We all love MoM, of course, and we all realize it's a rare, rare game. But are there any other games you've played that you like for some of the same reasons you like MoM? I ask because I re-discovered one recently.

My suggestion is a game I played often in the 90s - in fact, I was a beta tester for it once upon a time.

Imperialism 2

Now, this game is different from MoM in many ways. It takes place in the age of European colonialism. It has no magic and no monsters, and it's focused much more on economy and production.

I find it has a lot in common with MoM as well, however. The maps are a fixed size, which is neither too big nor too small. The worlds can be randomly generated every game, and have a feature that reminds me a bit of the Arcanus/Myrror duality of MoM: in addition to The Old World where you start, there is a hidden New World as well. The New World has its own unique features and resources.

Most importantly Imperialism 2 has a very tight set of rules that work together to be more than the sum of the parts. Like MoM, the basic mechanics are simple, but the combinations of situations, problems, and solutions they spawn are vast.

If you like MoM, you might also like Imperialism 2. Some people say Imperialism 1 is a bit better even, but I haven't tried it so I don't know.

I like the Age of Wonders series. That's probably a too-obvious response, though.

I understand the appeal. Age of Wonders was obviously inspired by MoM. I'm not sure whether Imperialism was inspired by MoM. It might have been.

To me, AoW is a significantly different game from MoM and feels different to play, while Imperialism has a greater similarity - even though it has a different setting and theme.

Age of Wonders 1-2, of course

Fallen Enchantress - I finally got the taste of this game, it's much more better than Age of Wonders 3

Warlords 3 Darklords Rising and especially Warlords 4 Heroes of Etheria

Lords of Magic - its real-time battle engine ruins the pleasure somewhat, but it's still a very close game to MoM for me.

All of aforementioned games offer the main things I love in MoM: a wide variety of fantasy races and their tactics/strategies, gameplay going around the "power points" on map (cities and special places), and intricate tactical battles (not so intricate in Warlords series but with its own tricks though)

Oddly but I just don't feel Heroes of Might and Magic being enough similar to MoM to me, despite having all the traits I love in the latter :)

A separate place should be given to Dominions 4 from Illwinter Games. When (if ever) this game will appear here on GOG, I'll buy it for the fifth or sixth time :)

I've heard a lot of good things about that one. Hopefully it'll come here and I can buy it for the first time.

There was an old DOS strategy/conquest game set in Mystara. You and your opponent AI had D&D stats which affected play; IIRC, AI's with a high Intelligence score actually played better. There were random events and you could send your heroes on quests, where they'd die or level up, and could gain a magic item (only one, but they could get a better one).

Combat was real-time, with you controlling one of your heroes, and your other units acting automatically.

I can't remember what it was called; it was "Fantasy -" something. (No, not Fantasy General)

In some ways, it wasn't much like Master of Magic. But in other ways, the games remind me of each other.

Unfortunately, it handled faster CPUs horribly (everything would run faster and faster...), so I haven't played it in a long while.

Oh, and it had a virtual "DM" at the top of the map screen, who tracked your resources.

Fantasy Empires perhaps?

...Yep, that's the one. :) Thanks.

Looks like I have it wishlisted, too.

I found Civilization 2 expansion pack "Midgard" a game with a similar appeal to Master of Magic. Sure, the "Wizard" part is a bit lacking, but it is a 4x game with fantasy creatures. I remember really enjoying it.

You probably want to change the tileset to make the Tunnel (fantasy version of the Railroad) visible, though. Inspired by Master of Magic in my copy I simply used the Road tileset with bright yellow colors.