Master of Magic Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Air Movement is the least restrictive of the three modes by which units move in combat.

Some creatures in Master of Magic either fly or are not tethered by gravity in a natural manner. However they managed to defy physics, the Air Movement rules afford these creatures a superior set of liberties in any combat they take part in, whether it is over land or sea. The baseline rules are:

  • Ground and Water units cannot normally initiate melee attacks on Air units. They may counterattack.
  • Air units may pass across rough combat terrain tiles, tile snares, and City Walls unhindered.
  • Units with Air Movement retain it during both land and ocean battles.

Losing Air Movement[]

It is possible for a unit to lose Air Movement and be grounded during battle. Beware of Web and the four Dispelling spells in the hands of enemy spellcasters. Don't hesitate to use them against airborne enemies if you want to make melee attacks on them. Grounded flyers can go into Icon Movement WaterWater Movement if they have it. They otherwise default to Icon Movement GroundGround Movement, even in water, which immobilizes the unit completely.

Note on Overland Map Travel[]

Main article: Movement Type

The term "air movement" can apply to flying units traveling on the overland map in a general sense. A stack of units that displays its Movement Allowance with the Move Flying Flying icon is either composed entirely of flying units or has a Wind Walker present, and no Move Sailing Sailing vessels. In any case the stack is released from many restrictions, and a few privileges, tied to overland surface travel.

Strictly speaking, though, Icon Movement AirAir Movement refers to combat. Since the aforementioned Wind Walking does not function in combat, the wind-walker and his allies could be said, amid the confusion, to Move Flying Fly, but not to Icon Movement AirFly.

Combat Terrain[]

Units in flight pay the same low price to cross any sort of combat terrain tile. If there are enemy ground units that can attack flyers (for instance, through Fire Breath), they can be lured across rough terrain, or at the very least away from road tiles, to stagger their pursuit.

Combat Tile Table
Terrain Square Name Cost to Enter Icon Movement GroundIcon Movement Water Costs
Arcanus Myrror Cardinal Diagonal Cardinal Diagonal
CombatTile Arcanus Road CombatTile Myrror Road Road Icon Movement Air1 Icon Movement Air1.5 Icon Movement Ground.5 Icon Movement Ground1
CombatTile Arcanus Grass CombatTile Myrror Grass Grass Icon Movement Ground1 Icon Movement Ground1.5
CombatTile Arcanus Tree CombatTile Myrror Tree Tree Icon Movement Ground1.5 Icon Movement Ground2
CombatTile Arcanus Rock CombatTile Myrror Rock Rock Icon Movement Ground1.5 Icon Movement Ground2
CombatTile Arcanus Trees CombatTile Myrror Trees Trees Icon Movement Ground2 Icon Movement Ground2.5
CombatTile Arcanus Rough CombatTile Myrror Rough Rough Icon Movement Ground2 Icon Movement Ground2.5
CombatTile Arcanus Ocean CombatTile Myrror Ocean Ocean Icon Movement Water1 Icon Movement Water1.5

Effects Overview[]

Below is a table of abilities and effects that relate to Icon Movement AirFlying in combat. Air superiority is a somewhat complex set of rock-paper-scissors relationships between spells. This table includes some things designed to foil Air Movement and some things designed to foil those things.

Icon Movement AirAir Movement Effect Table
Unit Abilities
Icon Ability Combat Effects
Ability FireBreath Fire Breath Icon Movement GroundIcon Movement Water may initiate melee attacks on a Icon Movement AirFlyer.
Ability LightningBreath Lightning Breath
Ability Thrown Thrown
Ability DeathGaze Death Gaze
Ability DoomGaze Doom Gaze
Ability StoningGaze Stoning Gaze
Ability Merging Merging Unit may teleport to almost any tile at a cost of Icon Movement Air1.
Ability Teleporting Teleporting
Ability NonCorporeal Non-Corporeal Immunity to Web and all other snares.
Ability PlaneShift Plane Shift None
Ability WebSpell Web Spell Traps target, disables Icon Movement AirAir Movement (Combat Instant snare).
Ability WindWalking Wind Walking None — Does not grant Icon Movement AirAir Movement in combat, not even to the unit possessing the ability.
Spells
Realm Spell Combat Effects
Icon Arcane Dispel Magic May remove relevant movement buffs imparted by spells, but not innate abilities or Item Powers.
Icon Arcane Disenchant Area
Icon Sorcery Dispel Magic True
Icon Sorcery Disenchant True
Icon Chaos Call Chaos Potentially grants Icon Movement Air Air Movement (~4% per target).
Icon Chaos Chaos Channels Potentially grants Icon Movement Air Air Movement (~33%).
Icon Nature Cracks Call Icon Movement AirAir Movement escapes this effect (technically a tile snare).
Icon Nature Earth to Mud Icon Movement AirAir Movement escapes this effect (tile snare).
Icon Life Endurance Icon Movement Air+1
Icon Nature Entangle Icon Movement AirAir Movement does not trigger this effect (Combat Enchantment snare).
Icon Sorcery Flight Grants Icon Movement AirAir Movement to the target.
Icon Sorcery Flying Fortress Icon Movement AirAir Movement allows unit to enter or leave the Town.
Icon Sorcery Haste Icon Movement Air× 2
Icon Sorcery Invisibility Unit may not be targeted directly, save in melee.
Icon Chaos Wall of Fire Icon Movement AirAir Movement does not trigger this effect.
Icon Nature Web Traps target, disables Icon Movement AirAir Movement (Combat Instant snare).
Icon Sorcery Wind Walking None — Does not grant Icon Movement AirAir Movement in combat, not even to the unit bearing the enchantment.
Icon Death Wraith Form Immunity to Web and all other snares.
Item Powers
(These activate automatically before the first turn of combat and cannot be dispelled, despite acting like spell effects.)
Icon Spell Combat Effects
ItemPower Endurance Endurance (Item Power) Icon Movement Air+1
ItemPower Flight Flight (Item Power) Grants Icon Movement AirAir Movement.
ItemPower Invisibility Invisibility (Item Power) No relevant effects. Unit may be perceived and targeted with spells.
ItemPower Haste Haste (Item Power) Icon Movement Air× 2
Ability NonCorporeal Wraithform (Item Power)   Immunity to Web and all other snares.

Availability[]

Air Movement is available through the following magical effects.

It bears emphasizing that Icon Sorcery Wind Walking, a useful Rare spell for overland flight, has no effects in battle.

UnitEnchantment Flight Flight[]

The uncommon Icon Sorcery Flight spell is the only completely reliable, generally-applicable source. It can be cast at-will on any unit in the game.

ItemPower Flight Flight[]

The Flight Item Power is a more expensive, non-dispellable version of the spell for heroes' equipment.

UnitEnchantment ChaosChannels Flight Chaos Channels[]

A less reliable source is the Uncommon Icon Chaos Chaos Channels spell, which offers Air Movement on a 1-in-3 roll.

UnitEnchantment ChaosChannels Flight Call Chaos[]

An extremely marginal source is an enemy Wizard casting the Very Rare Icon Chaos Call Chaos spell on your army. This has a (1 / 8) × (1 / 3) ≈ 4.167% chance per unit of "inflicting" Chaos Channels: Demon Wings, as above. Since units are much more likely to be seriously injured or even annihilated by the spell, it's usually best not to encourage your rivals to use it on your troops.

Move Flying Flying Units[]

No less than 35 units in the game are natural Flyers. Of these, 34 possess Air Movement, while Jaer the Wind Mage is the game's built-in example of a Wind Walker who does not fly in combat.

The Flying Normal Units include the mid-tier hero Fang the Draconian, all Draconian troops, and the mythical beasts trained at the Fantastic Stable.


There are exactly 19 Flying Fantastic Units, representing all magical realms in force:


Advertisement