Master of Magic/Basic concepts

This page will serve as an introduction and explain a few basic ideas about the game, along with relevant links and handy information to get you started.

Controls and Help
The game is controlled mainly by mouse, although some keyboard shortcuts exist. In most areas of the game, right clicking on a button, menu item or other area, will give you a help pop-up with useful information. Use this!

Game Concept
Master of Magic is a civilization-style turn-based strategy game. You take the role of a mighty wizard and must establish your dominion by cunning use of both military force and magical strength. You control cities, which act as production centers. A city may produce units, such as military units, settlers to build new cities, engineers to build roads; or buildings, which allow building more advanced units or give various bonuses or defenses. You must manage your empire, build your forces and conquer your rivals. Seeing as your are a wizard, you can augment your military might by the use of spells, which may give bonuses to your cities or units, cause damage to your opponents or summon more units to your cause.

Game World
The world is separated into two planes; Arcana and Myrror. Travel between the planes can be effected by spells, unit abilities or towers. You may shift your view between the planes by clicking the Plane button in the top menu, when in the main game screen. You will start in either Arcana or Myrror, depending on your wizard's abilities (specifically, the Myrran ability). Some races are only found in one plane or another. In addition to the rival wizards, both planes contain neutral cities, which you may conquer and add to your empire. This allows you to control cities of a different race than your starting race, allowing construction of that race's unique units.

Magic
Spells can be divided into two kinds; combat spells and overland spells. Combat spells are cast in combat and have no effect beyond the scope of that fight. Overland spells are cast from the Spells menu button in the main game screen and can be of may different varieties (summoning spells, immediate effects, permanent enchantments). Overland spells may take more than one game turn to cast, depending on your wizard's skill level and the casting cost of the spell.