Elemental: Fallen Enchantress

[tgb]

Got it!

Fairly quick download. Easy installation to a custom drive. No problem registering it.

I'm off to give it a try!

What did you do to register it? Isn't it "pre-registered" since the serial number is up on the download page?

[IceBear]

After the game installs, you have to enter your Stardock email address/password and the serial number.

[tgb]

Yeah, I saw that after I posted. Just ran it long enough to take a quick peek. Looks like the game has changed enough that I'll have to play the tutorial (there is no manual yet).

[Holman]

Well, I never got the email, and the game is not available at the link in this thread. I pre-ordered and registered Elemental way back when.

Does it show your pre-order in your account history? If it does then I'd shoot them an email and let them know.

Well, it turns out that I misremembered. I ordered the game about a week after release (and after the initial impressions), not before.

It seems to me that I deserve *more* credit for this, not less.

[tgb]

Played the tutorial and a little bit of a "real" game. From what I've seen so far:

Things I Like:

Tutorial: Covers the basics with both a video and "do it yourself" instructions, but at least it's a real tutorial

Tech Tree: Here is the CIv influence - only 3 branches (Civilization, Warfare, Magic), and each part of a branch takes longer to research, but you get all the benefits

Artwork - No more washed out browns.

Production - Cities can build improvements or recruit troops, but not both at the same time (more of the Civ influence)

Taxation: Taxes can be adjusted in a macro fashion (low,med,high, etc. which determines revolt risk, how many gildars you accumulate, etc.)

Character/weapon usage: RPG influence here. Each hero (plus your sovereign) has an encumberance limit that affects combat speed. Plus weapons have different types of attac, strengths and weaknesses, and level requirements.

Combat: Straight out of HoMM. Each character has an initiative that determines the order of combat. Also, each character can move up to his/her limit/turn and then take an action (attack, cast a spell, etc.)

Outposts: Pioneers can now build outposts to claim resources. They don't carry the benefits of a city (no production or taxation), but they don't have the drawbacks (upkeep) either.

Things I Didn't Like:

No marriages/children/arranged marriages: I guess when your sovereign dies it's game over.

No diplomacy tech tree: Still on the fence since I didn't play long enough to encounter another Sovereign, so I'm not sure how it works.

Quests: So far the same boring "Escort my son here" quests, but again, that may improve over time.

Interface: The map doesn't scroll when you move the cursor to the edge. You have to do a l-click and drag. I don't remember if the original was the same way.

Bugs:

The only bug I found so far is using the mouse to rotate the map makes it go blooey.

[Baroquen]

As far as I can tell, I didn't receive an email, but did see the game listed at the stardock site. So I DLed, registered and gave it a spin.

The tutorial is very much bare bones, but then, I didn't watch the videos... hate videos (and video trailers for that matter.). So maybe there's more meat with the vids. But anyway, it wasn't a big deal. Lots of info available from mouseover text.

After the tutorial, I started a game just to jump in and play around. Playing around, I want to like this game. I love building and exploring, and units gaining XP and levels and all. Gobbled up some random spawn item/events. Took out a bandit camp. Took a quest. Promptly got stomped by the quest monsters. And then crashed, after my guy died. No big deal.

I'll try again later, (after I go play some free Rift).

[Malacheye]

I am loving this game. THIS is what I was hoping for with WoM.

I played about five hours this evening and I agree with TGB about the tutorial. It has videos and is well done.

The diplomacy is pretty much the same as civ 4 where you each have items to give (economic treaties, non-aggression pacts) and then you use gold or influence to make the deal agreeable. I didnt see a diplomacy tech tree. One enemy I met woudnt let me enter his zone of influence without some sort of agreement. I had only two options...leave or declare war.

I had a few more varieties of quests than TGB did. I actually killed some rats, and with an escort quest, I had a band of thugs try to bargain me for my escort. They attacked me when I didnt comply. Quests get harder and you have to research appropriate levels or magic or warfare to get the harder quests.

Building mana shrines is the same as Master of Magic, in that you must build on a "node" and then it gives you mana each turn and a shard of the air, earth, fire, or water type.

Champions (minor heroes) are bought just like in Master of Magic, so its always good to have about 300 gold in reserve in case you meet one you want to recruit. Some of them have administrative skills that you can use when you garrison them in a city.

Leveling up a Champion or a Sovereign is kinda cool in that you get to choose from 5 different level up abilities that might improve a major attribute, give a combat skill, give party bonuses like healing or accuracy, or even improve research. Level up skills come in three or 4 forms of rarity from rare to uncommon to common. You dont actually add attribute points one by one as in EWoM.

Champions and your Sovereign dont die the first time the party is defeated in a battle, but each subsequent defeat carries a heavier penalty (I guess). Champions and Sovereigns have a turn penalty in the capital city while the "recover". If a Champion gets knocked down below one hit point and the Soveriegn survives, the Champion comes back with one hit point. I only fully lost one battle and got the trait "just a scratch", which didnt give the Champion any permanent penalties.

Combat is similar to HoMM and is also like Master of Magic in that a Champion can cast a spell for his turn if you have enough mana and you have cast on him a global spell called "imbue Champion" before combat has begun. EWoM allowed your units to counter-strike an opponent, but apparently that is left out of this game so far.

I will be playing this a LOT this weekend. I only played one of the 10 factions, and they all seem to have significant differences.

As far as what I am looking for, Kael and Brad did a great job.

[IceBear]

So, I'm really swamped at work right now so don't have the time to go looking for this, so I'll ask it here. Is the missing stuff...Diplomacy tree, marriages, etc gone from the game or just not in Beta 1? I sort of remember that stuff wasn't in the first Beta for WoM either.

[tgb]

So, I'm really swamped at work right now so don't have the time to go looking for this, so I'll ask it here. Is the missing stuff...Diplomacy tree, marriages, etc gone from the game or just not in Beta 1? I sort of remember that stuff wasn't in the first Beta for WoM either.

Diplomacy is now in the Civilization tree. I don't know about marriages.

I'm pleased to say that two map issues I thought were bugs - the camera not following your party and map rotation not "sticking" - can actually be turned off in the options menu. Other than one CTD, this release has been stable, playable, and almost fun.

Now if they would only implement scrolling when the cursor is at the edge of the map.

[tgb]

I played a bit more, and so far I like it. It seems a bit easy, but that's the difficulty level I started, so I am going to ramp up the difficulty with a new faction before uninstalling (don't want to get burnt out).

My only complaint so far is the party management interface. In order to equip anyone other than the party leader, you have to first go to the trade screen and trade the item to the party member you want to have it. You then have to back out, choose the target party member, and go to the equip screen. Too many mouse clicks!

It would make more sense to have a universal inventory that all party members can access, or at least give them all a "trade & equip" button like the leader has.

[LordMortis]

I played a bit more, and so far I like it. It seems a bit easy, but that's the difficulty level I started, so I am going to ramp up the difficulty with a new faction before uninstalling (don't want to get burnt out).

My only complaint so far is the party management interface. In order to equip anyone other than the party leader, you have to first go to the trade screen and trade the item to the party member you want to have it. You then have to back out, choose the target party member, and go to the equip screen. Too many mouse clicks!

It would make more sense to have a universal inventory that all party members can access, or at least give them all a "trade & equip" button like the leader has.

That sounds like the original. I didn't care for the interface their either. Quite frankly, with such a simple equipment interface, and the ability to stack heroes, I'd love to see the dolls shrunk down, so you could see all characters, be able to scroll through their back backpacks and equip them all at the same time on one screen. I'd actually like to see that implemented in just about any multi hero interactive game.

And I'm digging on the initial impressions. I hope to find time to do me some beta this weekend.

[Sepiche]

I ended up playing for a few hours last night and I'm with Malacheye... I think this is already very close to being a great game. One crash as I was playing, and as tgb pointed out still a few minor interface issues, but don't let that fool you, the interface as a whole has been almost completely redone and is much improved now. Lots of nice little things I kept noticing like mousing over a number will show a popup that explains where that number came from. Lots of little touches like that which help in learning the game.

And concerning dynasties, they can be modded in by changing this value:
Game\Data\English\ElementalDefs.xml --> <EnableDynasties>1</EnableDynasties>

It's still rough and missing some screens apparently, but usable from what I hear.

The main complaints I've heard so far are no map scrolling (not true.. left click and drag), and the pacing. Personally I like the slower pacing since it gives you plenty of time to go adventuring with your hero as your cities are building up, but at any rate the pacing and research speed are both adjustable, so I don't think it's a big issue.

Things I like:
New level up system is great. At level 2 you basically pick a class (called a path) with options of being a mage, governor, warrior, defender, assassin, and one or two more I can't recall. From there you pick from a class based set of perks every time you level up. Even more interesting, the perks are rated common, uncommon, and rare, so if you get lucky you can get a slightly more powerful rare perk when you level. The stats assignment from E:WoM is completely gone now with only your perks effecting your stats. Choosing perks is also how you get new spells: every level or so you'll have the option to advance up a spell rank (i.e. fire apprentice > fire disciple > fire mage, etc).

Combat. The battles are night and day from before as far as fun and balance goes. In particular there's a zone of control system now that lets you use warrior units to protect a back rank of casters/archers if you choose. The combat spells are also much more interesting this time around. My main character thus far is primarily a life mage and two of the combat spells he gets are shrink and enlarge. It's pretty cool to cast on a huge elemental or something and watch it shrink down to a more manageable size. In total I think they've really started to capture the feel of Master of Magic in the battles now.

Counterspells. Another cool combat feature is that some powerful spells have a casting time on the battlefield where your caster is vulnerable for a turn or two, and during that time some units (mostly heroes) can cast a counterspell to stop you from casting. That adds a nice give and take and really gives you an incentive to make sure your armies are well led by heroes that can protect them from more powerful spells.

Items. One of the more idiotic things in Elemental was the tiny number of magic items available to build and find. Thankfully the items available are much more fleshed out out in E:FE. So far in just killing creatures around my starting cities and grabbing goodie huts I've managed to get a nice assortment of items for my heroes... armor, helmets, axes, swords, etc. My best item so far is a ring I game to my mage champion, it gives a +25% to spell damage which is perfect for my royal pyromancer.

[JonathanStrange]

Man, this is good detailed reporting! What I'd like - later on, of course, after you all have seen the sights - is impressions and examples of clever AI moves...

[tgb]

I just wanted to add to what Sepiche posted that you can also research spells in the Magic tech tree.

[GreenGoo]

My interest is rising. And my pants. Ok, not really about the pants thing.

For someone with no nostalgic attachment to MoM, does the game still hold its shine?

I do not have the original elemental. I passed on it due to the negative comments, so I have no experience and am reading this thread in a vacuum of previous knowledge.

And as I'm simply curious, can anyone detect the design influences coming from our resident game designer (author of the civilization total conversion)? I'm interested to know what aspects of the game came from him.

[Sepiche]

And as I'm simply curious, can anyone detect the design influences coming from our resident game designer (author of the civilization total conversion)? I'm interested to know what aspects of the game came from him.

Definitely. This is clearly Kael's baby. The clever little mechanics that were a big part of Fall from Heaven are all over E:FE.

[dbemont]

Looking very good, so far. Interesting strategic decisions abound. I hunger for a manual, but the tutorial is very well done, if not lengthy. And the in-game help system "Hiergemenon" is excellent, providing both text and a short video.

I never felt this level of interest in the original Elemental game.

[Exodor]

And as I'm simply curious, can anyone detect the design influences coming from our resident game designer (author of the civilization total conversion)? I'm interested to know what aspects of the game came from him.

Definitely. This is clearly Kael's baby. The clever little mechanics that were a big part of Fall from Heaven are all over E:FE.

Good to hear - I'll probably pick this up at release just to support his efforts.

Even if the game is terrible it will repay him for the hours of enjoyment FFH provided.

[TheMix]

I think they've really started to capture the feel of Master of Magic in the battles now.

/swoon

[$iljanus]

Get cracking testing out the beta and reporting bugs so it will be in great condition when it's released for me next week!

[ydejin]

My only complaint so far is the party management interface. In order to equip anyone other than the party leader, you have to first go to the trade screen and trade the item to the party member you want to have it. You then have to back out, choose the target party member, and go to the equip screen. Too many mouse clicks!

It would make more sense to have a universal inventory that all party members can access, or at least give them all a "trade & equip" button like the leader has.

The Trade & Equip item works with any hero. If you look carefully you'll see that both the top party member and the bottom party member have little arrows right next to their names that can be used to scroll through all the heroes in the stack. Also whichever item you last click on (whether on the top hero or the bottom hero) if you click on the "Trade & Equip" button it will go to the other hero listed and equip it on them.

[Malacheye]

Still loving this game.

One thing I havent been able to determine is what is a "grain" resource? You can only build new cities on a "grain" resource and many city improvements say things like "+10 food for each grain resource". I cant seem to find any info as to how much grain you are producing each turn, as in EWoM.

Also, population needed for the next level of a city is shown, but population growth must be in a chart somewhere I havent seen yet...gotta play with it some more i guess.

[Jag]

Not sure what the deal with the AI is. I had a large number of monsters just tooling around my city and they didn't attack. I had one massive dragon listed as 'deadly' that would sit there and let me build around it and move my heroes past it (although it did give chase, it never attacked). I finally built and outpost next to the dragon and a few turns later it destroyed it. I had a number of stronger monsters hang around my city until I was strong enough to defeat it.

I was playing on normal, so I don't think the AI was set to idiotic, but I do hope they fix it as it really doesn't give me any sense of urgency when I start the game with strong monsters waiting for me to get strong enough to kill them.

[ydejin]

Not sure what the deal with the AI is. I had a large number of monsters just tooling around my city and they didn't attack. I had one massive dragon listed as 'deadly' that would sit there and let me build around it and move my heroes past it (although it did give chase, it never attacked). I finally built and outpost next to the dragon and a few turns later it destroyed it. I had a number of stronger monsters hang around my city until I was strong enough to defeat it.

I was playing on normal, so I don't think the AI was set to idiotic, but I do hope they fix it as it really doesn't give me any sense of urgency when I start the game with strong monsters waiting for me to get strong enough to kill them.

AIUI monsters sitting in one place like a Monster Lair will not move unless their Lair enters your city radius. When your city expands to include their Lair they are released and will attack.

There are also wandering monsters (typically much lower level) that will attack immediately, but the Laired ones won't attack and will stay in place until your civilization border expands to their Lair.

[Butterknife]

One thing I havent been able to determine is what is a "grain" resource? You can only build new cities on a "grain" resource and many city improvements say things like "+10 food for each grain resource". I cant seem to find any info as to how much grain you are producing each turn, as in EWoM.

When you go to found your first city you will see grain and material resources listed for each square. That is the number of grain/material resources your city has. Unlike Civilization, only the square you settle on seems to have any impact on how many of those resources you get - not the squares around the city. Once you have settled a square, you can see how much grain/material you have by clicking on the city screen (select the city, then click the city picture on the bottom left of the screen to get details about the city).

I have to agree with Malacheye. I've only played it for a couple of hours now but it is looking good. No major bugs, no major issues, massively improved UI, much better artwork (I love that the map is no longer uniformly brown). I've been playing as primarily an adventurer character -- I don't focus on my army, just go around recruiting people and building up my heroes as much as possible. So far so good. I am cautiously optimistic, but I need to play for several more hours before I'm willing to give more than just impressions.

The good news is that I really, really want to play for several more hours.

[Baroquen]

I pretty much agree with all the impressions so far. I started another game yesterday and there were no crashes at all this time. LOTS of random shiny things to discover (one of my favorite game tricks). I did notice the strange monster AI and I'm glad there's a reason behind it. I'm sure I'll run into that issue with the next game or two, so I'll see how that works in action.

The only thing I didn't realize while playing: Things seemed to be going well in the game. I was exploring. Town was building. All was well. I retired (because the kids were running around distracting me & I knew I'd just start a new game) and the results of the game weren't what I was expecting. I was middle of the pack or lagging in every category. Either I'm not playing nearly as well as I thought, or the scores were skewed by the early retirement. I'll check that out next time too.

Looking forward to getting back to another round today.

[Malacheye]

When you go to found your first city you will see grain and material resources listed for each square. That is the number of grain/material resources your city has. Unlike Civilization, only the square you settle on seems to have any impact on how many of those resources you get - not the squares around the city. Once you have settled a square, you can see how much grain/material you have by clicking on the city screen (select the city, then click the city picture on the bottom left of the screen to get details about the city)

OK, so if you found a city and the square is 3grain/3 material and then later on you build a granary which gives 10 or 20 food per grain resource, do you then get 30 or 60 more food based on the capital city square or do you get the multiplier based on the location where the granary is built?

And how does that extra food from the grain contribute to population growth?

Also, on some maps, I have spent fifty or more turns exploring/looking for a place to settle. There is no settle option (it looks like a desert/wasteland). They need to work on the feature that determines starting location so that there is a settle option within the first few turns, like Civilization or MoM.

Last night I played my first challenging (its the middle level AI option) game as Regalia. It was a small map with 3 other AI opponents. I had all options on medium (resource availability, number of monsters, research pacing) and a temperate climate (I didnt want to be stuck for years in a desert unable to found my capitol city). After about 3 hours, two of my opponents had been wiped out by wandering monsters, I was just about to found my 3rd city and my army was my sovereign (level 12) and three champions around level 10. I could beat strong spider armies and strong troll shaman armies without dying.

As butterknife mentioned, there isnt a big emphasis so far on having build troops in your sovereigns army. Occasionally, there would be a troop other than a champion in the army. If I can get my mana harvesting high enough, maybe I would have the guts to split the main army into two parts and let some summoned beasts make up the other units, but with the level of all monsters being at strong or higher, its scary to try it and there is really no reason to risk it with only one opponent left.

The first two tech level trees in each of the three categories (Civ, Warfare and Magic) had all been researched, with archery being in the third category of warfare. IMO the tech development seems to be on the low side compared with the resources that need harvesting and the level of champions and quests you cant access without higher research development.

My score was about 100 and my remaining opponent was about 80 when I went to bed.

I still havent tried to go to war with an opponent or attack an opponents city, but I have enjoyed picking off enemy champions one at a time.

[Exodor]

Get cracking testing out the beta and reporting bugs so it will be in great condition when it's released for me next week!

If I pre-order now do I get beta access next week?

The web site seems pretty vague on when exactly pre-orders get access.

[$iljanus]

Get cracking testing out the beta and reporting bugs so it will be in great condition when it's released for me next week!

If I pre-order now do I get beta access next week?

The web site seems pretty vague on when exactly pre-orders get access.

I'm not sure if people who pre-order Fallen Enchantress get beta access. I know folks who preordered the original Elemental should be getting beta access now while people who ordered Elemental after release like myself in 2010 should be getting beta access next week.

[Exodor]

Get cracking testing out the beta and reporting bugs so it will be in great condition when it's released for me next week!

If I pre-order now do I get beta access next week?

The web site seems pretty vague on when exactly pre-orders get access.

I'm not sure if people who pre-order Fallen Enchantress get beta access. I know folks who preordered the original Elemental should be getting beta access now while people who ordered Elemental after release like myself in 2010 should be getting beta access next week.

This is what's on the site:

[Butterknife]

OK, so if you found a city and the square is 3grain/3 material and then later on you build a granary which gives 10 or 20 food per grain resource, do you then get 30 or 60 more food based on the capital city square or do you get the multiplier based on the location where the granary is built?

And how does that extra food from the grain contribute to population growth?

Yes, if you have 3 grain in your city and you build a granary with 10 food per grain resource, you will get another 30 food. If your city has 5 grain, you would get another 50 food. Food = max population. Prestige = population growth. So things that increase prestige make your cities grow faster, and you need more food for them to grow bigger. Food is per city -- each city has its own amount. Prestige can be empire wide (for example, from your sovereign) or city-specific (if you build a monument in a city). All prestige combined determines population growth for a city.

I'm crashing like a madman in my current game. I would highly recommend that you switch the autosave to every turn instead of every 5 turns as the default. I also had an issue where I couldn't re-launch the game (it wouldn't connect to Stardock's servers). I was able to get it to re-launch after trying it a few times.

Still having a lot of fun playing after another 2 hours or so (4 hours total now). I've started over and focused on a general-type hero and I'm mainly just building big cities with lots of wimpy units guarding them. I've made nice with all the AI players and I'm raiding all the nearby monsters (I just took out a "strong" monster - go me!) You can find some really cool items from quests and monsters, my main character is becoming a real powerhouse.

[Baroquen]

Stupid question, but I can't find the answer. The options mention some sort of "snap" back when rotating the map. How do you rotate the map?

[Malacheye]

Thanks for explaining the grain stuff...makes lots more sense now.

I tried leveling up a sand golem today (I got it as some treasure). Got it to level 5 before it was killed by a troll. From what I've seen, most units are very fragile and dont get much tougher as you level them.

Items like weapons and armor and rings/amulets seem to make more of a difference in leveling (and keeping alive) your Champions and Sovereign and probably on military units as well. The research into higher forms of weapons and armor is the way to keep built units up to date and strong.

I finally found the great fortress/citadel location. Lots of monsters to defeat and then you need to re-build the city.

[ydejin]

I tried leveling up a sand golem today (I got it as some treasure). Got it to level 5 before it was killed by a troll. From what I've seen, most units are very fragile and dont get much tougher as you level them.

Units get a lot tougher as they level up. They seem to improve in several areas (1) they get a lot more hit points, (2) they get a lot more accurate, (3) they get a lot more spell resistance and spell mastery. Pretty much everything else stays the same. You can check this if you bring up the unit screen for a higher level unit and roll the mouse over these attributes.

Here's an example from a Cavalry unit I've got:

Level 1:
Hit Points: 30
Accuracy: 7
Spell Resistance: 7
Spell Mastery: 7

Level 10:
Hit Points: 120
Accuracy: 25
Spell Resistance: 16
Spell Mastery: 16

Items like weapons and armor and rings/amulets seem to make more of a difference in leveling (and keeping alive) your Champions and Sovereign and probably on military units as well. The research into higher forms of weapons and armor is the way to keep built units up to date and strong.

Agreed. High defense scores make a huge difference. There is a lot of random armor you can find while out questing. Some of this is quite good. Tech-wise I can only make leather armor, but three of my heroes are kitted out with magical chainmail or better because I found it questing.

[Sepiche]

Anyone know if ships are in yet? I could really use them in my current game.

[ydejin]

Anyone know if ships are in yet? I could really use them in my current game.

AIUI ships were meant to be added in an expansion of Elemental. That may still be in the plans for a Fallen Enchantress expansion, but AFAIK they are not currently in.

However, you can get some pretty sweet city buildings by building your town on a river -- docks and waterwheel or both quite good. I haven't tried building a dock on a seaside town yet.

[tgb]

Stupid question, but I can't find the answer. The options mention some sort of "snap" back when rotating the map. How do you rotate the map?

Move mouse while holding down the middle button. There may be a way with the keyboard, but it's a state secret.

[Baroquen]

Stupid question, but I can't find the answer. The options mention some sort of "snap" back when rotating the map. How do you rotate the map?

Move mouse while holding down the middle button. There may be a way with the keyboard, but it's a state secret.

Yeah, that's not working for me. Still at a loss. Oh well.

[ydejin]

Get cracking testing out the beta and reporting bugs so it will be in great condition when it's released for me next week!

If I pre-order now do I get beta access next week?

The web site seems pretty vague on when exactly pre-orders get access.

I'm not sure if people who pre-order Fallen Enchantress get beta access. I know folks who preordered the original Elemental should be getting beta access now while people who ordered Elemental after release like myself in 2010 should be getting beta access next week.

This is what's on the site:

From IslandDog (Stardock Employee):

If I pre-order the game, will I get immediate access to the beta?

Not immediate access as the beta is going out in phases, and early customers of WOM are the first in. Access will be granted in the coming weeks.

Stardock generally does let any pre-orders into the beta. I'm not sure why their phasing it in this time. I think the game is generally enjoyable now, although it definitely is a bit buggy -- I'm probably getting a crash every two hours or so. And there are definitely random items that don't work as intended -- for example there was one enchantment that was supposed to cut a caster's mana costs in half and instead doubled it! Also the AI should get much better.

[ydejin]

My Early Beta Impressions Copy-Pasted from Qt3:

Quick thoughts on Fallen Enchantress I wrote for someone who asked how the game was.

I'm actually enjoying Fallen Enchantress quite a bit. It took me a while to get in to it, but the more time I've spent with it and the more I've gotten to know the game mechanics the more I'm liking it. I'd really love to start another game tonight and do an up all night playing move but I have to remind myself I've got a meeting tomorrow morning.

Things I like about it:

• It does a good job highlighting the role of heroes. Leveling them up, the perks you choose for them each level, the equipment they earn from questing (or purchase at exorbitant cost from the shopkeeper if you've managed to research the appropriate technologies) all make a huge difference in how the heroes turn out. They also all start out quite differently, with a wide range of different abilities and specialties. Plus they all have cute little stories you can read about if you're in to that -- I usually am not, but some of them are actually pretty neat and really make the heroes feel more personal.
• It does a good job making questing in the world meaningful. Sending out your heroes to explore the world early on is of key importance. Partly to scout out the land, partly to find heroes to join your cause, partly to destroy heroes of the opposing alignment before they get recruited and leveled up by your enemies. The experience points you earn and the equipment you find while exploring and questing makes a big difference in your heroes effectiveness long term.
• Magic makes a huge difference in the game, yet there is only a limited supply of it. You'll need to decide how and when to use your limited supply. Do you use it to enchant your cities, enchant your units, or store it up for direct use in combat. Even within these categories there are lots of options -- do you buff your cities for research, casts spells on them to improve the units they build, or use it to defend your cities (surrounding them with a wall of fire, for example).
• In contrast with the original Elemental game where the spells all felt very similar to each other, all the spells are quite different. Fire magic is used for direct strikes, Water magic can be used to slow opponents or speed up friends, Death magic curses and blinds opponents, Earth magic toughens your units. There's a small bit of overlap, for example Fireball and Earth Shockwave both do area damage, but Shockwave is centered around the caster whereas Fireball is ranged. To make up for Shockwave's limitations it does more damage, but it also costs more mana.
  
  There are all sorts of interesting magic spells out there. Obscure fog makes your units harder to hit. Shrink makes your enemies smaller, which halves their attack value, but makes it much easier for them to dodge your attacks. Growth makes your unit big, which means they hit hard, but can't dodge. One neat one I ran into last game (on an opponent ...) was Mana Shield, instead of taking hits to health the enemy's mana pool is depleted. Because the global mana pool is usually pretty big, that one is crazy good, because it makes whoever it is cast on nigh un-killable, but the downside is that if your mana supply gets chewed up, you're going to be hurting long term. Another neat one is Crusade which is super-expensive (340 mana) but gives all trained units +1 level. Unfortunately I think it's currently bugged, or they decided it was overpowering and it just gives all units XP but not a full level.
• The game changes a lot depending on your starting location. If you don't have a lot of mana, you'll have to figure out another way to play. If you don't have metal, you won't be able to equip troops with chainmail or plate armor. If you don't have horses, you won't be able to build cavalry. Sometimes the heroes in your starting area will seem to make better casters, whereas other times they're more suited to act as warriors. Sometimes they'll even act best as administrators reducing the building costs and training costs of units in cities in which they are stationed. The game also changes up depending on what types of magic your heroes have (Fire, Water, Life, Death, etc.).
• As your heroes level up you'll make meaningful choices. Do you level up this hero's ability to go toe-to-toe with monsters by increasing their strength, do you take that perk which lets them stun an enemy for a turn, or do you take a perk that gives a slight bonus to your entire army's defense, or do you want to do something entirely different like take a perk that increases your faction's prestige (generating more fame and bringing more people to your cause)? Each time they level up they can choose one of 5 perks, all of which are good. The perks are rated as common, uncommon, and rare, and some of the rare ones are really great! But sometimes you'll have to choose between two rare ones, or maybe there's a common one that matches what you're trying to do with that hero, but oh boy that rare one sure does look nice, maybe I should make this guy more of a caster/warrior instead of a straight warrior -- hmm choices, choices.
• I really love what they've done with the perks in the unit designer. You can create scout troops which improve your army's speed and visibility on the strategic map. You can create troops that are specially trained to fight larger monsters. You can create troops that provide a defensive bonus to others in the army. There are traits to fight harder when your strength is below 50%, there are traits where your unit gets all bloodthirsty when the enemy is damaged. For evil players there's even a trait that gives you mana each time someone in the unit gets killed. Each unit gets up to three perks, most of them do increase the cost of the unit, but two actually decrease the unit cost.
  
  To provide you with an example of how a unit design might work out, I designed a fast Light Lancer cavalry unit. I wanted them to move as quickly as possible to get across the map, so I gave them fast (+1 movement, +1 initiative), scout (+1 movement, -20 carrying), and charge (+3 movement, +3 initiative on first turn of combat). Not only can these units move quickly across the strategic map, they can also charge across the tactical battlefield in a single turn to take out enemy casters and archers. On the other hand, I wanted to create some heavy duty knights, these guys I gave Ironskin (+3 defense), Constitution (+2 constitution), Potential (+25% xp). These guys act entirely differently than the Light Lancers. Even though they're on horseback, they can't cross the battlefield in a single turn. They have a lot more staying power though.
  
  The equipment on each is different. My Light Lancers started out with leather armor and a spear and I later upgraded them to chainmail and a spear. The Knights used all plate armor and shield. But in addition to the equipment the perks definitely make a big difference in how they're able to operate.
• There's all sorts of dangerous stuff out in the world. At the lower levels, you'll definitely want to watch your step. Even at the higher levels there are some really tough monsters. I ran into this massive multi-square beast in this special desert area. He was kind of a giant armadillo named Torax. I had a heck of a time taking him out, but when I did, I was rewarded with his head, which I could place as a trophy in one of my cities, where it provided slight bonuses to growth and revenue (unfortunately it's currently bugged, IIRC it was supposed to give me a 10% growth and 10% revenue bonus, instead it give me the growth bonus, but actually gives a -100% to revenue -- ouch).