For the first look there are still the same elements that were in MoM: map, cities, races, heroes, magic. But AoW3 is far from MoM in all of these elements. It could be named "spiritual", 'cause MoM was the main inspiration source for the very beginning of AoW series but I'm afraid that that's all that remains - spirits of Master of Magic.

The closest "new vision" of MoM is "Warlock: Master of the Arcane". But diplomacy in that game is pathetic at best & AI is stupid.
So - buy MoM at GOG & play it :)
Sadly, there is no other option.

Really? I find it to be quite good as a MoM replacement (which I played until this week, actively).
Yes, it's different in a lot of regards but mostly I see this as the progression of video games. The ideas, concepts and "feel" of MoM all carry over, really.

Good points, AoW3 certainly has that MoM vibe, maybe after some patch updates and more playing time with it I might like it more.

I hope this is not a greener pastures effect but Warlock 2 Exiles looks more tasty. I have been watching several Let's plays and it is very similar the first Warlock game, which I own. It feels like Warlock plus a dash of Eador - shard planes of combat.

Good time to be a gamer, so many options : )

I don't understand how someone could prefer a rigid, paper manual to the wonderful contextual in-game help. I mean, it's hyper-linked, you can pick up the bits of information you need at the moment. The basic concept is ridiculously samey as in all similar games anyway.

... I like to read when I poop.

Suddenly, a challenger appears.

The only gripe I have with this game at the moment is no quick save feature. Unless I've missed it, then please tell!

Quicksave will be added in the coming patch :)

I agree about the manual. I prefer printed, like the beautiful spiral bound one from AOW1. I used that thing a lot. Short of that I like a regular digital manual. I never use in game help, I like to do all of my reading about a game and then play it, not stop and research how the game works while playing it. I feel I would be doing a lot better at the game at this point if I didn't just guess and learn as I go. Oh well.

Game runs fine on my win XP machine. Only issues I've noticed are that when I let it sit and the screen goes black the music stops playing and won't come back on until I close and relaunch the game. I've also after playing for a good time had AI unit stacks sort of mess up where I could step on them and then not be able to select my stack anymore. I just relaunched without saving when this happened to be safe. Only other bug involved text announcing whose turn it was in battle being gibberish. Just relaunched for that as well. Otherwise things have been nice and stable.

No local LAN game without internet is a big bummer. I was looking forward to that capability myself :(

I also loved being able to position my troops before battle, especially when defending my castles. Combat in this game feels so much less strategic and more arcadey.

AI has been adequate, I remember (was that the first AOW?) defending my castle picking off I think it was Giants as they just kept smashing my walls forever. Most useful AI fail ever.

Overall I think the game is pretty good and I'm having fun playing it, but I wish it was more like AOW1 (I felt the same about 2 as well, but eventually got used to it.)

Hi PanzerAzelSaturn,

I've passed the issues you mention along to those who can fix it.
If possible, some more information would be greatly appreciated as that will help them narrow down the issue.

Screen goes black: that's because of energy saving settings on your monitor and it switches off? Or is it a screensaver?
Step on AI stacks: did this happen on a hazard (ie., a cobweb, poison plants or hook briars)?

Thanks :)

Hi, as far as the screen going black I actually assumed this was built into the game. Otherwise I guess it's a power saving setting on my end. But my screen saver is never activated, which would normally happen before the screen goes entirely black. For a time I will hear the music in the background but eventually it will stop playing and can't be restored without restarting the game.

The other thing with the units I will take a pic if it happens again. I don't recall there being anything special about the actual tile. The first time it happened was the first map of the campaign with the scripted event to kill a stack of undead to win a town. I went to combat them and ended up just walking on them and then being unable to select my stack. The second time was the second map, but that time I'm not sure what exactly happened and I think the enemy stepped on my stack and disappeared. They had 3 stacks they were moving in to kick my rear and I saw 3 stacks move, but only 2 attacked me. After the battle there were still only 2 stacks, the one that had moved over the mountain tile was no where to be seen. Both times were after I had been playing for a few hours straight.

Well mouse arrangement takes a bit of getting use to but my main problem at the moment is the camera on the tactical combat screen. The in game help implies that I can use my mouse scroll wheel (now I've ditched the trackball) to rotate the screen around but it barely moves. Initially not too bad until the game changes the camera angle and I'm now playing at a bit of a handicap in what I can see.

Are there any keyboard alternatives for rotating the camera? Or even the ability to reset it to North (or equivalent)? The cursor keys seem to move left/right/up/down but not around.

@PanzerAzelSaturn: thank you for the information

@Standup: click the middle mouse button to rotate the camera. It's not that sensitive indeed, I agree it's something to improve.

Same here. I copied PDF manual of another game (The Operational Art of War III by the way) to my iPhone and took it out of my pocket almost every time I visited toilet at the workplace.