Magic: the Gathering Strategy Board Game

[mac122]

Originally Posted by Colorcrayons

Heh. For someone who plays M:tG, she sure thought the game was complicated. It's heroscape. *shrug*
Her husband mistook it for warhams.
It took them 3 hours to play before they quit.

It's interesting to see a non-boardgamers take on it.

Wow. Imagine her chagrin if the game included a ton of tiles like RotV! Sounds like it would have added a couple hours to their evening.

[Tornado]

Yeah. I found that humorous. Another review from a 'scaper said it played fast, really fast. I would link that one but he uses rough language.

[chas]

"Here's Cathy who's lived most everywhere
From Zanzibar to Berkely Square
But Patty's only seen the sights
A girl can see from Brooklyn Heights
What a crazy pair!

But they'r cousins
Identical cousins
And you'll find
They laugh alike
They walk alike
At times they even talk alike
You can lose your mind
When cousins are two of a kind!"
--Theme Song, The Patty Duke Show(1960s)


Chas
In Brooklyn Heights

[Tornado]

"They stalk alike." ??

[quozl]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Yeah. I found that humorous. Another review from a 'scaper said it played fast, really fast. I would link that one but he uses rough language.

I've only played a couple of 2-player games so far and they lasted about 15 minutes each.

However, I wasn't drunk, which might have made a difference.

[jwsanner2]

Originally Posted by Colorcrayons

Heh. For someone who plays M:tG, she sure thought the game was complicated. It's heroscape. *shrug*
Her husband mistook it for warhams.
It took them 3 hours to play before they quit.

It's interesting to see a non-boardgamers take on it.

Odd decision to have a non-board game person get an advance copy for review. Oh lord, she thinks 20 pages of rules is a lot.

[Colorcrayons]

My thoughts exactly. But perhaps it's good marketing to send review copies to people who dont normally play boardgames?

[Evar-Scarcarver]

Ironically enough, magic has amassed quite a rule-book if you actually want to know enough to win and understand the stack.

[Colorcrayons]

Originally Posted by Evar-Scarcarver

Ironically enough, magic has amassed quite a rule-book if you actually want to know enough to win and understand the stack.

You arent kidding. I recall being a level 1 judge prior to Ravnica's release. The rulebook fills a binder and is more akin to Advanced Squad Leader in size and scope. And yet, still more complex than even that. it reads like a legal manual.

Having a background in M:tG actually made the game easier for me to understand and play. When situations arose that weren't covered by the rules, using M:tG logic was the default way for us to handle it. And it seemed to work.

Which may be why the rules handling spell play is so minimal. It might assume prior knowledge. Which is bad. But I expect that we'll see a meatier rulebook covering such, as new spells/spell types (instants)/units are released.

[Smithy Winfred]

Originally Posted by jwsanner2

Odd decision to have a non-board game person get an advance copy for review. Oh lord, she thinks 20 pages of rules is a lot.

It seemed like a person whose board game experience maxed out at monopoly. 5 actions is a "Whew"(She even counted drawing a card as part of the turn, or moving/activating your figures). And you'd be hard pressed to find a game that doesn't have at least 20 pages of rules.

You know what would have been cooler than Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers? Heroscape: Arena of the Planeswalkers master set as a way to combine the two worlds in the same way they joined DnD and Heroscape. You'd at least have had several dozen diehard fans of the game, and Magic fans might have found it interesting.

I might pick this up, I'm still on the fence, I think my money might be better spent on a game that I don't already have.

[McHotcakes]

Originally Posted by Tornado

A review from a Magic player.
I Played 'Magic: The Gathering -- Arena of the Planeswalkers' And All I Got Was Drunk

Good lord that review is baffling. The Heroscape system is one of the easiest game systems to learn. It's rules are clear and straightforward. Far clearer than Magic is.

I got the game today and within 45 minutes I had read the *new* rules set up the board and had already played a couple of games. I have to question the reviewers credibility if they couldn't even get through one game after three hours.

And I find it laughable that they thought a 20 page rule book is long. I mean really? Smh

[quozl]

I did some scanning done today so you guys can look at an except of the rules and the cards:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z6kynzp6q...nFjSTj9xa?dl=0