The tried and tested strategy that marks the return of the legend Master of Magic

Each of us has games that we remember fondly, with vivid and very pleasant memories. For good or bad, but above all for the good, they are the ones who define our lives as players. So when they tell us we’ll be working on it I tried Master of MagicDeveloped by MuHa Games and Eerie Forest Studio for Slitherine, the new version for Slitherine, hundreds of hours spent with the original, rained all together on the old and battered cervical and despite the psychic and physical pain for the sudden realization that the gods were otherwise young, we hope it will turn into a wonderful gaming experience. we had joy.

Fundamentals

The environment of the new Master of Magic looks very traditional. Anyone who has played any 4X will be at home and instructive textual for understanding key concepts, because they are now well established in the genre (thanks in large part to the original Master of Magic). After the creation of the map, we got a city and two troops: a military that changes according to the chosen faction (there were only three in the trial version) and the other from the colonists. So the first thing we did was start exploring the surroundings (not far from the first, but probably with useful resources) to find points of interest and a place to build our second city. In total, considering the amount of factors to consider and the relative slowness of progress, we were able to play the game for a hundred rounds, not by much, but enough to start getting a taste of the game’s core mechanics.

The map consists of classic hexagonal boxes with the available resources mentioned above. if the borders City they are stable, it is vital to choose the places where they will be installed well.

Wasting colonists, especially in the beginning, by making them easy prey for the first opponent to pass, can greatly slow growth. Units must then traverse plains, rivers, mountains, oceans, and other terrain types to identify the most promising terrains and expand their general knowledge of the map to understand where dangers may come from.

this points of interestThe aforementioned are very popular and, to be honest, they represent the mainstay of the first phase of the game. These are castles, ruins, temples, etc., just to name a few examples, where there are enemies with different strengths, in reality none of them are those protecting the gold, mana, objects and other resources that are essential in the early stages. In any case, it’s possible to choose between fighting directly, delegating the CPU, or avoiding conflict (necessary when the forces are unbalanced to our net disadvantage). In any case, the battle summary screen always provides statistics on win percentages and potential losses so we never find ourselves making a blind decision.

Spell

Also in the early stages of the game (we were only able to try them after all), one of the greatest dangers is represented by barbarian tribes that attack newly founded cities without much warning. For this, it is necessary to develop a defense strategy from the very beginning. It is essential to balance the construction of buildings with those of the units, as the forces on the field are variable and it is never possible to feel completely safe. In the classic 4X style, it is actually possible to start only one production for each city. However, you can create queues of five productions and replace existing production on the go, although it’s not a very effective solution when you’re under pressure and not prepared enough. Cities as a species are more or less rich, depending on the region in which they are built. Needless to say, available resources are reflected in food production, the speed of construction of units and buildings, and research.

One of the most important features of Master of Magic, spell. Unlike other 4X where technologies are studied to get better buildings and units, here we work on increasingly powerful spells that can be used on the map or in battle.

There are several types: offensive, supportive, defensive, summoning, etc. this launch cost and the maintenance of individual spells varies greatly and is the focus of long-term strategies applied by playing. Therefore, summoning a creature can have a very high initial cost and then no longer require mana expenditure, while giving a unit some bonus such as movement speed may cost less initially but require a flat cost per shift. War Spells end on the battlefield. In principle, we got the impression that in the early stages of the game the magic weighs less than in the advanced ones, especially when the points are discovered, their effects on the game begin to strongly show and its full potential. power that is closely related to our magic power. Too bad we can’t play a full game to check it out.

war

Another basic system war. As mentioned, it’s possible to let skirmishes be handled by the CPU, but we quickly discovered that it’s only worth doing if you have very strong troops and completely outrun your opponent. In the case of ambiguous conflicts, it is always advisable to go straight to the field to implement more effective strategies, perhaps to defend weaker units so as not to tear them apart every time. The system itself is pretty simple: Clashes occur on random maps that are generated based on where troops meet and where units are automatically deployed. Each of them has a certain number of action points that they can spend on making their moves. Of course, you can also cast spells in turn (which tends to be the absolute most important resource in later rounds) as long as you have enough mana.

Overall, the skirmishes seemed fairly balanced to us, although the AI ​​seemed to gravitate towards fairly direct offensive tactics. It should be said that with few, i.e. large numbers of units, we encountered mass conflicts and in many cases we were not able to fight because the opponents were too strong (they needed advanced units, which we could not get in a hundred rounds). so this aspect will also need to be properly verified with the final release (yes, we wanted to play with it more…positive, right?).