Mage Wars Arena
Mage Wars Arena is a customizable strategy card game by Arcane Wonders, and is the first game in the Mage Wars series. In Mage Wars Arena players take the role of powerful and experienced mages fighting in a gladiator style arena duel. Despite being a card game, Mage Wars Arena has several significant mechanics in common with tactical miniatures games, such as movement and range, as well as having a game length more typical of tactical miniatures games.
Gameplay / Playing ''Mage Wars Arena''
The game starts with each player controlling a mage who has a book full of spells. The object of the game is to increase the enemy mage's damage until it is equal to or greater than their life. The game is divided into rounds, and each round is divided into two stages: the Ready Stage and the Action Stage. The ready stage is the "bookkeeping" stage, and includes phases for things like gaining mana and planning your spells for the round. Players can only plan two spells from their spellbook to be able to cast each round.During the Action Stage, players take turns using creatures to do an action. There are many things that actions can be used for, such as moving, attacking, guarding, or casting a spell. In addition to their normal action, mages have a special action called a quickcast action, which they can use only for casting certain kinds of spells. The quickcast action can be used directly before or after a creature's action, or in a quickcast phase, which occurs at the beginning and end of the action stage.
Spells
All cards in the game are spells until they have resolved. All spells have a mana cost and an action cost.Mana is the magical energy used to cast spells. Mages gain mana equal to their channeling stat every round.
An action is what a creature does during its "turn" during the action stage. There are two types of actions: quick and full. A creature can move before using a quick action, but they cannot move before using a full action. Spells can either cost a full action or a quick action in addition to their mana cost.
Spells also have a spell point cost that must be paid before the game in order to include them in your spellbook. Every Mage in Mage Wars Arena has 120 points to spend on spellbook construction before play.
There are six types of spells: Creature, Conjuration, Enchantment, Equipment, Attack and Incantation. Creatures are beings that can use actions, conjurations are constructs and inanimate forms, enchantments are cast face down and can be "revealed" by flipping them face up later for delayed effects which can surprise the opponent. Equipments are things like weapons and armor and clothing which a mage can wear. Attack spells are spells which trigger a particular ranged attack, and incantations provide a variety of temporary magical effects. Both attack spells and incantations are discarded after use.
Mage Wars Core Game Components
Game Board
The arena is a grid of 12 squares, with each mage starting in opposite corners. These squares are used gauge distance between objects, and to determine the range of various actions.Range is measured orthogonally and never diagonally. Vision between objects can be blocked by walls.
Spellbook
Each Mage must have a spellbook, which is a card binder that holds all the spell cards they can cast during the game.The Mage Wars Arena core set comes with two spellbook binders. Additional spellbook binders can be purchased for games involving more than two players and many expansions come with two spellbook binders. However, the binders are not strictly necessary to play the game.
Mage Status Board
Each player uses a Mage Status Board to keep track of his mage’s current Channeling, Damage, Life, and Mana.Dice
Attack Dice
Attack dice are rolled during an attack to see how much damage is scored. They are also used to roll for various effects such as healing.Each die has the sides where * sides have a white starburst which signifies armour-ignoring critical damage.
12-Sided Die
The 12-sided die is used to check for special game effects, such as:- Certain attacks require a 1d12 roll to determine if a special effect or condition occurs ;
- When a creature tries to avoid an attack with a defense, it rolls the d12 to see if it is successful;
- Some conditions require a 1d12 roll to see if it can be removed or escaped;
- Any random movement or direction is determined by the roll of 1d12 and the compass rose printed on the game board.
Markers
Action Markers
Each player gets a set of action markers. Action markers are colored on one side, and white on the other. The colored side is different for each player. The core set comes with only two colors of action markers.Each creature in the game receives an action marker. Action markers are used to record when a creature takes an action each turn. The different colors are used to show which player controls each creature.
At the start of each game turn, all action markers start face up, showing that the creatures are ready to act. After a creature acts, the action marker is turned face down to show they are finished for the turn.
Quick Spell Action Marker
As a powerful spell-caster, Mages can cast a quick spell each turn, in addition to his normal actions. The Quick Spell Action Marker is used to show whether a Mage has cast his Quick Spell or not each turn. It is used the same way as the regular Action Markers.Damage Markers
Damage Markers are used to record damage on creatures and objects. When an object or creature receives damage equal to or greater than its life it is destroyed.Mana Markers
Some objects in the game, such as a conjuration spawnpoint can actually channel and store their own mana. Mana markers are used to record how much mana these objects have stored.Guard Markers
Guard markers are placed on creatures that are ―guarding.‖ Guarding allows a creature to protect its zone from intruders.Ready Markers
A Ready Marker is placed on a creature if it has a defense. A defense is an ability to avoid an attack, such as using a shield to block or dodging. Most defenses can only be used once per game turn—the Ready Marker is flipped over when the defense has been used for the turn.In addition to defenses, some objects in the game may call for a ready marker to keep track of whether it has been used during a turn.
All ready markers are flipped over to the ready side during the reset markers phase.
Condition Markers
These markers represent various conditions creatures and objects can receive. For example, if a creature is stunned by a lightning bolt, a stun marker is placed on the creature. If a creature becomes corroded by acid, place one or more corrode condition markers on the creature.Initiative Marker
The initiative marker is used to keep track of which player has the initiative that turn. The player with the initiative gets to acts first during the action stage of the game turn. Each turn the initiative marker is passed to the next player clockwise.Glossary
An in-depth alphabetical glossary is included which describes all the traits, conditions, and other game terms.Sideboard
The Mage Wars base set comes with a variety of additional spells you can use to customize each of the included Mages. A complete list of spells is enclosed in each sideboard so that you can reassemble the spellbooks to their original state at any time.Mages
In the core set, the following Mages are available to play:- Beastmaster of Straywood
- Priestess of Asyra
- Warlock of the Arraxian Crown
- Wizard of Sortilege
- Forcemaster versus Warlord
- Conquest of Kumanjaro
- Druid versus Necromancer
- Forged in Fire
- Paladin versus Siren
Schools of Magic in the Realm of ''Mage Wars''
Spells belong to various schools of magic. There are 10 Schools of Magic in total: 6 major and 4 minor elemental schools. Each school is based on a different variety or type of magic, with a unique flavour and feel.The 6 major schools are:
- Holy
- Nature
- Dark
- Mind
- Arcane
- War
- Fire
- Earth
- Air
- Water