One of the most anticipated card-driven game of this year so far, was Mage Wars. It underwent over 5 years of development and was finally presented to the masses on September, 2012. And boy what a September that was, when I finally got my hands on it!
What's This Game About?
Mage Wars is a card-game, that features Mages of different philosophies and ideologies that come from different schools of magic, who settle theyre score in a magically bound arena, where claiming the victory is the purpose of proving theyre superiority. In the game, you are able to control one of the chosen mages, which are: Beastmaster,Warlock,Priesteress and Wizard! The mage you choose is pitted against the other(which was chosen by the opponent), where your goal is to deal enough damage to the opponents mage. You use your spellbook to summon and command mighty creatures, conjure objects, fling powerful attack spells, invoke incantations and apply deadly or life saving enchantments. You are also able to equip yourself with awesome equipment! The best part about this game, is that you can put almost any spell into your spellbook, for example, you can be a Holy Priesteress that would summon Skeletons or command creatures of the Nature! What's more better, is that there is no drawing factor involved. You can simply pick your spells from the spell book and use them afterwards. This removes the obscure sense of trying to draw that certain card you would need, because, hey, your a Mage that flips the spell books pages and picks which of them are vital. With over 300 cards that the base game provides, the limit to build different spellbooks is never ending!
What's in the Box?
The game comes with 322 cards, almost each one having several copies of it. There is also big-ass Arena Gameboard, which is awesomely illustrated. Other noteworthy component is a d12 die, which is used to apply different types of conditional effects. Besides that, there are some chips, like damage/mana/guard tokens and 9 damage d6 dices. The box itself is quite big for a card game, but it was designed with an intention to store future expansions in it. There are several empty card holders, which are great to separate different schools of magic cards. And finally, the greatest components that are included in the box are the spell books. These could be called card albums, but don't you dare to call 'em, cause you 'aint no Mighty Mage if you think a card album could handle them scribed Fireballs! *Cough*, so the spell book has about 20-30 transparent pages, which one of them can hold 4 cards in it. It is a great addition to the game and I absolutely love it!
I'm New to Board Games/Card Games/Concepts of Gameplay ... Is This Game Going to Be Hard to Learn?
Absolutely not! Although it does provide 44 page rulebook, but most of it covers a very brief walkthrough the game's most important mechanics and ideas. Although it does contain a lot of special conditions and traits, but all of them are listed in the Codex part of the rulebook and after playing a few games, you get quickly familliarized with them. There are also pre-built spellbooks that are included in the rulebook, so you can easily jump into the game for the first time, not bothering yourself to build that dream spellbook of yours!
How Is It Played?
First, you must build a spellbook and pick one of the four mages. All of the mages provide a unique style of gameplay and all of them are specialized in different types of magic. To build a spellbok, you can start putting all sorts of cards into it. The limit of cards that the spellbook can have in this game is defined by spell points, which every mage gets 120 of them. Each and every spell you put, costs some spell points. For example, a Fireball attack spell costs 2 spell points, which belong to Fire School. If your mage is trained in that school, than the cost to put it into your spell book is the original one. However, if you are not trained in that particuliar school, this will cost you twice. Furthermore, some mages are completely ignorant of these schools, so they cost them triple! So let's say I want to put in that Fireball, that costs 2 spell points! If I chose to play with Warlock, this would cost me 2 points, because he is trained in this school, but if my mage would be Priestress, this would cost her 4 points,because she isn't trained in it! Finally, Beastmaster, that is trained in Nature school, naturally resents fire, so it would cost him 6 spell points. So you keep shoving in those cards into the spell book, when you finally hit the 120 points limit. Alas, you can start the battle! The game is divided into two stages: Ready and Action stages. In ready stage, both mages simultaneously channel mana, which are these static income sources of magic points that you get every Ready Stage turn, for example you channel 10 mana points and you had 4 mana left after the last Action stage, which means you would have now 14 mana, this easily lets you strategize and use mana efficiently!You also pay the upkeep costs for certain conditions and pick TWO cards from the spell book. These two cards will be used in the Action Stage. Which we come to this part: the Action Stage! In here, the one who has the Initiative, begins the turn! Each turn, a player may activate one of his creatures (including the mage he is controlling, he is also participating in the arena) to do certain actions. Those could be moving, attacking, guarding and if your a mage or a certain creature(that is also allowed to cast spells) - cast a spell! After activating the creature, you flip his marker to inactive side and wait for Ready Stage to refresh it. To cast a spell, there are two factors to be noted - mana cost and time that it takes for it to take effect. A small icon near mana is shown, which could either be a small lightning icon, which means the this is a Quick Spell or a Hourglass, which is a Full-Cast Spell. A Quick Cast spell will allow you to move, before casting it, whereas a Full-Cast spell will require you to stand in the same place in order to cast it. Note, aside normal activation as every creature, a Mage is a bit more special, because he gets this token, called Quick Casting marker, which allows you to cast an other spell you've picked, if it would be a Quick Spell. QuickCasting a Quick Spell is allowed almost any turn, during Action Stage. So in other words, you can cast one spell with your mage as of activating it and use another spell (if it's Quick Spell) even if it's not his turn.
Damage is dealt with 6 sided dice, which include unique numbers from 1 to 2. Also, those numbers could be in starburst, which means this is critical damage and it would ignore armor.
Is There a Lot of Strategy Involved?
Definitely. One of my favorite part of this game is the Quick Casting action. Let's say your opponent has just moved a fierce Darfenne Hydra into your Skeleton's zone. You can simply flip the the Quick Casting marker on your mage and cast a Sleep spell, before you active that Skeleton. Run my Skellie, run like the wind... Also, there is this one interesting mechanic that the creator/creators have made. There are these type of spells called Enchantments. Basically, all of them cost 2 mana points to cast, BUT to activate them, you would have to pay a different price for every one of them. You can either attach these enchantments to your own / enemies creatures or lay them down on the designated map tile. But the most interesting concept of these type of spells is that they are hidden, flipped face down to show the back of it. They are only revealed when they are triggered or you want to trigger them by yourself. Then you must pay the designated cost in order for them to activate. For example, you might attach a hidden enchantment for cost of 2, on the enemies Darkfenne Hydra. The next time it would start to move towards your helpless Skellie, you would instantly reveal the card , provided that you are able to pay the cost and activate it, which could be a Slow condition spell... the Poor 'ol Hydra. And you've heard it right, you can activate enchantments even during your opponents turn! (unless the enchantment depicts otherwise).
There are so many ways you can play with your spell book! You could place a Fire Wall near the enemy Beastmaster and afterwards cast a Push spell, which would telekinetically force him to go through that wall of fire and suffer serious damage. Or you could summon a Mana Siphon, which would cause the opponent to channel less mana each Ready Stage, furthermore, you could cast a Magebind enchantment on the mage, which would deal damage every time he would cast a spell, provided that the first time he would cast, you would reveal it and pay for it. Not only this poor mage would suffer loss of mana, but his cheaper spells would still cause a backfire to it. Oh the Misery...
After every game you play, you are free to change the cards from the spell book, because maybe having 6 fireballs was too much aggresive for you, so you pulled two of them out and instead added two Minor Heals! The next time you enter the arena, your skills will be much more sharper!
What About the Artwork?
The artwork is one of the best assets the game presents itself with. Every card is beautifully detailed, which actually let you easily guess from which school that spell comes from! I especially enjoyed artwork of one of the less original spells, for instance Block, I mean it sounds completely colorless, but wait until you see how it looks in this game! The artists knew how to set the mood of the game and they've done a really great job!
Is It Worth the Money? It Costs 60 Bucks!
Honestly, for you, the reader, I can not provide a straight answer. However, in my opinion, You get a lot of cards and 4 unique mages that you can play with, so mixing and matching them provides a lot of replayability and interaction. The components are very high quality and the artwork is an eye-candy(if you don't like candy, intrepet anything, that you really adore). Note, that the game already has an active official forum and the Administrators and Moderators are very active in there. They are very friendly people, the Maker of the game itself shows up on the forums occasionally, answers people's questions, provides his opinion on certain topics. So for 60 bucks you get a lot of replayability, a lot of fun, great artwork, high-quality components and an active community of players and higher-ups. That's a good deal for me at least.
Why Are You So Positive About This Game? Are You Being Mind Controlled!?
Nah man/girl... I am just really, really into magic(not the crappy magic that is interpreted as an urban term, where those pesky illusionists show a few card tricks or dump themselves into a canister of water) and even more into Mages. The moment I saw this game and learned more about it, I was hooked, sold! Also, I've got sick of the concept to draw cards from a deck, I rather enjoy picking them out one by one, the one's that are really needed at the moment. I feared for a moment that the game would let me down, but after playing it, couldn't stop thinking about it, I already planned my next games , thinking up of new strategies or switching cards from the spell book.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a card game and have 60 dollars squirming in your pocket/wallet/piggybank, enjoy fantasy theme about Mages and deadly arena battles, then this is definetily a must-have game for You! In my opinion, this is so far the best 2012 board game and I'm looking forward for the upcoming expansions (Featuring Forcemaster and Warlord!).
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