Pretty much agree with what Sir_Linque posted. The polish really shows, the UI is a lot more responsive in general and all sorts of minor improvements really shine.

We'll hopefully get some more UI improvements in the upcoming weeks/months, there are lots of little things that can be done to improve enjoyment. But I have to say I loved trying the beta! I never, ever had that feeling with WoM.

Plus I really like the feel of the new economic system so far. Grain -> food, materials -> production. It just feels right.

Hey! You're from Finland too?

Go to bed already, it's really late here

Hmmm, I played the tutorial and all I have to say is...wow, this is what I expected of the original game.  Very impressed with the feed back and presentation alone...seems very polished.

Has a nice feel to it. Can't say excellent yet since it still shows its a beta and rough around the edges here and there (crashing in Main-Menu, one really long lag right before an Ebenwolf tries to eat my champion while being able to click other things giving me a short impression of a lock up which luckily didn't materialize).

But I'm into playtests and games which are still rough around the edges. So I'm all for it. (Especially if the glitches are not game breaking but give the playtest some character which is true for most things encountered so far.)

Certainly fun and at the same time certainly not a fully finished product (didn't expect that anyways). The Equipment lying around really is meaningful while not being overpowered. Leveling up is non-trivial right at the start of the game making each Level feel like an accomplishment.
Making the Spellcaster-Perks a bit more common might be wise though for Heroes who picked Way of the Mage at least and Sovereigns (Having at least 1 possible Spell-Pick and/or strongly spellcasting-related perk each 1,5 levels on average seems more reasonable than what I experienced, may be just empiric but it sure felt to rare. Thanks to the faster moves, smaller map-size, a longer range for spells might be more reasonable. Burning hands feels quite weak the way it is.).

Most glaring thing in the short game I had so far was the battle AI.
While its certainly way better than in WOM (and Frogboy has told he barely touched the Battle AI, so it wasn't a huge suprise) the AI still seems to have some kind of Tunnel-Vision in certain moments (not all the time luckily) allowing to get quite a bit much of millage from tactical retreats (more than should be possible). Being able to finish the twin Wolf-Fight from the Level 2 Quest with my Souvereign and 2 Heroes with mediocre equip felt quite an accomplishment but realisticly I shouldn't have won that fight and with hindsight it felt like fighting an able bodied person with their hands tied behind their back...

initiative-based-system is a big boost to Tac-Battles. Just what they needed. That aspect has already surpassed the MOM-Tac-Battle-System by being the way more interesting / fluid way to approach it.

An User Interface Issue in the Shop which needs addressing imo is having a question before selling stuff at least as an opt-in, better probably an opt-out. Or at least not having an Auto-Select next item after a sell / when entering the screen, had to reload thanks to by accident hitting the sell button. (Sure user error and maybe its just un-familiarity with the GUI, still seems like a little receipe for frustration)

World seems alive with lots of stuff going on (Huge boost for a Single Player TBS. If the world is vibrant enough Multiplayer isn't missed all so dearly. With me being still in favor of feature-equal MP but first please make this game great. Then if you do go the Multiplayer-route dedicate yourselves to it like you hinted it with an add-on or expansion.). Certainly creatures running around one doesn't want to mess with right from the start... Good times (and certainly evokes Memories of MOM with the really dangerous lairs roaming Monsters)

All in all a good game which evokes fun and gives good hope for a very nice finished product to come while still having a while to go.
Thanks for handing the reigns over to the rabid fans of the genre and letting us rip the game apart at our leisure...

I really enjoyed reading this, I am glad you came out the game in sort of a skeptical way because I was afraid some people have been here so long that anything they were tossed they were going to devour.  I am super pumped now, and it is only a week!

I have to say, this turned out better than I had let myself expect.  I was prepared for slight improvements across the board, and even after looking at Brad's posts and seeing all of the UI improvements I was still a little skeptical, however FE's Beta is really terrific stuff.

A lot of what makes this so much more involving is also the same reason why Civilization IV is my favourite turned based strategy game - the atmosphere and the emotions it invokes.  Right from the title menu, this reeks of a quality product that is an honest labour of love.  Everything is cohesive - the music, the icons, the art style, the small UI flourishes; Fallen Enchantress has a unique and interesting heart that has - even at this stage - endeared itself.  It can only get better from here.

In terms of gameplay, everything - everything - is better laid out, explained, detailed and more logical than War of Magic.  As a result, it plays smoother, feels more refined and ultimately is just simply more fun than I ever had with War of Magic.
There are still a few issues, and after some more time with the game I'll be posting about them in significant detail, however there is literally nothing here that I can't see being patched out before release given the nature of the Beta crew.  It's not 100% perfect, and it's not the best TBS I've ever played - however, if the Beta guys and gals really stick their hands up, we have a chance of getting the game we've always wanted.
I'm sceptically optimistic at this point - which, I think, is a positive sign being War of Magic left me lukewarm to the entire Elemental franchise.

The only honest reservation - and I really do mean the only one - I have is the memory/stability situation.  The game is still chewing through more memory than I feel it should be, and I feel this is leading to some of the crashes I've seen so far.  This was ultimately never fixed in WoM, and if it's not locked down here it's going to result in a lot of rage.  Nothing worse than dedicated four hours to a solid strategy, and BOOM - a crash highlights the fact you haven't saved in 100 turns.
If the stability can be locked down, I see no reason why Fallen Enchantress can't be the next big TBS to come along.  Shit, the Beta right now is better than the release of War of Magic.

On an unrelated note, I'm apparently now carrying four new diseases that my doctors have never seen before.  Strange.

I have played for about 6 hours now, and my impression is that this is a very. very good game already, and unusually polished for a beta. This is going to be what WOM was supposed to be; I might even have to shelve MOM after this. Congratulations, Stardock, you really pulled this off big time.

Massive improvements, and the core of a great game is here, but still plenty of work to do, but it's work with a light at the end of the tunnel if things are handled correctly.  I don't see the fundamental flaws that were in WOM.

I managed about 5 minutes before I had to go to work, my sovereign attacked a bear cub first turn.  Once I saw

1) I could see when I would get 2 attacks together, and manoevered so that thay would be when i reached the bear

2) when the bear attacked me and the word Maul flashed up and he kept attacking until I dodged

I realised I was in a proper tactical combat.

So far, so good.

Clearly a beta, but already more fun that WoM ever was for me.

Love initiative! Thank you!

Love creating my own faction.

Honestly, I played for nearly three hours last night which is more than I played WoM at any one stretch of time.  Oh, and it didn't crash once (I probably have a machine similar to the devs.. yippee!)

AI seems to expand pretty quickly...well, more likely I'm really really slow.

Love the variety of equipment you can pick up. It was nice to have to pick between the sword that gave me +initiative and Dex vs. staff that gave me spell mastery +2.

Love that I lost my ear after I lost a battle. Though I must say that game got tough pretty quickly, so there's incentive to pump out troops.

really like the enemies so far (graphics and variety wise)

Love that caravans, even after being attacked, continue to spawn and start going again with only temp loss of whatever bennies you were getting instead of having to build another caravan.

Haven't really done anything diplomacy wise and I was going broke from simply building anything/everything.

Love random map

Though, to be fair WoM was soooo bad that this inevitably will look amazing, so I'm trying to tone down my exictement. But hell, it's already fun and I'm looking forward to playing it tonight and take it seriously.

As long as they keep polishing it and keep adding more and more content.. it's already something I can see myself playing for a while seeing as I'm not even close to a powergamer and could care less about exact and perfect balance. I just want something that's fun and stable and mostly balanced. 

Oh, and I got syphilis from the game (trying to avoid using cancer like everyone else! )

Just look at em... Pyranna's Guard, dresse dup in scrummy leather armor, with a spear... and Ironskin, and Shieldwall, and Bloodlust, and 2 poison damage per round... now, whilst my researchers research mining, I am going to find me someone to stab.

My first impression: Wow, I'm really sursprised how good the game runs now.

Its really really good! I like the different perk system to make cities, heroes better. I like the research system, I like the world, I like the new tactical combat, in moment with 2-3 hours game time I don't have any point what I dislike (I don't count bugs)!

I played hardest difficult and postivly surprised that I was destroyed by the AI very soon (completly far away from stats point on the end but I tried out a lot without playing "to win")! Good job. Keep it up!