From a small settlement, the player manages resources, builds cities and armies, and researches spells, growing an empire and fighting the other wizards.

During exploration, the player defeats monsters that are guarding treasure, finds the best locations for new cities, conquers existing ones, recruit heroes, equip them with magical artifacts, and steadily expands their magic kingdom, eventually coming into conflict with other kingdoms controlled by AI-run wizards.

[4][10][11][7] The game is played over a large number (hundreds if not more) of turns with the player presented with a bird's eye (isometric) view of the world.

The battle takes place in a tactical, also isometric map, that expands the contested hex in detail (including fortifications and terrain aspects that affect movement and combat).

Arcanus is a land much like the Earth, with climatic zones and varied terrain like forests, oceans, grasslands and deserts.

The reviewers for PC Gamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted that the game is less about balance and more about telling stories due to a high number of combinations, with the former commenting that on the "seemingly endless cocktail of armies, world-altering spells and items there is the potential for one of those petri dish experiences: a game that may not look like much, but has the potential to create epic stories", and the latter, that Both Masters Of Magic are about choosing your own combination of powers with little regard for what's fair and equal, and seeing what you can make of them.