Team Game Tips

[tidus99]

So embarking on my first four player game this weekend with 2 friends who have played around 4 games each and one friend new to Mage Wars. I will probably run through the demo at the front of the rulebook with him before the others arrive.

I have no idea which Mage will be on which team yet but I figure my friend new to the game will play as the Beastmaster and I will be left with the Wizard or Warlock.


One arena Board or two?

Any good Mage partnerships?

I remember comments stating the length of a 4 player game was rather long. Anyone found a good method to limit the length?


Any other advice for the team variant will be gratefully received.

Thanks

[Mestrahd]

On my second 2v2 game, we cut the life in half, and started with 20 points worth of mana on the board. We finished in just about 3 hours, which was acceptable. One thing I should note though, is we had the Wizard (Me) who had Mordok's Obelisk and other creature rush nasties paired up with the Warlock. That in all likelihood hastened the demise of the other team. In hindsight it was poor pairing. So I'd avoid pairing a anti-rush mage with the Warlock. Other than that, I think you should be fine.

[tidus99]

Cool so who would you have on a team then?

Did you use two boards?

[Mestrahd]

I'd say you can have any 2 mages on a team, as long as a suppression build is not teamed up with the Warlock. My first 2v2 game was Wizard/Priestess vs Warlock/BM using starter decks and even though the W/P team had much less life they were in the lead by the time we called it. I just happened to notice that one unfair pairing in my last game. The 3 creature Wizard and the Tank Warlock on the same team. Granted, the Warlock DID have creatures in his book, he just chose not to summon them.

Also, I think if you use two boards be prepared for a LONG night. Even with all mage's life cut in half and starting with 20 points on the board it still took us 3 hours on one board.

[tidus99]

Well I played my first four player game this weekend. We had the Beastmaster & Wizard Vs Priestess & Warlock.  

A couple of my friends were not in favour of any modifications so we played with full health. The game took just under four hours and ended with the Beastmaster and Wizard being defeated. With a new player I thought this was pretty good and can easily see us shaving an hour off the time.

The Priestess played very campy occupying only three zones for more than half the game. She used the time to summon a few temples, archers, angels and clerics. She also cast a couple of bear strengths and a marked for death on the wizard.

The Warlock as you would expect cast a lot of equipment to buff his attacks with the lash. He cast his biggest demon and used fire spells to weaken the Beastmaster. Although he didn't really play to the warlocks strengths and ended the game in his starting zone only moving once towards the priestess to be healed.

The Beastmaster was played by the new player. He focussed on casting lots of small threats and equipment for his mage. He did do some damage to the warlock but it was healed back by the priestess.

The Wizard was played by me. This was my first game with the Wizard so I decided that a wand with an attack spell and some hydras would be my battle plan. Chain of lightning was very effective weakening multiple creatures and then allowing a direct attack spell to take out a unit or two. My Hydra was also very effective before the sheer amount of enemy creatures dispatched him within a single turn.

In the end the Beastmaster was killed by a fire spell. We had both overlooked his health and two explodes had left him without any armour. After that the Wizard was doomed. The Wizard had 4 enemy creatures in his zone and two royal archers in range.



A few questions if I may:

1. When it becomes one mage versus two, how does the turn order work?

2. This is the second game I have lost because I have been cornered and had 4+ enemy creatures on top of me. Next time I will use walls more effectively to control the board. However if I am cornered again, are there any Wizard strategies that may save my skin?

3. The Wizard & Beastmaster were the aggressors for the whole game. The priestess and warlock didn't move from their starting zones. It seems very hard to win when your opponent casts creatures to protect themselves each turn and you just cannot do enough damage! Any tips?


Thank you.

[Shad0w]

1. When it becomes one mage versus two, how does the turn order work?

Player A, Player B, Player C, Player D

Team 1 is A & C
Team 2 is B & D

It starts with the teams going back and forth. Once a player dies i do not see a reason to change the play order so if player C died it should be A, B, D, A, B.... Because a player is out there is no way to avoid an imbalance of actions. But If I were player A I would take advantage of the action passing rule. You should often have lower action count than the other team.

2. This is the second game I have lost because I have been cornered and had 4+ enemy creatures on top of me. Next time I will use walls more effectively to control the board. However if I am cornered again, are there any Wizard strategies that may save my skin?

First off are you playing the original builds, the new builds, or custom builds.

3. The Wizard & Beastmaster were the aggressors for the whole game. The priestess and warlock didn't move from their starting zones. It seems very hard to win when your opponent casts creatures to protect themselves each turn and you just cannot do enough damage! Any tips?

First off are you playing the original builds, the new builds, or custom builds.

On 2 and 3 that makes a huge difference when trying to let you know the best way to approach the match.

[tidus99]

For question 2 & 3 I am using custom builds. I have two core sets so I put in cards which I felt were very good etc.

For both 2 and 3 I am after a couple of cards or strategies that will prove useful but also possibly improve my way of thinking when approaching this game. : )

[Shad0w]

Have you tried so of the current top builds?

Warlock equip
Warlock swarm
Warlock direct damage

Beast Master Swarm (Dog based) and not dog based
Beast Master 1-2 big creatures

Wizard mana drain
Wizard swarm
Wizard direct damage
Wizard DoT

Priestess archer
Priestess temple

[tidus99]

My spell books probably fall into one of those categories I would imagine.

Do you have a link to more information on those builds and the staple cards of them?  

[Shad0w]

Have you tried the search button at the top of the screen? That is all I would do run search, copy, paste, and repeat.

[wash17]

Something fun I used to do with a 40k group when thing started to get stale. Keep in mind, when we did this, we all knew each other's play styles inside out. When you show up to play, everyone sees who they might be facing and made a list [for mage wars a book] based on what they saw. Then, everyone would get into groups of 4 and random roll who their ally would be. This led to the most fun results when at least 1 or 2 people went with a build countering/weak to something else, and they either got good or bad luck in the pair ups. It led to wonderful tales of everyone working together, or stepping on each other's toes.