I loved Master of Magic and agree that a redone version that featured a Total War battle engine would be very, very cool.

Instead of going off on my memories of my own playing the game, I'll relate a story about a secondhand experience. A friend of mine who used to work with us came across MoM a few years after its release and fell in love with it. She'd play it religiously. In order to tell her heroes apart quickly, though, she tended to rename them after whichever friend or coworker he/she looked most like. So she'd often come in in the morning and start regaling us with tales of her latest in-game conquests. So we'd here about how 'Andy' took over this town, or how 'Neal' died in battle, or how I got this great magical sword. Nothing like sitting at work and someone telling you they're sorry but you died last night. :)