EQP: The Mage of the Mirror Remake Main Thread!

[HispaZargon]

Congrats and thanks for the feedback.

Interesting details. It seems Hasbro has taken their time on them. I think versions in other languages are not yet available anywhere. In Spain I guess we will received the first ones around end of January or mid February, but just speculation by now, nothing confirmed yet.

I will check the details once I get one.

[HispaZargon]

People on FB drclared that tiles from this expansion are thinner than others. Did you check it, Kurgan?

[Kurgan]

I don't have any special tools (just my eyes and my fingers), but putting them up next to the Frozen Horror tiles, these seem to be the same weight and thickness. I got both my sets from Amazon and they are the US versions in english (if that matters).

I didn't check every single one, but the two tile sheets seem to be the same thickness in MOTM as in the FH's tile sheets and has the same finish, etc. they seem identical to me. It is two separated sheets this time rather than a folded long piece as in previous boxes.

[HispaZargon]

Ok thanks. Good news, then.

[AndYpsilon]

Hi guys.

As I am a huge fan of the old HQ editions with the oldschool artwork, miniatures and so on, I will only buy rerelease products if they really add value.

So, my question is: How would you rank MotM especially considering the storytelling and fun to play compared to the other expansions? Is it a great addon or more like nice to have for all who want a complete collection?

in my opinion storytelling dropped in quality after the basic set, Kellar‘s Keep and RotWL.

Thx for your opinions!

The storyline of Mage of the Mirror isn't bad but the game play is much more convoluted and difficult.
The problem with Mage of the Mirror and Frozen Horror (And to a lesser extent Against the Ogre Hoard and Wizard's of Morcar/Zargon) is that they were never playtested and in the remakes they did a shoddy job at fixing the issues. It takes a creative Zargon to fix some of these issues.

In my opinion Frozen Horror's difficulty is the most severe and I think the best way to fix it is adding a 5th Hero (preferably a 2nd Barbarian), giving the Wizard 4 spell groups instead of 3, allowing double blocks from the Polar Warbear's attacks, and some editing or mercenaries when it comes to Solo Quests.

Mage of the Mirror is not as difficult, but requires some forethought in the interpretation of some of the Elf Spells and artifacts. It's like whomever came up with these spells had their heart in the right place, but ran out of time to adjust the wording and exceptions... And when they remade it nobody cared for the correct interpretation and just reprinted them as is. Much like Frozen Horror this quest pack could be improved with the inclusion of a 5th hero, preferably an Elf, as the majority of artifacts are only allowed to be used by one.

If you have a dedicated group of heroes and actually care enough to make it work these quests are doable (editing required). Once I came up with an acceptable overview of the Elf Spells and lowered the Ogre Body Points Mage of the Mirror was more fun. Frozen Horror would still be difficult and cringe worthy in spots (there's not enough doors, a 2nd Sorcerer's Bench is needed, or you might fall into a bottomless pit with full health, etc. But the victory, much like Pandemic, feels earned.

Thx a lot for this detailed feedback - that really helps.

Well, the intent to make the game more difficult for the well equipped heroes after playing the base game (and maybe KK and RotWL) isn't that bad at all. But I really don't like when such things are published in a hurry or aren't playtested by the designers. Especially, doing a remake offers a HUGE opportunity to optimize old mistakes and flaws. It's a shame for me that they left old mistakes in. For example, I contacted HASBRO Germany if they publish a corrected for RotWL (with the missing doors put back in) and the rules book (which contains some weired faults and typos as well) but they won't.

Quality assurance really seems suboptimal with most of the products so far which still prevents me from buying most of them. Just check the huge errata thread in this forum

To many people the miniatures and stuff seem to be more important. For a great storyline and a flawless gameplay are of highest priority.

[lestodante]

Well, the intent to make the game more difficult for the well equipped heroes after playing the base game (and maybe KK and RotWL) isn't that bad at all.

Well.. BQP and EQP were intended to be played by starting Heroes!

[AndYpsilon]

Well, the intent to make the game more difficult for the well equipped heroes after playing the base game (and maybe KK and RotWL) isn't that bad at all.

Well.. BQP and EQP were intended to be played by starting Heroes!

Haha, okay. Then it’s even worse than I thought

[Kurgan]

Well it's more like... EQP intended the Elf to be a branch new player and the other three to be experienced (and fully equipped). The BQP did the same for the Barbarian. I guess it was assumed that if the Barbarian or Elf were already experienced you would just skip the first three Quests of each pack... UNLESS you were bored and wanted to play a 2 player game (though they forgot that the Game System and previous packs already established that one human being can control all four heroes if needed). Making these quests "Solo" makes the gameplay simpler for the hero (one character to manage instead of many) but increases the difficulty by making it so he has only one "life" (plus, only one treasure search per room, and monsters can focus all their attacks on him, if he falls into a trap nobody can cover him, etc). As a special challenge for a single hero (who already is fully tricked out with everything) it's not so bad. A Barbarian that has a bunch of potions might be able to survive the three solo quests without much modification (same for the Elf), but not necessarily. The first time I played BQP "RAW" with a fully equipped Barbarian and he got killed in the second quest and almost didn't complete the third one. Did the same thing with the Elf in EQP and the first quest nearly ended in disaster (I put in a loophole for it to be continued after the first player basically gave up).

[QorDaq]

I've been wondering if The Mage of the Mirror would get a prequel Quest (like FH did with 'Into the Northlands'). Initially I thought that is was very likely. However, it now occurs to me that there was a little more development time and fine-tuning associated with MotM, and since some of the missed bits, such as populating treasure chests with Artifacts/ Gold, has already been addressed in the retail box, perhaps it may not seem as "Necessary" for MotM.

I admit, that I've sort of been excited to see what the prequel might look like, but the more I consider it, the less certain I am that we'll see something like this.

I really would love to see more "Digita/ PDF" cards distributed the way the new FH Artifacts and Companion were. Even better would be mini retail card packs of course, with themes like Potions, Scrolls, or Treasure, for instance.

Regardless, I'm curious now as to whether or not we'll see another prequel pack like Into the Northlands.

[HispaZargon]

New Hasbro Pulse video on YouTube about Mage of the Mirror expansion:

https://youtu.be/-LZv_F-c-UE

Not sure if the audio voice is the same as other videos, it sounds a bit different to me.