I started noticing Elemental after I heard that Stardock was looking into developing a sequel to one of my most favorite game - Master of Magic. Apparently they didn't get the rights to the name and so chose to make their own thing.
I keep hearing that it's very similar to MoM, although nothing of what I have seen so far in the journals or the website seems to affirm that statement.
Ok, Elemantal has magic and you're able to master it. But apart from that ?
Maybe someone can help me understand how Elemental is really MoM 2. To make that easy I'll post some of the features that made MoM so interesting.
1. The Archmage
At the beginning you create (or select) your alter ego, a powerful archmage. You do this by spending a certain amount of "picks" which you can use to "buy" certain things:
* Spellbooks - Every spellbook you take raises the starting selection of spells you can pick. The more spellbooks of one color you have, the more spells you can take and the more powerful spells (common,uncommon, rare) you can pick. If you choose to spend all picks on spellbooks of one color, you even start with one rare spell, which can be very strong even though your magic infrastructure won't easily support it (i.e. costs much mana).
* Traits - Instead of spellbooks you can choose to pick abilities that noticably influence nearly all game mechanics. Warlords start with experienced troops and can promote them one level higher than all other archmages, while channelers pay less mana upkeep for persistent enchantments and have an easier time casting spells away from their home capital. Artificers have a much easier time producing artifacts (very powerful feature) and can freely transform gold to mana and back again, while Myrrans even start in a different dimension, allowing you to choose a starting race not available to others.
* Race - You get to choose your starting race, each of which is notably different. Among those races are Humans, Elves, Lizardmen, Klackons, Halfings (all fear the almighty adamantium slingers), Nomads and others. Myrran archmages also get to choose from Dwarves, Dragonians (who indeed fly and breathe fire), Trolls (regenerate in combat and resurrect from the dead for free), Beastmen, Dark Elves (provide a large mana boost per round and every single troop has a magic range attack) and probably some race I have forgotten.
The possible combinations are mind staggering and are more diverse than in any game I have encountered ever. Some examples:
* Pick Alchemist and Warlord and all troops start more experienced and are equipped with magic weapons - which normally requires a very expensive building.
* Pick Artificer and Charismatic and produce cheap artifacts for your heroes or sell them immediatly for profit. use that gold either for development or transform it into mana, to create more powerful artifacts.
* Pick only spellbooks of one color and choose High Elves as starting race. You can start with an epic spell and can even afford it due to the elves' mana bonus.
2. The empire
You can either build settlers and found new cities wherever you like, or you can simply take neutral towns or those of other archmages. You do both, usually. Inside a city you can either produce troops or buildings, while the more powerful troops require the more expensive buildings. It's really quite like civilization ... you even have to produce food to make your people increase in numbers faster. And the terrain influences how strong your productivity or food production is. Buildings also have additional effects, like extra food through the farmers market or increased research through libraries. There is no tech tree or any kind of research in respect to buildings/units.
Some buildings or units can't be build - they have to be created by magic, like the summoning circle, which in turn determines where your summoned units appear.
3. Troops
Each troop is made up of individual units. Even though the names may be the same, their stats and composition are different, depending on race. Troll swordsmen are immensly strong, but only have 4 individual swordsman in a unit, while the wimpy halflings squeeze 8 or 10 fighters in a single swordsmen unit. If one troll dies, the unit only has 3/4 of it's starting strength. Nevertheless, trolls usually win against halflings.
Some special troops are Heroes, which are single unit troops and are very strong on their own. They grow even stronger the more experience they gain (which is true for every unit, but more so for heroes). Heroes also can equip items - found, bought or made - which can increase their performance drastically. Some units even have the ability to cast spells. Which spells depends on the heroe AND the spell selection of the controlling archmage, because you kindly share your knowledge with arcane heroes.
The regular troops only increase in strength through experience or magic buffs. No equipment for them. However, cities in possession of an alchemists guild and/or located next to rare metals like mithril or adamantium (only found in the Myrror dimension) can produce troops with better combat values (no extra cost).
4. Magic
Spells are seperated into different domains - death, life, nature, chaos and sorcery. Or, if you know Magic The Gathering: Black, White, Green, Red, Blue.
You get your starting spells through the initial spellbook picks ... the rest you have to research. And research costs ... magic. Like gold, you get a steady income of mana, which you can either invest in research or store in your mana pool. And you can research ANY spell in time, provided you have at least one spellbook of that domain.
You, the archmage, can cast spells. You can summon troops in your summoning circle, you can fireball a troop on the overland map, weakening them enough to kill them with your nearby armies. You can increase food output or productivity of a city or cripple that of your enemies. You can change the lay of the land, turn deserts into grassland or silver deposits into mithril.
But the farther away you aim your spell, the more mana you have to pay ... unless you are a channeler, of course.
But even better, when tactical combat starts, you are not limited to moving troops ... some spells only work in combat mode, some on the overland map ... and some in both modes, like the fireball. And casting spells is expensive, so you have to hold some mana in reserve to influence a battle with your powers. Arcane heroes on the other hand have their own mana pool ... and if they have access to the same spell domain as you, then they can cast those spells even if it is not in their spellbook usually. And again, channelers have an easier time casting spells far away from home.
That should be enough for an overview.
As you should see, the possible playing styles are legion. You can aim for certain spells in combination with certain troops only produced by a certain race. Or combine traits for increased effect. Specialize in one ranch of magic or diversify. Some races benefit from certain picks ... and rush strategies only work with a certain combination of spells and race.
And so the question is: What does Elemental have in common with all of the above ?