Arena vs. Academy

[SirAndrew]

I've been playing Academy for a while and loved it and was very excited to finally pick up Arena as it seems even more fun. However, just after I picked up Arena, I see more of a focus from AW and the formus on Academy, do most people like Academy more? I like Arena way better and hope it's not dying off.

[bigfatchef]

You are one good example of why academy exists.
I only play Arena and when you read through the forum most of the users prefer it as well. The only negative experience I sometimes find myself in are very long games.
As I understand it academy was created as an introduction to mage wars. A version that was easier to learn and to understand and that provides a quicker gameplay. Beginners sometimes are scared by 3 hour games with tons of rules.
I guess Arcane Wonders wants more people to play mage wars in general and with academy they reach the beginners. That is why they focus on it.

(But as my opinion Academy is quite complicated. Cards made for academy with different ruling for arena mages and the slightly different core-mechanics between both variants makes this worse)

Summary: arena is and will be great and academy will add more and more cards to arena, making it even better!
Welcome to this awesome game arena

[Sailor Vulcan]

Arena and Academy are too different from each other to count as alternate variants of each other but too similar to be entirely separate games. Academy is not Arena Jr, despite what some people might tell you. The learning curves for both versions of Mage Wars are the same up to a point, but after that point they diverge. Academy is easier to learn than Arena, but Academy skill does not perfectly translate into Arena skill nor vice versa.  I think of mage wars in general as an extremely modular and customizable fantasy combat system.

I love both Academy and Arena. But I actually slightly prefer Academy. It's cheaper faster and just as fun but in a different way than arena is.

Arena isn't dying off.

Also welcome to the forums.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Coshade]

You might be seeing more Academy talk right now because Forcemaster expansion is getting spoiled. Academy and Arena both rock! After you play for awhile, I'd be interested in hearing which game you prefer. The more I've been playing Academy the more I notice how awesome that game is.

[wtcannonjr]

I am a huge fan of Arena. I don't even use Academy cards in Arena games. I play Academy with my 10 year old nephew but play Arena with my gaming group. I really enjoy the tactical addition of movement and distance in Arena.

[Reddicediaries]

I am a huge fan of Arena. I don't even use Academy cards in Arena games. I play Academy with my 10 year old nephew but play Arena with my gaming group. I really enjoy the tactical addition of movement and distance in Arena.

What about arcane ward, disperse, crumble, remove curse, etc?

[wtcannonjr]

I am a huge fan of Arena. I don't even use Academy cards in Arena games. I play Academy with my 10 year old nephew but play Arena with my gaming group. I really enjoy the tactical addition of movement and distance in Arena.

What about arcane ward, disperse, crumble, remove curse, etc?

Nope. We don't use them.

The Academy spells are designed to provide more tactical options for a single zone battle. In Arena we find close combat (i.e. in zone or one zone away) developed enough and evolving with Arena expansions at its own pace. The addition of the Academy counter spells like the ones you listed tend to focus on the same lines of play, but add new depth to the cast and counter cast options in each line of play. E.g. more ways to remove equipment or more ways to remove (or protect) enchantments.

We tend to play Battlegrounds : Domination format now to add board control, terrain, new Arena configurations and timing to the game. These provide additional variations to our spellbook design and game play. We are not as interested in the close combat focus of Academy style of play. Consider us Movement and Ranged Combat fans. ☺

[dexmark]

I have been Mage Wars since the very beginning. I have multi-core sets, multi-copies of expansions and others.

From my experience, Arena rocks more than Academy as you have positioning and you can toss creatures all around the place.  It does run a little long and this is why we sometimes reduce the life of mages by 10 health points.

When you play more and you got a hold of Battlegrounds, you would not go back to Arena as the concept of terrain + board control + getting victory points token on capture and hold (can't remember the name of the token - V'tarr orb?) for each turn speeds up game play. 

The terrain factor is very fun. It changes your style of play. Would you let your opponent control that tile next turn that can produce those creatures or would you go for the creature guarding the tower? That tile that produces creatures can get annoying and you will get swarm immediately if you do not contest it. Battlegrounds will change your game play as you will have to split your army sometimes to accomplish different task. 

It's either you win by victory points or KO.  This battlegrounds also can support multi-play game play.  So me and my playmates always play Battleground map from now on.  Also due to the tile map, you can always change the look of the map at any given time.

[DaveW]

To me Arena, Academy, and Battlegrounds all are different games. The fact that you can use a spell from one game in another sometimes is just a bonus to me. I like the concept of Arena... two mages fighting for their life like gladiators maneuvering in an arena while spectators cheer and jeer is what I want to play. AW has done a good job presenting all three as options. Some people will like one over another, or play more than one however they like... which is fine. I don't necessarily see any progression: Academy to Arena to Domination, like some others apparently do. Just my opinion of course. Dave

[Sailor Vulcan]

I have been Mage Wars since the very beginning. I have multi-core sets, multi-copies of expansions and others.

From my experience, Arena rocks more than Academy as you have positioning and you can toss creatures all around the place.  It does run a little long and this is why we sometimes reduce the life of mages by 10 health points.

When you play more and you got a hold of Battlegrounds, you would not go back to Arena as the concept of terrain + board control + getting victory points token on capture and hold (can't remember the name of the token - V'tarr orb?) for each turn speeds up game play. 

The terrain factor is very fun. It changes your style of play. Would you let your opponent control that tile next turn that can produce those creatures or would you go for the creature guarding the tower? That tile that produces creatures can get annoying and you will get swarm immediately if you do not contest it. Battlegrounds will change your game play as you will have to split your army sometimes to accomplish different task. 

It's either you win by victory points or KO.  This battlegrounds also can support multi-play game play.  So me and my playmates always play Battleground map from now on.  Also due to the tile map, you can always change the look of the map at any given time.

How did the starting life reduction affect the balance and diversity of your local metagame?

[dexmark]

I have been Mage Wars since the very beginning. I have multi-core sets, multi-copies of expansions and others.

From my experience, Arena rocks more than Academy as you have positioning and you can toss creatures all around the place.  It does run a little long and this is why we sometimes reduce the life of mages by 10 health points.

When you play more and you got a hold of Battlegrounds, you would not go back to Arena as the concept of terrain + board control + getting victory points token on capture and hold (can't remember the name of the token - V'tarr orb?) for each turn speeds up game play. 

The terrain factor is very fun. It changes your style of play. Would you let your opponent control that tile next turn that can produce those creatures or would you go for the creature guarding the tower? That tile that produces creatures can get annoying and you will get swarm immediately if you do not contest it. Battlegrounds will change your game play as you will have to split your army sometimes to accomplish different task. 

It's either you win by victory points or KO.  This battlegrounds also can support multi-play game play.  So me and my playmates always play Battleground map from now on.  Also due to the tile map, you can always change the look of the map at any given time.

How did the starting life reduction affect the balance and diversity of your local metagame?

Reduction of the life didn't really affect too much of the competition. It just helped speed up the game a little from 3 hours to 2 hours (Arena). We normally play and we used up all the cards in the book (so much counters and walls).  Our game normally last 4 hours or so.  This is why Battlegrounds was better due to the victory points. We only try to reduce the life by 10 in Arena if we want to speed up the game. If we have all night we just play it out.  But sometimes it last in the early hours of the morning.

[RomeoXero]

4 hours?! Holy mackrel! That's a long ass game! Even my octgn matches take about an hour and a half at the long end.  What mages are you playing? When do you make your first nice? How many creatures do you typically have out before you clash? 4 hours is an incredibly long match