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Summonable Monsters of Master of Magic

I've been doing something of a loose analysis of Simtex's fantasy Civ classic recently, what with a whole "A Brief Jaunt Through" feature of late. So I'd figure I'd put together a list of everything you can summon and why you would want to. It's always the way more entertaining route towards building an unstoppable army than just hiring mercs and training units. Playing Master of Magic just to raise regular armies of boring ass regular dudes is like going to Disneyland just to sit on their whimsically-themed benches.

List items

  • (Nature) Sprites are fairies animated with sprites that are fairly spry at ranged attacks, which is fair enough if you're a spiteful distance attacker. Pixie targets and let one's elf go.

  • (Nature) War Bears are the Nature wizard's footsoldiers. Sort of like a whole army of Sgt Grumbles. Unfortunately, you cannot ride them into battle.

  • (Chaos, Nature, Sorcery) There's an element for each of the three main colours: Fire for Chaos, Earth for Nature and Air for Sorcery (sorry Water and Heart). They are all transitory, one-shot summon spells that the Wizard casts in battle when it's not going so well. Oddly enough, Earth and Air are way more powerful than Fire.

  • (Life) Angels tend to cheer up other friendly units on the field, handily demonstrating that most Life spells are geared towards helping ordinary units.

  • (Life) Archangels are like Angels, only bigger. They're powerful magic-users and bring down the righteous indignation with their flaming swords. Damn flaming angels and their flaming swords.

  • (Nature) The six-legged beasts with the petrifying gaze. Not much your enemy can do against it, but it doesn't help if the poor thing is pelted to bits with arrows before it gets close enough to use it. Stone me if they don't totally rock, though. So don't take them for granite????

  • (Nature) Behemoths are veeery big and veeery slow. If this game had any sort of cover mechanic, they'd be like fleshy siege towers. If your enemy's put up walls and you're not big on climbing, well...

  • (Chaos) Named Chaos Spawns in this game, they also float very lackadaisically over the battlefield. 'Course, if they get close enough, they can hit enemies with about a dozen gaze attacks at once, causing paralysis, petrification, insanity, poison, athlete's foot and a slight nausea. They don't like pepper spray.

  • (Chaos) Three heads are better than one and the Chimera has a lot of tricks up its sleeve while all three remain. They can also fly in this game, so that's not terrifying at all. How many more creatures do they need to merge together? Be wary your Men don't Fall while Resisting this thing.

  • (Chaos) The most dangerous hostile chickens in a video game since that one Cucco decided it had enough of being bonked with the Master Sword.

  • (Nature) Colossi like to attack by hurling stones. If you're still somehow alive after getting a two ton boulder thrown at your head, it'll clomp after you and finish the job. They're pretty brutal, but at least you don't have to climb up one to kill it.

  • (Death) Death Knights are just knights on a supermodel diet. Since regular knights are overpowered enough as it is, the immune-to-pain undead equivalent are just peachy.

  • (Death) You can't summon demons, but you can summon Demon Lords. Who in turn can summon as many demons from the Abyss as they like until the entire world is devoid of life. Are you sure this is a good idea? Oh wait, you're playing a Death wizard, of course it is.

  • (Sorcery) Magic-using support units that can also teleport around the field and fire blue balls of energy. You've never had a summoned monster like him. Unless you've been summoning Efreeti.

  • (Chaos) The Chaos wizard's version of the Genie. Basically genies only with more fire. Can't have enough fire if you're a Chaos guy: When in doubt, burn everything to ash.

  • (Chaos) Criminals may be a superstitious lot, but I think a colossal flaming bat is enough to scare anyone out of any activity, felonious or not, unless that activity is running in the opposite direction.

  • (Chaos, Nature, Sorcery) Each wizard gets their own enormous dude to throw rocks or bolts or fireballs at people as well as help the Wizard get past the final boss of ActRaiser.

  • (Chaos) Gargoyles have the advantage of both flight and highly defensive stone skin at their disposal. Occasionally voiced by Keith David, though what video character isn't these days?

  • (Death) Ghouls are one of the few units able to bring back its fallen foes as zombies in the service of the Wizard that summoned them. Even more vitally, they also assist with the Wizard's war strategies, thanks to many lonely nights playing Risk with Teddie's brother.

  • (Nature) Giant Spiders can instantly debilitate an enemy unit with their Web and then skitter in for the kill. If you somehow find yourself playing against Jeff online, summon a whole legion of these. He'll be too terrified to figure out how spiders got into his Trackmania server in the first place.

  • (Nature) Gorgons, the less traditional rocky bulls that winkle their way into games like this and Castlevania as opposed to the snake-haired Medusa types, are similar to Basilisks in that they can hit enemies with a devastating petrifying stare. They can also fly too, which is a remarkable feat for a two ton cow made out of masonry.

  • (Chaos, Sorcery) These are drakes of the major dragon kind, rather than the infinitely weaker kind that sometimes get thrown in alongside dragons. Call it the Drake Deception if you'd like, but these Drakes are Fortunate to be the most powerful units in the game: The Chaos-based Great Drake in particular, though that's not to sully the name of the equally fearsome Sky Drake.

  • (Nature) The most powerful Nature unit, rather than a drake, is a massive burrowing Wyrm that can pop up right next to weak spellcasters and essentially one-shot them. It's a devastating unit that will pinpoint and devour any weaknesses a side might have (unless they can walk without rhythm).

  • (Arcane) Arcane spells, like Magic Spirit and Guardian Spirit, are available to all wizards. The true purpose of these spooks is to meld with places of great magical power and transfer said power directly to the Wizard. In combat, they're about as effective as a Trick-or-Treater wearing a bedsheet.

  • (Chaos) A very basic Chaos summon, which brings to the world a quartet of fire-breathing dogs that are really only effective in large numbers. Like a certain newshound in a hot dog suit, they tend to spring forth from lava flows when least expected.

  • (Nature) A resilient beast, the Hydra has a separate health bar for each of its heads. Therefore a single attack, no matter how powerful, can only remove 1/9th of its total HP. The heads don't multiply, so that's a reprieve at least.

  • (Sorcery) Basic Sorcery summons, Nagas are a pair of snake ladies that are fairly decent fighters but not much to write home about. What do snake ladies even wear, anyway? Pythongs? (This joke brought you to "Sound Like An Asphole: 1,001 Snake Puns")

  • (Death) Invisible Stalkers are opaque individuals that chase after people. Why they have such an inscrutable name is beyond me. There's a lot to be said about a deadly bastard that your enemy can't even see. If you see one (wait, how?) on the enemy's side, don't worry: It bleeds, so you can kill it.

  • (Death) Wraiths are a nasty bunch of flying undead horrors that can siphon life to heal themselves, are packed with debilitating special powers and can do the Ghoul thing of creating new undead units after every battle.

  • (Death) Shadow Demons look like dudes burning in an eternal purple flame that can hurl devastating dark energy bolts at enemies. They're really more showy than anything though. They kind of look like they're jostling for an Iron Maiden cover.

  • (Death) Skeletons are basic Death footsoldiers. They have the same immunities that all Death units do (such as an immunity to Illusion, which sucks for Sorcery wizards) as well as their own ability to be completely immune to arrows. Get close enough, though, and they're essentially walking kindling.

  • (Life) Unicorns aren't as harmless as they appear, as their favorite strategy is to teleport behind weaker units then impale and trample them to death. I thought unicorns were supposed to defend the weak? At the very least they can inspire some really unfortunate artwork.

  • (Sorcery) Phantoms come in two shapes: A unit of soldiers and a singular, much larger "beast". Though relatively weak, they are able to completely ignore the armor of their target which can be devastating to almost anyone who isn't immune to illusions. I guess you could also call them ghosts that walk, but any connection to this The Phantom (a.k.a. Africa Batman) is still tenuous at best.

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