Master Of Magicboasts a wide array of troops and fantasy creatures for you to send into battle. Your options will be determined by the type of magic your Wizard studies, as well as the species of your towns' populations. With so many units to choose from, it can be hard for new players to decide which are the best.
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We’ve chosen the best units in the game, taking into account their value in the early, mid, and late game. From critical support units to unstoppable titans of the battlefields, it’s hard to go wrong with these magical soldiers.
10Engineers
Engineers won’t contribute much in combat, but the extra efficiency that they grant your economy and troop movements over the course of a game make them invaluable. Engineers are used to build roads, one tile at a time. As you might expect, roadsreduce the movement cost of their tileand also provide a yield bonus if they’re within a town’s capture range.
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In the late game, Engineers can help win a siege with theirWall Crusherability, which gives their melee attacks a fifty-percent chance to destroy an enemy wall. If you don’t have access to the Disrupt spell or Catapults, escort your Engineers to the wall and let them do their thing!
Only a few species in the game are capable of training Engineers.High Men, Orcs, and Klackonsare the most common, so it’s always worth having at least one town that can produce these tireless workers.
9Slingers
Halflings offer a powerful economy, since their towns produce more food per Farmer. Since the tradeoff is weaker melee troops, Halflings are often overlooked by players hoping for a powerful military. Once you’ve seen the Slingers in action, though, you might rethink the prowess of Arcania’s shortest denizens.
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Slingers havemore soldiers per unit and slightly better Armorthan standard Bowmen. This translates to more damage dealt per round, especially when you consider that Halflings get an automatic bonus to their attack rolls courtesy of theirLuckyability! Additionally, ranged attacks aren’t affected by the Halfling’s combat penalty, making Slingers one of thebest ranged units in the game.
Be sure to add an Alchemist Guild to all your Halfling towns; this gives your Slingers magical weapons automatically upon recruitment!
8Skeletons
Skeletons arecheap and disposable, making them ideal for softening up an enemy army or a dungeon’s denizens before you send your real troops in to finish the job. Being undead, they’re also immune to a number of effects - this makes them an effective counter against Wizards who use specialized tactics.
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Despite their low cost and abysmal health, Skeletons are decent early-game melee fighters. Their real ace in the hole, though, is theirimmunity to normal ranged attacks.Bowmen, Slingers, Javelineers, and the like won’t be able to do anything about a swarm of Skeletons without an enchantment on their weapons!
7Sprites
If you’re looking for a unit that punches far above their weight, look no further than the tiny, fluttering Sprites. Summoning them is a simple task for most Nature Wizards, giving you a versatile unit right at the beginning of the game.
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Sprites areeven better scouts than Magic Spirits, with pairing the ability to fly with a long line of sight. When they’re marching with an army, the entire stack can move through forests as though they were open terrain. To top it all off, Sprites have a dangerous magical ranged attack that can easily catch early-game enemies off guard.
If you also access to Sorcery spells, try castingGuardian Windon Sprites to make them almost immune to counterfire!
6Hell Hounds
If you’re just starting out with Master Of Magic, a good strategy while you’re learning the game is to play a Chaos Wizard andsummon a Hell Hound or two for each army. They’re on roughly the same level as War Bears when it comes to overall power for their cost, but also have a breath weapon that can whittle down their target’s numbers before combat!
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Hell Hounds arebest deployed against units with a high figure count,like Spearmen or other low-level infantry. Considering that’s what most AI players' armies will be composed of in the early game, aggressively attacking with Hell Hounds is a great way to seize the initiative in the first hundred turns of the game.
5Paladins
As far as rock-solid units that you can produce from your towns go, it’s hard to beat the High Men’s unique unit, the Paladin. For one thing, they boast the kind of stats you’d expect from a top-tier unit. They only get better once you factor in their abilities!
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Paladins areimmune to magic, meaning enemy debuffs and direct-damage spells will bounce right off of them. In battle, theyattack before their opponentinstead of simultaneously, letting them cut down troops before the enemy unit makes their rolls. This is made even more effective by theirArmour Piercingability, which halves the Armour stat of their target!
If all that weren’t enough, Paladins are team players. Every friendly unit in combat with them getsan extra point of Strength, Armour, and Resistance!This doesn’t stack if you have multiple Paladins, but it’s still a fantastic boon.
4Dragon Turtles
Lizardmen don’t get access to a lot of advanced unit types that the other species enjoy, but once they unlock the Dragon Turtle that doesn’t matter. With eight Armour and Resistance, plus fifteen Health (before buffs!) it’s thetankiest normal unit in the game.Lest you think that there’s a tradeoff in the attack department, it also makesten attacks per swingandsix Fire Breathattacks.
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With their incredibly cheap upkeep, it’s no wonder Lizardman-heavy players will seek to spam Dragon Turtles as much as possible. Like all Lizardman units, they also haveinnate Water Walking. Once you have a full army of Dragon Turtles, you can roll over just about anything in your path.
3Basilisks
Why go through all the trouble of fighting an army when you may just turn them to stone instead? Basilisks arepowerful attackersthat can be summoned via Nature magic. They’ve got more than enough attacks to chew through most infantry units, but their Armour leaves something to be desired - consider buffing them with Stone Skin or Iron Skin if you use them for this.
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The real benefit to a Basilisk is its ability topotentially one-shot powerful creatures.Each time it attacks, it has a chance topetrify one member of its target unit, killing them instantly. The fewer the unit’s base figure count, the more devastating this ability becomes!
2Behemoths
Behemoths are only available to late-game Nature Wizards, requiring an ultra-rare spell to summon. They have a high Mana upkeep too, so you won’t be able to field many of them. In most cases, though,one is enough.
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With absolutely jaw-dropping stats, the Behemoth is themost powerful single creature in the gamewithout considering enchantments or abilities. It has an incredible melee attack, nigh-impenetrable Resistance and better Armour than even the Dragon Turtle, giving a sole Behemoth the potential totake on an entire army and win.
1Hydra
The ultimate Master of Magic minion, Hydras can only be summoned by advanced Chaos Wizards. Their Resistance and Health are right up there with the Behemoth, but their Armour and Attack are significantly less. This multi-headed menace more than makes up for this with an unbelievablethirty Breath Weapon attacks- ten fire, ten cold, and ten lightning!
If a unit survives an assault by a Hydra, they should thank their lucky stars, then run for the hills. There are few units in the game that will even get a chance to take a swing at a Hydra in melee, and if you try to bring it down from afar, you’ll be racing its Regeneration. It’s no wonder that it took Hercules to kill the original Hydra!
