Blitz Mage Wars

[Biblofilter]

Turbo Mage Wars might be a better name?

A few of our players think Mage Wars games last for to long, so we are trying to come up with ideas on how to make a 30 min time limit Mage Wars tourney.

To reward aggressive play and to encourage players to actually win at tourney Mage Wars we toying with this scoring system:

Kill by 15 min or less 7-0
Kill by 16 min - 30 min 5-0
Life difference +15 or more 4-0
Life dif +6 - +14 3-1
Both die 2½-2½
Life dif 0-5 2½-1½
Draw  2-2

Rule changes:
Ban Priestess, Wizard and Druid (best defensive mages)

-5 life and +5 mana to all mages

No Armor allowed on mages

All Mage has +1 att die on them (a lot like marked for death) Wall of Thorns will roll 3*2*2*2*2

Completely untested. Would be nice to play 10 games in hour usual 5½ hour game days.

Suggestions and comments welcome!

[Sailor Vulcan]

Turbo Mage Wars might be a better name?

A few of our players think Mage Wars games last for to long, so we are trying to come up with ideas on how to make a 30 min time limit Mage Wars tourney.

To reward aggressive play and to encourage players to actually win at tourney Mage Wars we toying with this scoring system:

Kill by 15 min or less 7-0
Kill by 16 min - 30 min 5-0
Life difference +15 or more 4-0
Life dif +6 - +14 3-1
Both die 2½-2½
Life dif 0-5 2½-1½
Draw  2-2

Rule changes:
Ban Priestess, Wizard and Druid (best defensive mages)

-5 life and +5 mana to all mages

No Armor allowed on mages

All Mage has +1 att die on them (a lot like marked for death) Wall of Thorns will roll 3*2*2*2*2

Completely untested. Would be nice to play 10 games in hour usual 5½ hour game days.

Suggestions and comments welcome!

This would not be balanced. Why not just play Mage Wars Academy? It's a very fun and deeply tactical game similar to Mage Wars Arena, but with a much shorter playing time and its gameplay varies from Arena in some interesting ways. I play both Academy and Arena and they are both very good. Also, don't listen to people who say that academy is just arena-lite. They have no idea what they're talking about.

And when playing Mage Wars Arena, use a 3 minute time limit on the planning phase and a 1 min time limit on every other phase.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[iNano78]

You might also want to ban Forcemaster, or at least [mwcard=FWE05] Forcefield[/mwcard]. Or is it just assumed that everyone will have a Dispel/Disperse with "Use against Forcefield" written on it?

Have you considered shrinking the Arena? Maybe 4 zones in a square? Or any other ideas you could more-or-less port from Academy? Apprentice-sized spell books (e.g. 40-60 spell book points) might be a good idea, as that will reduce the number of available counters and back-up plans one can bring.

On second thought, 4 zones might make turn 1 Wall of Thorns/Force Push a little too easy/strong. Unless you also ban walls (?). Or use a 9-zone square (e.g. just shave a column off the standard board). A 2x3 board could also work, as that would still have the mages start range 3 apart... although "Move + Wall, Push" would still be possible on turn 1 with initiative.

[Sailor Vulcan]

You might also want to ban Forcemaster, or at least [mwcard=FWE05] Forcefield[/mwcard]. Or is it just assumed that everyone will have a Dispel/Disperse with "Use against Forcefield" written on it?

Have you considered shrinking the Arena? Maybe 4 zones in a square? Or any other ideas you could more-or-less port from Academy? Apprentice-sized spell books (e.g. 40-60 spell book points) might be a good idea, as that will reduce the number of available counters and back-up plans one can bring.

On second thought, 4 zones might make turn 1 Wall of Thorns/Force Push a little too easy/strong. Unless you also ban walls (?). Or use a 9-zone square (e.g. just shave a column off the standard board). A 2x3 board could also work, as that would still have the mages start range 3 apart... although "Move + Wall, Push" would still be possible on turn 1 with initiative.

I thought about all of this very extensively a while back, and I came up with a format for it.

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=15776

It isn't really tested but it should work in theory, even with the arena ability cards. TBH though I think it would be better to have a Mage Wars game that was "in between" academy and arena, using level 5 mages with their own unique ability cards and with their own spells. Something like a customizable apprentice mode where it's own sets and the academy sets are compatible with it but not the Arena sets.

Basically, academy mages are undergraduate students, and arena mages are professionals. Etheria needs graduate students too. A Mage Wars game with level 5 Mages with their own unique ability cards and spells and a 6-zone arena! Game length would probably be longer than academy and shorter than Arena. Arcane Wonders, make it happen!

[bigfatchef]

I can't tell in numbers, but what definitely takes the most time in magewars is thinking. I guess hard timelines for all phases could be enough to speed it up incredibly. Players would make more mistakes, but that is all.
I think I will try some “speedplay“ with a friend to see gow long a game will take.

Besides that all changes in size of arena, goal, restrictions and so on will all end up in some unbalanced game.

[Beldin]

Nice Idea, I wonder if just having timed turns or a clap timer, would work better.

The problem is when a rules question comes up. This is not chess.