Master of Magic: Rise of the Soultrapped

Note I am a beta tester of this DLC but I bought this copy 100% on my own money Everyone is going to focus on the techmagic (Techmaster pick) and tech race Soultrapped but I think that is missing the point. The retorts/wizard picks in this DLC are all crazy fun in the grand tradition of Master of Magic i.e. taking them changes your playing style. Here are some 1. Demonologist (1 pick , requires 1 death, 1 chao and conjurer)- Remember the fun playing 10 or 11 book death and picking Wraiths or Shadow demons? This one duplicates the twist but with a unit called lesser shadow demons. Unlike 10/11 books strategies you even start with the unit (you also have that unique spell summon lesser shadow demons). That said lesser shadow demons have only 2 figures and have lower stats per figure than the real shadow demons, so they become almost useless much faster than usual... 2. Myrran Refugee 2 picks - This one allows you to start with a Myrran race on arcanus - When i first saw this, this felt weak, since it was costed the same as the Myrran pick. After all, one of the major advantages besides the powerful Myrran race is that you start in one plane typically isolated from other players. However on playing you will notice, that this is misleading. Myrran races like the goblins in the free DLC are more powerful than average arcanus races. Typically if you start in Myrror, the ruins and dungeons are also more powerful so you don't get a faster start. But with Myrran Refugee you can now have a much faster start with Trolls, Goblins, Draconian etc 3. Might make rights - 5 pick but you restricted to 2 max spell book - This is hands down the most MOMish Wizard trait in the game that makes playing MoM a totally different game. Part of the new default Troll Wizard , this gives all your non-fantastic units and heroes +3 resist and more importantly a new trait "combat regeneration". This is similar to the troll regeneration except it gives +2 HP per turn and more importantly, on the battle ending your units don't automatic restore to full HP and your units that died don't revive even if you won. The drawback is you are restricted to only 2 spellbooks though it is possible to find more spellbooks as treasures from cracking dungeons (unlikely) or from defeating wizards totally (much more likely). It goes without saying even combat regeneration (+2 per turn is probably too much) in the hands of a decent player, this is very OP 4. Veteran warlord (1 pick, requires warlord) - This pick probably is the most boring. You get 1 extra swordman at the starting game and all your units get extra +1XP per turn. This one is clearly designed to be used in the "Warrior package" consisting of Might make right, Warlord and Veteran Warlord but even without this, a constant +1XP per turn is easily underestimated as it gets your unit to Ultra elite a lot faster and save you mana on heroism 5. Technomaster (1 pick, requires 3 spellbooks in 2 diff schools) - This one was poised to be most interesting, but in fact feels the least interesting to me. The new spells were nice I guess but nothing much that was awesome. You also get +5% research bonus and a starter drone at the start. The other thing that game adds is the threat of the soul trapped, You can use the setting to control when tech dungeons which tend to produce souitrapped dungeons and mobs that arise from turn 100 to 300. This isn't much of a threat, not in the way the antrares of Moo2 too since by the time you get to turn 300 , you pretty much won the game already. Thankfully now you can set the target as low as turn 100. All in all the DLC is relatvely cheap and the new retorts/picks in the new DLC is well worth the money. Note : Also if you bounced off MoM in Dec 2022/Jan 2023, or are waiting for the right time to get into this game, this is the right time! The big incremental update has improved a ton of things and the new paid DLC and the ongoing steam discounts are the best time to get into it!

A horrible DLC. This detracts more from the Master of Magic experience than it adds. The Tech Dungeons that appear in the middle of the game are simple cheating. They are the OP version of the Soultrapped which you will not get when you play their race. Playing Soultrapped? Having conquered their city? Tough luck, you get the weak version of the units. So, no Flight, Invisibility and other OP stuff. The "mid game" threat of the Tech Dungeons is ridiculously overpowered. You can have high end elite city stacks of 9/9 that get completely wiped out in autocombat without killing ANY of the OP Soultrapped. They are as strong as end-game tier Magic Nodes on Myrror. Oh, and what do you know, they will continously spawn stacks of those OP units until destroyed. Ah, and each Techdungeon needs to be cleared TWICE. 9/9 stacks of Warlocks are getting eaten by those "mid game threats". Techmagic is poor, poorly done, doesn't fit the setting, units look ugly, and the two sets of stats (one for you, one for the "Rogue Soultrapped") is the game blatantly cheating. Next time, give my a Sky Drake without Magic Immunity and Lightning Breath 20 when I summon it, and the original one to the AI. Played this game since 1997 (the remake is THAT faithful), and this is the worst thing I've seen when it comes to Master of Magic.

DLC is not really in the spirit of the game. It adds new wizards, two of which are bargain basement clones of existing wizards. One clones Sharee (Death/Chaos magic) and the other is a Lo Pan (Chaos/Sorcery) knock off with a Star Trek Voyager fetish. The third new wizard apparently doesn't like magic, and goes hog wild on playing the game with very little of it. For a game named Master of Magic, I don't think he really has a place here. The game adds new wizard traits, but none of them are exciting or particularly interesting. Techmaster costs 2 picks, gives you a 5% research bonus and access to 10 new spells, most of which are boring and uninteresting compared to what you are potentially giving up for them. Demonology gives you access to a new Shadow Demon spell. You get a better starting unit and don't have to research Possession or Shadow Demons, but that's a steep price. Myrran Refugee is decent, as it allows you to start with a Myrran race on Arcanus. Veteran Warlord takes the Warlord retort and makes it Warlord+ by giving units extra XP each turn. IMO, units level up fast enough if you're exploring and conquering things with them, especially if you pair them with heroes. Then there is the Might Makes Right trait which gives regular units some OP nonsense. Somehow if you give up magic, all your units benefit from it and get access to +3 resistance, combat regeneration (+2 HP/turn) which stacks with other forms of regeneration. Since the whole point of the game is to establish the MASTER of Magic, this being in the game seems pretty lame. The DLC also adds new races and heroes. The soultrapped themselves aren't particularly fun, and I really dislike the spawns that happen on the map that need to be cleared twice. Also the wild Soultrapped spawns that annoy you are more powerful than the Soultrapped you can actually build, which is pretty off-putting when you excitedly try and build some of the units and find out they suck. The new heroes aren't any better than the ones that existed previously, so IMO they just dilute the pool and make it less likely that you're going to get a "good" hero when you recruit (summon or otherwise). The only good thing I can really say about the DLC is there's a checkbox that you can hit to fully disable this stuff when you start a new game. I'm hoping the next DLC will offer something more. I'd like to see some new spells for the existing schools that tie into the existing themes for example. Maybe a multiplayer option. If you have to add more wizards, make them NOT overlap with magic school selections that already exist.

Good. Might makes rights + Oldmane + Wolf Riders = fun. It makes many combat originally 100% defeat if automatically solved become win manually because of outstanding maneuverability.

I am not finding the new race fun to play, but the rest of the content is great. I don't agree with others about the tech dungeon threat being OP, but it is scalable in the game setup options including the ability to turn it off. The new traits are great, and provide lots of viable new options to consider. These alone are worth the price.

Adds interesting new play styles, races, heroes and magicians to an already great turn based game.

Can't get enough MOM expansions. Please keep making more of them!

This DLC is the worst DLC I have ever seen ever.