I smell a thread lock in the future.

Where did you read this ? It looks completely unprofessional, just a bunch of whining, no real objective points to make and half of it is this person saying how they feel it should have been rather than pointing out what is is, thus making this more of a rant and less of a review.

I don't see any false information. Some of it is pure opinion which is subjective.

Actually, the 'reviewer' doesn't seem to understand even the most basic game mechanics, so who can really take them seriously?

I'm not sure this person even understands how this game works in the attack and defense department. First off there is no multiplication of units, each attack is computed seperately in the stack. Namely when the card say 1 - 3 attack X 3 units... it's really roll 3d3 and that is the attack (after each member of the unit rolls an attack chance).

The attack is computed as (Attack - Defense) per unit if a strike occurs for that unit.

If you really are going to complain about the mechanics of the game, first understand the mechanics in the game.

Also, I don't know why the review person couldn't afford plate armor, but I can afford a piece of plate armor (usually I don't have to because I find it).

Heros the only interesting part of the game??? I don't know about that, dragons aren't heros but they are pretty interesting... juggernauts those beasts are intersting (at least to me). Hey I purchased this game on the sole fact that I can build a multi-tile city (oh yeah, and Stardock is a good company).

Building in a few random locations BONUS, because it fits in with the lore of the game. If you could just plant a city anywhere, then how does this reflect the lore in the game of being post appocalyptic. At least it is trying to maintain the setting, plus you can set up a map where you can settle everywhere.

The abilities coming up seeming randomly. This is true that the level ups are somewhat random and so this may be the only complaint on this review that I can accept. Although, the choices seem random, the system is rather elegant and is better than well of all the traits I need to take these 7 traits because these are the best traits of the game and the only way to win. But to each their own.

Finally this review post looks really familiar... I could swear I've seen this in the forums during the beta.

There's one huge difference between MoM and FE: in MoM it was difficult to lose a game. Even on Impossible where the opponent wizards got 15 spellbooks or whatever, the A.I. was a pushover. In FE the A.I. is actually working and working well.

The Attack and Defense balance was pretty bad in earlier beta but I don't find them bad now. I think the Devs did a good job with that.

I do agree that the graphics don't look good but they are not has bad as MOM's graphics. I just hate the style but I got over that. And I would say that AOW:SM looks better than FE.  I'll Also say that right now  AOW:SM  (with the players pathes and my units and additions) is still a better game over all than FE Vanilla 1.0. 

And I will say the Heros and magic items are better in that game (I've got litterly 1000's of magic items and hundreds of heros) than in FE. They get more a selection on leveling and the Hero and Magic item editor are easy to use.

Now saying that I think that the Modibility (is that a word) of FE has teh potential to make FE shine. And I look forward to what the moding community comes up with.

Speaking of modding is there a central location to check these mods out?

For now, the best bet is the Modding forum:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/forum/1008

Don't think the review needs much analysis. Some people are unintelligent. Because we are the apex predator on the planet, they often erroneously believe themselves to be intelligent. There is no reason to correct their mistake, since to this sort of person, a correction would only prove their intelligence to them. And so the troll is born.

That answers the most important question I had.

You know if they had just taken advantage of terrains a little more, added some spice between empires and kingdoms, something besides "We'z all the same and We'z all boring"

Well then at least one empire could be distinguished from the next.

This whole Empire vs Kingdom thing was a STUPID IDEA. The factions are all BORING. All the bases look the same, there are only two flavors of usable terrain out of several terrain types that could have been used, everything is so BORING and just the slightest of changes could have spiced things up.

Why not allow us to choose the terrain of our kingdom or empire when creating a new faction, why not have spells that change the terrain of our kingdom or empire with bonuses that go on equipment or can be added via global spell enchantments, so a spell to transform your domain into an ice age could combine with spells that give bonuses to everyone in snow in your domain? How about permanent volcanoes and magic to permanently control the weather, magic to cause lasting flooding and other neat effects that we can see on the map. Stuff that won't just be erased the next turn or be utterly pointless and bereft of any difference from the rest of the world. Why not have a spell that expands forests and a Kingdom that specializes in building in/on forest tiles? Why not have a kingdom or empire that specializes on using the Ice that gets bonuses in Arctic and major penalties in Desert, or an empire or Kingdom that's the opposite?

Things like this, just little changes on the User End, would make all the difference.

Stardock seems stuck in Mechanics End thinking, unable to think in terms of the experiences players came into this expecting after it was described as Age of Wonders and Might and Magic on steroids. How's a game so bland from the user end perspective supposed to be the game that lasts for decades?

Never fear, Xia will speak the truth.

As far as a review, it seems written by someone that is not very familiar with the game.  Most everybody thinks the champions are strong throughout the end of the game, in some cases overpowered.  This review says that cannot compete late game.  That is the complete opposite of almost everyone playing.  I would take this review with a grain salt. 

Wow. My wife said that EXACT same thing, including the 'I can't stand it'.  Heretics!

I actually liked it, before the campaign, which painted the characters as so much less than I had imagined.

It completely befuddles me that people are calling this game bland, and even ugly.  I find myself engrossed in it, the lore, the gameplay, the characters, and even the graphics art style.  Especially the graphics are style, I couldn't imagine it in any other way.  I wouldn't find it nearly as charming or as engrossing as I do now if its art style was any different.