Ranged

[Parliament]

I am pretty new to Mage Wars so please keep that in mind. It seems like many builds I see shy away from ranged creatures.  Is that because it is too easy to close the gap on ranged creatures? And if so, could a build with range and cards like Tanglevine, Quicksand, Force Push, etc be viable to keep the distance between archers and the targets? I really like the Warlord and know he is not one of the stronger mages outside of Dominiaton, but I was just curious about this. Any feedback is appreciated as well as any hurdles to this sort of strategy.

[Puddnhead]

There are 5 reasons that Ranged creatures are not generally preferred.

1) Like you said it's fairly easy to close the gap with a double move.
2) There are not many buffs available for the ranged creatures.  Only Hawkeye and Archer's Watchtower.  Steep Hill was only recently introduced in PvS and may change things a little.  One could argue that Eagle's Wings is an archer buff.
3) The Teleport Wand Gank.  An enemy mage with a Mage Wand that has Teleport can just kidnap your archers (or your Mage) and remove all threat from your archers.
4) Ranged creatures generally have low health and survivability, the only notable exception is Gorgon Archer.
5) Ranged attacks are Full Actions so you cannot move and shoot which exacerbates all of the above issues.  If you have to re-position your creatures then you aren't getting any damage out of them that round.  This is a huge loss in effectiveness.

If you can find a way to overcome even a few of those drawbacks it may be worth experimenting.
Key cards to investigate:
Astral Anchor
Steep Hill
Eagle Wings
Etherian Lifetree
Warlord Battle Orders
Force Wave

Those are just a few in addition to things you've mentioned.  The problem is that a melee creature can get to melee on its own power and be effective.  Ranged creatures generally need support spells and time to get their value.

I'm sure there are many others on the forums that can weigh in on this.

[silverclawgrizzly]

The trick with range is the misdirection game. A single Royal Archer is just going to be killed. But a Knight of Westlock in the opponents face beating on them is an immediate threat. If you can get your opponent to focus on a beefy melee creature(even if it's your mage) then you can really get dividends from your range units.

[farkas1]

The trick with range is the misdirection game. A single Royal Archer is just going to be killed. But a Knight of Westlock in the opponents face beating on them is an immediate threat. If you can get your opponent to focus on a beefy melee creature(even if it's your mage) then you can really get dividends from your range units.

I agree range are generally not meant to be left with out some support.  Yea they can be messed with through maneuvering but so can any creature.   I like range and they can be frustrating due to some of the things said but they should not be overlooked either. They also are good if you are able to divide and flank the enemy because they may be moving to get out of range but that could be your ideal strategy.  Some of the range effects like either piercing, bleed, burn, stun, daze, weak, ect are also worth considering.  Also yea they may be picked on but they are also directing attention away from your Mage as well.  Thoughtspores for instance are not regular ranged units but they work best when playing behind the scenes or jumping in and bouncing back. Yea quick casts help with that but many range units can do similar tricks.  Gorgon archer is so good but you could effectively get something similar by playing iguana regrowth and make a more difficult to kill archer.

[Kelanen]

Gorgon archer is so good but you could effectively get something similar by playing iguana regrowth and make a more difficult to kill archer.

Not at all - Gorgon Archer is good because of handing out double Weak tokens. The Life and regen are just gravy.

Some ranged attacks make efficient supplementary cards (think of them as a free Hurl Rock each turn), but they need some support, and need other threats that your opponent worries about more (or some reason he doesn't want to approach the archers, and can't Teleport your mage out).

They definitely have value, but require more work than just playing a Knight of Westlock or a Grizzly and thumping someone with it....

[Sailor Vulcan]

The other thing to keep in mind is that ranged ignores guards, unless they have intercept.


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[jacksmack]

The other thing to keep in mind is that ranged ignores guards, unless they have intercept.


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And in that case they avoid the counterstrike!

[Enti]

I think I just made a viable-ranged-mage. If anyone is interested in playing against it, go ahead, I have a game open in OCTGN!

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה
I just played a game of Necromancer VS Paladin, and my necromancer used 3 skeleton archers in the game (in a book that have 4 skeleton archers and 4 skeleton knights with an armory on top). In a book with other creatures, archers could be very useful.
Now that siren is out and archers that are not psychic immune could be just forced to move (and therefore not attack), all the warlord books based on double move + Archer's watchtower on turn 1 and Grimson deadeye + rouse the beast on turn 2 now need an alternative strategy against sirens.

[Sailor Vulcan]

ב"ה
I just played a game of Necromancer VS Paladin, and my necromancer used 3 skeleton archers in the game (in a book that have 4 skeleton archers and 4 skeleton knights with an armory on top). In a book with other creatures, archers could be very useful.
Now that siren is out and archers that are not psychic immune could be just forced to move (and therefore not attack), all the warlord books based on double move + Archer's watchtower on turn 1 and Grimson deadeye + rouse the beast on turn 2 now need an alternative strategy against sirens.

Or they could just stay behind the walls with watchtowers. Watchtower gives a soldier's ranged attack the indirect trait. And sirens call needs los to target them.


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[Beldin]

Now that siren is out and archers that are not psychic immune could be just forced to move (and therefore not attack), all the warlord books based on double move + Archer's watchtower on turn 1 and Grimson deadeye + rouse the beast on turn 2 now need an alternative strategy against sirens.

Grimson is a glass cannon in my opinion. He looks great on paper but is such a large threat that protecting him pushes his mana cost to the point where there are more efficient ways to do damage than putting in 20+ Mana and multiple actions into a single egg basket.