unit stacking. 
2. Changed Terrain - it would also be far more fitting for a Grand Strategy game to take place on a country or continent wide scale.  This would require changing the artwork on the tiles to represent cities/mountains/fields/hills/etc. and making ALL OF THEM possess unique terrain (no blanks). 
3. Political System - especially when dealing with more than 2 players, a Grand Strategy pretty much requires some form of political system. 
4. Leaders (Mages) as Secondary - most Grand Strategy consider rulers/generals/etc. as secondary to cities and nations.  This would necessitate changing the victory conditions away from killing the enemy Mage (at best, it should slow the enemy down or provide an inconvenience), as well as reducing the overall power and importance of Mages (cities cast most spells instead, etc.).  Domination did do this to an extent, but it would have to be taken further. 

That being said, I cannot even imagine how much time a single game would take.  The vast majority of people wouldn't have the patience for it (as sad as that makes me). 

[Sailor Vulcan]

Well it's certainly not any more of a leap than a Mage Wars dungeon crawler (I am quite curious about how that is going to end up working). 

Truth be told, I don't think a Grand Strategy variant would be all that hard to implement.  Mage Wars already has a simple built-in economy model (mana) and positioning of units.  Additionally, Domination added variable terrain and control points (as well as a 2nd economy resource with V'Tar).  There's only a couple things that would need to be changed / added:

1. Larger Scale - you would need a LOT more tiles to approach something like a real Grand Strategy game (we're talking 50 plus).  Plus a very, very large table.  You'd also need to use more cards (not a problem for people who have bought the expansions) and implement limits on unit stacking. 
2. Changed Terrain - it would also be far more fitting for a Grand Strategy game to take place on a country or continent wide scale.  This would require changing the artwork on the tiles to represent cities/mountains/fields/hills/etc. and making ALL OF THEM possess unique terrain (no blanks). 
3. Political System - especially when dealing with more than 2 players, a Grand Strategy pretty much requires some form of political system. 
4. Leaders (Mages) as Secondary - most Grand Strategy consider rulers/generals/etc. as secondary to cities and nations.  This would necessitate changing the victory conditions away from killing the enemy Mage (at best, it should slow the enemy down or provide an inconvenience), as well as reducing the overall power and importance of Mages (cities cast most spells instead, etc.).  Domination did do this to an extent, but it would have to be taken further. 

That being said, I cannot even imagine how much time a single game would take.  The vast majority of people wouldn't have the patience for it (as sad as that makes me).

Well, considering that the majority of political conflicts in Etheria seem to be settled in the arena, perhaps there would be more of a civilization building/maintenance focus and less of a focus on wars between nations. Maybe most of the conflict would be something more like the Cold War or modern cyber wars than an actual war.

Come to think of it, does Etheria even have first and third world countries? Because the Cold War was basically a proxy war between Russia and the U.S. where they funded other poorer countries to fight in their stead. Are all nations of Etheria even included in the Mage Wars accords? Because if not, then some countries in Etheria only have actual wars.

[Ganpot]

Well, considering that the majority of political conflicts in Etheria seem to be settled in the arena, perhaps there would be more of a civilization building/maintenance focus and less of a focus on wars between nations. Maybe most of the conflict would be something more like the Cold War or modern cyber wars than an actual war.

Come to think of it, does Etheria even have first and third world countries? Because the Cold War was basically a proxy war between Russia and the U.S. where they funded other poorer countries to fight in their stead. Are all nations of Etheria even included in the Mage Wars accords? Because if not, then some countries in Etheria only have actual wars.

The political system doesn't necessarily have to be in-depth or the major focus of the game, but it is kind of important that players be able to negotiate and/or switch sides in a 4+ player Grand Strategy game. 

I was under the impression that Johktari tribes of Kumanjaro were basically third-world countries, but since the world is pre-industrial (for the most part), there isn't as big of a distinction.  I'm also by no means a lore buff, so I could be mistaken.   While a lot of conflict is resolved in the Arena, I highly doubt Etheria has no wars or political turmoil.  People tend to not want to fight fairly: if someone has a bigger army, why would they ever agree to fight on equal terms in an arena when they didn't have to?