Warlock: Master of the Arcane

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a turn based strategy game similar to Civilization V, but with a fantasy setting reminding of Master of Magic and unit designs largely taken from the developers' previous game, Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim.

The game borrows many elements from Civilization V, from the hexagonal grid, cities, borders, and units, to even parts of the HUD. There are notable differences however. The focus in Warlock is definitely aimed at combat and right from the start the player will find his or her fledgling fantasy empire attacked by vicious monsters. To combat these monsters and other players (AI or in multiplayer), the player can found cities, improve cities, build units and research spells. Unlike Civilization V, where city improvements are all built on the same tile and tiles surrounding the cities can be used to gather various resources, in Warlock the city improvements are limited to the tiles surrounding the city. The player has to build a healthy balance of production and farming improvements. Researching spells replaces the tech tree. There are a great number of different spells in the game, which can be used both for combat and peaceful aims. Spells often have multiple turns of casting time, limiting how many the player can use.

Aside from the normal world map, the player can also explore additional worlds by entering portals with their units - similar to Heroes of Might and Magic. Larger challenges await the player in these worlds.