You can't go wrong with this classic. If graphics aren't the only thing that matter to you, then take a chance on a cheap oldie but goodie. I remember playing this game growing up, and for years I had looked on and off trying to find it, but couldn't remember the name. Picked it up and played it for a few hours, and had a good time with it. Nothing overly complicated but was well ahead of it's time and in my opinion is worth your money for anything under $10.

One of the greatest strategy games of all time. Game play is like civ 1 or 2 however the battles are tactical grid turn based and allow you to also cast spells. You have hero units and all units gain experience. Character creation lets you spend points on magic "books", various traits and choose a starting race. Making your own custom commander is where all the fun is at. Playing this in years past I always loved to find clever "exploit" strategies. It is good to dive in and play some to get a basic feel, but then it is worth it to fine tune your custom wizard to leverage the game play in some direction. You cant do it all, so maybe you focus on global magic that keeps your population artificially happy so you can tax the hell out of them and use cash to buy large armies, or maybe you create a civ with early advantages and go for a land grab. One other very nice thing is that even though the graphics are old, the user experience is pretty good and you can pretty much figure out the game mechanics from the info menu or by left or right clicking the ui in the city for context help. You shouldn't have to dig up old manuals to figure out basic game play. You will want to read the 45 page spellbook/enchanement manual .pdf so you can plan out your ultimate custom wizard though :)