Master of Magic: Like Civilizations Only with Magic
mount c [location of MoM directory-example D:\mps\magic]
C:\
magic
There is a patch for Master of Magic if you have a fresh installation. You can get it from the Atari website.
You are a wizard vying for control of an Earth-like planet in medieval times. Before starting you can choose a pre-designed wizard or create a custom wizard with his own attributes which you choose. With a custom wizard you get to choose between 14 different portraits--one of which happens to be Merlin. You get to choose between 5 types of magic: Life, Death, Chaos, Sorcery, and Nature. You get eleven points, 1 point may be spent on 1 book from any realm. The more books you have in a realm the more spells you can learn of that magic type. Also different point totals can allow you to select different attributes for your wizard (special bonuses or skills for gameplay). Spells from these categories pretty much are like they sound. The only rule about picking your spells is that you can not learn both life and death magic at the same time.
You also get to choose your starting race; there are 14 total to choose from. Different races have different bonuses or penalties. For example: the Dwarves get double production and tax bonuses bet grow very slowly.
Arcanian Races: Barbarian, Gnoll, Halfling, High Elf, High Men, Klackon, Lizardmen, Nomad, Orc
Myrran Races: Beastman, Dark Elf, Draconian, Dwarven, and Trolls
Note: Arcanian and Myrran are the two planes that you can travel between in the game. The Myrran realm has stronger magics and tougher races, but to choose its races and start there it will cost you 3 of your 11 points for your wizard.
I have read some message boards about this game and basically people complain that it is too easy, even at the harder difficulties. I would say this is generally true after you play for a while, but to change things up you can always try different custom wizards. I try combinations that are challenging and try to construct different wizards every time. Not picking Alchemy makes it more difficult, as alchemy makes it easier to build up mana quickly.
Basically, I think of this game as a parallel to civilizations, except without the technological developments. Instead of learning sciences, your wizard learns spells. Spells can be cast in overland play or in combat.
One way it is somewhat like Civ is that you have cities, in which you can choose to build units or building advancements. Some buildings are pre-requisites for other buildings, and some buildings allow you to build certain types of units.
Depending on what races you own, you can only build certain buildings in a city. A city can only ever have one race in it so this means that not all city can build the same units or buildings. The humans are the only race that can build Paladins, which are a very powerful cavalry unit with magic and weapon immunity.
*Picking different races as well as different wizard attributes will change the difficulty of play. For those of you who complain that this game is too easy!
Combat is kind of similar to Masters of Orion II, where you have an overhead shot of your forces starting x amount of squares away from the enemies forces. The movement is turn-based, but some units get more moves than others. Attacking other units always takes half of a units movement points. You can also cast combat spells during these sequences. Some magic realms offer better combat spells than others. Chaos magic tends to be very powerful during combat, but Sorcery can prevent the enemy wizard from casting spells without a significant chance of fizzling.
To cast spells in either overland or in combat you need energy called mana. You collect mana from your cities shrines, temples, and other buildings, as well as from nodes. To draw power from a magical node, you must defeat the monsters which occupy the node and then meld either a Magic Spirit or a Guardian Spirit with it.
You also have heroes which will offer their services at random based on your fame level and attributes. Heroes are mounted warriors which have their own attributes and strengths. There is a wide variety of different classes of hero, with various portraits. The heroes will join your cause for a fee, which varies according to their skills. Now, the hero aspect of the game is very fun because they level up as they gain experience. And some skills get stronger while all of their abilities (attack, defense, and resistance) get better with every level-up. The heroes also gain titles with every level. The highest is Demi-God and by that point if you have one of the better heroes that can become one-man-armies along with the spells you cast on them.
Overall, I would say that this game is very entertaining for those of you who like the empire-building games. Although people point out that this game is pretty easy if you are skilled, I think that it still can get challenging if you do not pick the strongest races or magical realms for your wizard.
This is easily more fun the Civilizations I, the aspect of spells along with tactical combat makes conquering enemy wizards and neutral cities much more fun than going to war in the Civilization series.