EDIT: As of Oct. 5, 2017, Fallen Enchantress can no longer be bought on Steam

tl;dr
"Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes" is the most recent game, but "Fallen Enchantress" does provides a different (and fun) experience at a cheaper price.

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Lots of confusion regarding this title. Let me clear it up.

Fallen Enchantress ( FE ) was released on Oct. 23, 2012.
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes ( FELH ) was released on May 22, 2013.
Fallen Enchantress: Ultimate Edition ( FEU ), released on Nov. 13, 2015, is a bundle of FE and FELH, plus all DLC (dynamic pricing introduced in Sept. 2016).

Note that FELH is a standalone expansion, which means FE isn't required to play it.

Both games are Fantasy 4X Turn-Based Strategy games w/ some RPG flavor. If you like Fantasy 4X Turn-Based Strategy games w/ some RPG flavor, there's a chance you will like them.

I would recommend getting the FEU bundle on sale, which, at the time this review is written, includes:

• Fallen Enchantress (FE) [1.32]
  
• FE Map Pack DLC [Included w/ FE]
  +
  
• Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes (FELH) [2.0]
  
• FELH Map Pack DLC
  
• FELH Quest Pack DLC
  
• FELH Loot Pack DLC
  
• FELH The Dead World DLC
  
• FELH Leader Pack DLC
  
• FELH Battlegrounds DLC

Here's a list of the main differences between the two games:

FE 1.32

1. One DLC
   
2. One Scenario (FE)
   
3. Three types of physical damage & armor (Blunt-Cutting-Pierce)
   
4. All armor available to all
   
5. Encumbrance (Affects initiative)
   
6. Champions acquired through Champion Camps on the map
   
7. Influence Resource
   
8. Randomized Leveling System
   
9. Humanoid Champions only
   
10. Global Growth Bonus
    
11. No Swarm mechanism (Combat)
    
12. Less of everything (Items, Monsters, Quests, Spells, etc.)
    
13. Game abandoned by Stardock before 1.4[forums.elementalgame.com] was released
    
14. Modding scene is dead (but great mods available)

FELH 2.0

1. Six DLC
   
2. Two Scenarios (FE + FELH)
   
3. One type of physical damage and armor
   
4. Armor Proficiencies for Chain/Plate, not available to all
   
5. No encumbrance, but initiative penalty integrated to armor
   
6. Champions acquired through Fame Events
   
7. Fame resource
   
8. Path Leveling System
   
9. Humanoid and Monster Champions
   
10. Local Growth Bonus
    
11. Swarm mechanism (Combat)
    
12. More of everything (Items, Monsters, Quests, Spells, etc.)
    
13. Game is on life support
    
14. Modding scene is on life support (but great mods available)

Generally speaking, FELH is the better game, guesstimating 8.8 out of 10 will prefer it. However, FE does provides a different (and fun) experience, mainly because of Champion Camps, Randomized Leveling, Encumbrance, and the Global Growth Bonus. Now, that's hardly all the differences, see links, especially the last one:
http://forums.elementalgame.com/439970/page/1/#0
http://forums.elementalgame.com/441381/page/1/#0
http://forums.elementalgame.com/441387/page/1/#0

At this point, I think I need to end this review like every other review I read on Steam:
10/10 Would give a history lesson in my first review again.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! BUY FALLEN ENCHANTRESS: LEGENDARY HEROES INSTEAD!

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes contains this game and much more! Buy that game instead!

Dear Steam: Why is this even still on here?!

Fallen Enchantress has been abandoned by the developers in favor of the standalone Legendary Heroes, a game which is a carbon copy of FE with the addition of some hero units, fixes, and some superfluous content. Instead of patching LE, Stardock decided to ditch it entirely in favor of grabbing even more money from its naive customers. Stardock may have tried to create some goodwill by offering FE owners a discount on the latest version of their infamously buggy IP, but the fact of the matter is that Fallen Enchantress is still a broken, abandoned mess that never got patched or updated to an acceptable level.

I should probably mention that Fallen Enchantress is itself an "improved" paid update of another broken game, Elemental.

Instead of being a sucker and supporting such horrible development habits, save your money and wait a few months for Age of Wonders III.

IT IS NOT A BAD GAME HOWEVER...Elemental: Fallen Enchantress has been technically abandoned by Stardock in favor of it's stand-alone expansion Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. Said expansion contains the original game along with it's own added features and so as it stands, there is little to no reason to buy the base version of this game.

If you're interested, take a look at the more positively reviewed Stand-alone expansion:
“Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes”

Fallen Enchantress is a 4X turn-based strategy game that incorporates RPG elements into it's mechanic and a 'tactical map' combat mode best featured by the Heroes of Might and Magic series of games. This game was developed by Stardock whose notable works include Sins of a Solar Empire, Elemental: War of Magic and the Galactic Civilizations series.

The players can choose to play one of the several factions or make their own where they then embark on a quest to conquer or rebuild the broken land. The game allows the player to create their own factions, hero / sovereign and troops which can be done by assigning armor sets, skills and abilities to each of them. It features an RPG element where the players can upgrade their hero's skills and equipment to improve their effectiveness in battle.

+ Good special effects (I wish I can say the same for the models and art style though; See Cons)
+ Ability to create your own unique Units / Troops
+ Ability to equip, level up and even hire new heroes on the map
+ Relatively large maps that rewards exploration with...
+ Side quests, hero quests, powerful items and random encounters
+ A lot of monsters to fight aside from the enemy factions
+ Interesting new concept to the 4X genre

- Very dated graphics and poor character models
- Unimpressive attempt at cell-shaded textures
- Balance issues
- Performance issues (Players may encounter poor frame rates and crashes)
- AI for the enemy factions is brain dead (It makes bad decisions and doesn't fully utilize the game's unit / troop creation mechanic)
- Almost no replay value (Which came as a surprise because 4X games normally don't suffer from this problem)
- Not a lot of item variation for its RPG elements

GOOD CONCEPT but POOR EXECUTION, the fact that this title has been technically dropped in favor of it's Stand-alone expansion means that I CANNOT RECOMMEND this game. I would have easily recommended this game when it first came out, but as it stands, there is no point in purchasing this title when you can just get it's stand-alone expansion for the same price.

It was a good and promising new concept for the 4X genre. To be fair, I really did legitimately enjoy my first playthrough. Exploring the world, meeting the npc heroes, fighting bigger and nastier monsters, doing quests, customizing my own army and empire with my own designs and specifications were really the selling point for me. Despite all it's PROS however the fact that it's fun factor can last for only one campaign / playthrough is an unforgivable sin to be committed by a game in the 4X genre.

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http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6861651-Miyumi%27s-Review-Corner/

As mentioned in other comments Fallen Enchantress has been abandoned by its developers Stardock and they created another standalone that is nothing more than a modded version of Fallen Enchantress. But this isn't the worst part. Fallen Enchantress is just a modded version of Elemental War of Magic the first game that they also abandoned to create another full game to pull full price out of there costomers for nothing more than what should be a DLC. This isn't the only game Stardock has done this with. Every game they make that gets sequal are nothing more than the previous game with new features. lets take Sins of a solar empire for example, They actually made expansion Deplomacy and Entrenchment but 4 years later in 2012 they release Sins of a solar empire Rebellion and its nothing more than sins of a solar empire with the expansion plus a new one. It should have been nothing more than an expansion especially since most of the new fearture including the game and the DLC for it were created by the community on there mod page. Taking player made content adding it to there old game and calling it a new one is Pretty low but that is the way of Stardock. Customers be warned!

This game tries so hard to be a cross of Civilization and Age of Wonders, and it utterly fails at its goal. The original Elemental was terrible, and Stardock actually recognized that. Their solution? Instead of fixing their ♥♥♥♥ for free, given that it was a liability that they created, they decided to try to sell the fixes for their problems as a 'standalone expansion', Fallen Enchantress.

I usually find some worth in Age of Wonders-style games like this, but even now, so far after release, Fallen Enchantress is not complete. Age of Wonders, a fifteen year old game, had terrain modifiers in combat. Fallen Enchantress? Nope. Or even if it does, you can't tell - the UI doesn't make that information easily visible to you. It's sad to say, but Age of Wonders read the strategic map better when initializing combat - the field of battle was modeled after the hexes you and your opponents were on in the world map, and so terrain mattered as a result.

In comparison? I tried restarting similar battle scenarios in FE several times. Instead of recognizing that the enemy would be attacking from across a river - a river that, in the world map, impedes your movement if you try to cross it - you get a pond. Over and over again. The game simply doesn't understand the strategic significance of a river.

A pond, people. One that you can go around with ease. What's the point of setting your troops up by a river or on a hill if the game won't recognize the inherent advantages of doing such? Even worse, there's no terrain modifier from defending from a walled city. Instead, you just get a bunch of ♥♥♥♥ archers when you defend a city. It's not an adequate replacement for four walls and a gate at all. Your city archers can and will get wrecked.

Oh, and Age of Wonders? It allowed you to have walls and gates when defending a city. You wanna garrison the town you're protecting and stick out a siege? No problem!

Not to mention, the spells in this game are in every way less developed than they were in Age of Wonders. Christ on a stick, Stardock, were you TRYING to take features away?

Don't buy this game. Stardock is trying so hard to make good games, but they're just refusing to admit when they need to change their guard. Whatever ♥♥♥♥♥♥ managers worked on Elemental must have worked on Fallen Enchantress too, because it's still terrible at what it's trying to accomplish.

Don't get this game. If you want a 4x Masters of Magic kinda game, get the "stand alone expansion" of this, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. It's the same game, upgraded, that actually gets updates.

I bought this, the cheap version of FE. I haven't played the 'standalone expansion'. I like the game, and I think it's worth ten bucks. Here's my take on some of the critical reviews and also my reasons for liking the game.

The negative feedback seems to fall into four categories, listed here in order of popularity. 1) you can buy Legendary Heroes so why bother with this? 2) I'm mad at Stardock for re-releasing the revision as a standalone expansion. 3) it crashes a bunch and/or the Stardock login is a pain. 4) it plays weird.

1) Sounds great. Go right ahead.
2) I am neutral. I wasn't around when they did that.
3) I haven't had a single glitch occur. It launches for me like any Steam game, no extra login or account needed.
4) Not sure what this refers to. The game's style is a little old-fashioned. It has more in common with the HoMM games than with Endless Legend, thematically. It doesn't try to do innovative things with combat mechanics or character attributes. What it does is try to be a complete and coherent fantasy 4x game with good RPG elements.

Enough of that. My take on what is good about this game: It provides a basic fantasy 4x experience, including mana nodes, city management, hero management, side-quests, magic items, cute but dangerous bears, and tactical turn-based battles. It does this well, and some elements it does especially well. Choices in city specializing are simpler yet more fun than some big, famous 4x games I could name.

The graphics are nice. They were outdated even when the game was first published. But they're nice, slightly cartoony, done in good taste. Best of all, the screens are not a jumble of colors and patterns that distract the player. The UI is very responsive and doesn't overwhelm you with overdone, gaudy visuals. You can make choices and process turns quickly in this game, even if your PC is outdated.

This is a game to play if you like 4x, you like fantasy, and you're inclined to imagine a story behind the events and characters that you control. It is old fashioned in that your personality as a player, and as expressed through your main character, remain yours. Evil kings use death magic. Good kings build apiaries to supply honey to the public. No bizarre philosophical attitudes to deal with. I care about stuff that's happening in the game. I sit back and wonder if I should have my buddy the warrior start learning civic skills and become a city governor. I'd have to replace him on the combat team but I sure would like a new governor. Hmmm. The game is good for exploration of its mechanics. There's no reason to plow through a session at light speed. Stop and smell the roses and...errr...the zombies.

The intro scenario did get me frustrated. The tutorial was fine, but there's this introductory game and it drove me bonkers with quests that I couldn't find the targets for. Bad dog, very naughty. No biscuit for you.

The very best thing about Fallen Enchantress is it's the work of Derek Paxton, aka Kael, designer of the old Civ 4 Fall from Heaven mods. If you enjoyed those, here's your chance to thank him with a ten-spot. Or more than ten, if you buy the newer version I guess. Long live King Kael, and may he write many more games for us [raises tankard and drinks deeply].

Stardock threw us all under the bus when they released a standalone expansion for this, then promptly gave up on the base game. Don't support crappy devs, especially ones who talk up a "Gamers Bill of Rights" then purposely violate almost every one of them!

This is a great game for anyone who loves the whole nation building turn-based type of games such as the Civ series. However the touch I like is that you can make your own custom units and use them in your army of conquest. You can also receive missions and opportunities to gain powerful items for your heroes to use. The heroes are immortal, often being brought back to life at a nearby city, but all but your monarch gain a injury which impedes them and cannot be removed. They also need to rest for so many seasons before they are fit for duty.