Elemental: War of Magic Preview

Should you be looking for another preview of Stardock's soon-to-be-released Elemental: War of Magic, you'll find one over at Game Stooge.
As a leader, the player builds up their city, filling it wih such buildings as homes (to increase population), libraries (to increase study), and so forth. It is here that Elemental divurges from Master of Magic. Rather than create or hire troops out of wholecloth, the player outfits citizens with weaponry and armor, all of which depends on the resources available. If a player wants to create a knight early in the game, he can do so, but without the resources for, say, iron, the knight will be overly expensive. The player also attracts special units, rather than hiring or creating them. A scholar will appear, for instance, when your reputation increases and you have sufficient researching power. One may think of Dungeon Keeper (or Field of Dreams, for that matter) in the way a player may attract units make your kingdom attractive to their ideals, and they will come.

The name of the game, of course, is magic. Each player gets a bunch of magic books with their own spells, which should be familiar to MoM players. A player gets a white Life book or black Death book depending on whether they're a Kingdom or an Empire. In addition, they can choose which books of magic they want. However, each book will have a cost to it, so the player can spend a lot of points on having lots of books or use those points to make their character more powerful. Additional books can be found (in the wild), so to speak.