As a noob to the genre, I thought the demo sucked completely.  There were no tutorials, no good on-going hints...  I just felt dumped into a game with some rogues and hunters (wtf are those good for?) and no explanation.  That's lame.

EDIT: If the game sells, it will be despite the handcuffs of an early release.

I agree that they stripped it down to the bone but I believe it is still very MoM-like.

I wondered about this myself.  After putting in over 50 hours with the beta I decided that it works the way it is.  Ranged defensive fire is cool and I would like to see it added in an expansion but it's loss is no big deal.

I am OK with this but my #1 want in an expansion is for them to add more customization options to your wizard, including choosing starting spellbooks like MoM.

At first this was my biggest gripe.  I love the Heroes and Artifacts from MoM.  When you get into the late game of Warlock your High level units and your Advanced units are so powerful and get so many perks that they feel very much like Heroes.  I have seen some Nodes on other worlds that I have not managed to gain control of so far that I hope will allow for some massively expensive weapon perk that will be like an Artifact but as time goes on I find that missing Heroes and Artifacts is not making this game less fun.  I hope to see them added in an expansion but will not be upset if this does not happen.  This game is a blast as Warlock but it could be a perfect MoM2 with a few additions.

I agree, these things are anoying.  The developer is adding the victory conditions as well as multi-player.  I have not seen anything about a score or charts after the game ends but I hope to see that.

At 50+ hours of beta time in I am still not done playing the Humans.  Every game is still fun and I still have yet to see all the different neutral units.  I have high hopes for the longjevity of this game as well as DLC and expansions (The pre-sell of the game went well enough that they got the green light to do Multi-player as a DLC).

Check out a review of the game http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/05/07/does-warlock-master-of-the-arcane-understand-the-art-of-war/

Here's a link to the Beginner's Guide:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=53810

I've been playing this since release this morning and I'm really enjoying myself. This released surprised me, so I had no expectations going into it. Probably why I can enjoy it so much.

There's a manual that covers the basics - should be in ..\Steam\steamapps\common\warlock - master of the arcane, and a Beginner's Guide that covers more basics, but if you're looking for a lot of crunch, nothing is available yet.  At least those should get you going.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game.  Anyone that is thinking about it needs to realize that it focuses on tactical combat; empire building and the rest are there, but are really just to support building an army and fighting your wars.  At least that's my initial take.  It is very much Fantasy Wars with a campaign overlay.  That's excellent in my book, but may not be the game some people are looking for.

Edit:  I just noticed the manual in the Steam folder still has "Work in Progress" stamped all over it.  LOL  The final version is here.

Exactly. They both do completely different things and thats great in my book.

After playing almost all day today on my day off, I have had 0 crashes and I find myself enjoying it. At times I wish it was a little more complex and other times I like how you get up and running real quick like.

Its a solid game over all and if they franchise it or add some expansions they got a good base to work off of.

Agree with all this - stability-wise the game is solid.

As for the complexity, I keep feeling like something is missing.  Or maybe somethings.  Spell research could use some attention; right now I just click and go.  City management is kind of dull - check which resource I'm short on and build for that.  I did start specializing some cities and that can be pretty powerful; I suppose I just wasn't paying enough attention.  But part of the problem is I didn't feel like I had to pay too much attention.  I was playing on Normal difficulty and easily won my first game; guess I need to bump it up a notch and then maybe my decisions will have more impact.

In what way is it not MoM like?

City building from a set of buildings specialized to each faction?  Check.

Pre designed units based on the buildings built and specialized to each faction with special attacks/bonuses/weaknesses? Check.

Units that level up and gain bonuses thereby? Check.

Tactical combat where terrain doesn't matter?  Check.  (note:  Just because you don't go to a new, separate screen, doesn't mean you don't have tactical combat).

Separate worlds/planes?  Check.

A functional but somewhat stupid AI?  Check.

Somewhat arbitrary and nonspecific spells?  Check.

Wizard set up screen that allows configuration of your wizard?  Check.

Monster lairs that spawn roaming monsters?  Check.

Is someone going to seriously contend that since you don't have a separate screen for tac combat, and they haven't implemented heroes yet, that this game isn't the closest thing to MoM to come along in a very long time?

I would contend this is VERY close to MoM, if you look at it. 

THIS.

I was caught off guard by the game, a friend told me and I played at his house.  A couple hours later I decided to buy it.

Very MOM like... well close enough to have me playing for hours on end. 
Love how tough the roaming monster/independents can be. FE is severely missing on that.
Magic feels a bit weak in terms of immersion.. but very workable.

It's a very polished, game. I'm having fun playing it. That's all I care about.

By no means does this mean I won't like FE as much or more, just saying it's fun..and to be honest, I've not played FE since I got it.
Probably the biggest thing that I enjoy is the massive difference between factions.. that's simply awesome. I really feel like I'm going against a whole other civilization in a way I don't/haven't gotten with FE. Still time for that to change though.

Here's hoping FE gives me the same fun I'm having right now with Warlock.

EDIT: I also LOVE how I get attached to individual units.. to the point (after enough upgrades/spell buffs) I start seeing them as Heroes. Nice.

Also, I consider the combat tactical even though it doesn't go to a specific screen since you have to think about unit placement, range of weapons, elevation, etc etc.. isn't THAT tactical. It is to me, a former Army Ranger.. but I'll let you desk jockies redefine tactical all you want.

eh???

magic is the worst element in this game, its really totally unbalanced

i used only like 10 spells tops on the 50 + there are in the game, they are all the same apart from different element

also the graphics is very bad and sad

also its very unbalanced about the casting time and such it takes toooo much long for some very weak spell, while summons are super powerful and only consume a few upkeep

man maybe you didnt play enough this game

after 1 hour the tactic is totally clear: you have ONLY to spam cities

end

there is no strategy whatsoever involved

you have to spam the more cities you can untile your mouse is broken

then get temples and spam 700 gold units

you about never cast, just some heal on troops you dont want to lose and some buff sometimes

i just nuked stuff sometimes only cause its boring to move your army back and forth to kill  the respawns, sometims i m lazy and nuke but its surelly not needed neither a good choice

i really dont understand where you ve seen all this strategy and balance

game is pretty forward, after couple of hours of gameplay you should understand all about it and most of all that there is nothing else, just 1 tactic, end

Not that your head needs any swelling.. but yeah, THIS.

You so smart.

I played for many hours last night, and despite me agreeing with many of the criticisms (even those not verbalized as well as your praise Xia), in the end I simply had a lot of f'ing fun.  Isn't that the point.  Could I argue decimal points and other numbers about how some things aren't perfect.. uh, yeah.  Did I want to last night while having fun rolling my GIANT FUCKING TURTLE through my enemies? Uh, no way. Too much fun to be had.

Just goes to show, nothing will every please anyone..ever. I'm just happy to see someone agrees with me.

OH... did I mention it's only 18 bucks on Amazon. F yeah!