Master of Magic

My first game after finishing my annual baseball season was Master of Magic. There is a new Master of Magic scheduled for release in December 2022. I played the 1994 classic version published by MicroProse, however. It is a lot like Sid Meier's Civilization set in a fantasy world. The more apt comparison is probably Master of Orion, which was created by the same game designer and published in 1993. All of these games are considered 4X strategy games: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. I previously enjoyed Master of Orion and Master of Orion II so I was pretty sure I was going to like this game as well.

The goal is to become the Master of Magic by eliminating all opponents or by casting the spell of Mastery. I chose a medium-sized map with four opponents. For my wizard, I chose to play as Horus. He is a sorcerer who specializes in sorcery and life magic. I wasn't sure who my opponents were until I encountered them through exploration. This was my competition:

• Jafar - Jafar was an Arabian illusionist who understood the mysteries of sorcery magic. He was the first wizard I encountered. He was also the first one I eliminated.
• Oberic - Next up was Oberic, an elementalist who specialized in both chaos and nature magic. I defeated him next and united the continent under my rule.
• Tauron - Across the ocean was another continent with two other wizards. There, I met Tauron first. Tauron was a demonic being who specialized in chaos magic. He was my greatest nemesis by far. I waged war with him over many years before finally emerging triumphant.
• Sharee - Sharee was a voodoo priestess who specialized in both chaos and death magic. She was allied with Tauron, which presented some additional challenge to me. I largely ignored her, however, until I was able to deal sufficiently with Tauron. Finally, I marched east and conquered Sharee to achieve victory.

One aspect of MoM that was interesting was dual lands to explore. You start on Arcanus but there is a mysterious other world called Myrror. You can only access Myrror through ancient towers of wizardry by using special spells. When I started the game, I wasn't sure if one of my opponents may have resided in Myrror but that wasn't the case. I explored Myrror a bit but the other wizards and their towns were all in Arcanus.

Despite being an older title with crude graphics (by today's standard), I thoroughly enjoyed playing Master of Magic.


Horus Banishes His Nemesis, Tauron