I played Master of Magic obsessively when it first came out. Yes, it was buggy, the AI was moronic, but I have yet to find another fantasy 4x game that has the charm, and sense of growing power that this game had. I have gone back to it many times since, and always had a good experience, albeit a bit empty because I could always rely on tricks that the AI couldn't counter. That all changes now. Caster of Magic rebalanced the game, and while it removed some of the ridiculously overpowered tricks (11 book rare spell starts to win in a handful of turns), it was built with the philosophy of preserving the theme of each magic realm and race, and new powerful spells and abilities have replaced a lot of the useless padding in the original. Most importantly, the AI is hands down the best I have ever seen in a 4x game, anywhere. At the even skill level ('fair'), everyone, including me, is running even, the AI players build doom stacks (and uses boats to raid shores!) to raid weakly defended cities, and diplomacy works!!! You will not survive a multifront war - the AI knows the same tricks as you, and they are relentless. You need to keep friends, and choose war at a brief time when you have an advantage (hitting a research goal, or maybe an early wave of advanced troops). To play at the 'even' level, you need to develop a solid strategy from the start, and adapt along the way. You will never be able to solve every problem (flying, ranged magic, resistance based 'save or die', and of course, magic spells), so you need to find a way to mitigate the worst problems. You lose if you don't have an answer, as you should. Time to try again! There are so many options and so much to explore, and it all feels like it works. This is an absolute brilliant labor of love that rebuilt a fun, but flawed game into a masterpiece. If you can handle the retro experience, and you are willing to learn from your mistakes, you will not be disappointed.
