Elemental: War of Magic - Fallen Enchantress Developer Journal

Fallen Enchantress lead designer Derek Paxton has once again taken to the official Elemental: War of Magic forums to post a new developer journal that covers the expansion pack's new units and the customization options we'll have with them. It's great to see the game getting more depth instead of being "streamlined":
Players can still design the armies they want to train. If you want to create archers faster, make a cheap version without the precision trait. Or make some elite units by loading up on your favorite armor and weapons. Just remember that units have an encumbrance limit based on their strength, so you have to make hard choices between massive shields, big weapons and heavy armor. Especially if you are playing one of the smaller races (each faction has different starting stats).

Traits are new to Fallen Enchantress and are so much fun to design units we have some unlocked from the beginning of the game. Initially the design required the player to have certain techs before they unlocked traits and trait slots. But now players start with a trait slot and a small selection of traits they can use. Later techs unlock new traits and additional trait slots, so late game units can really specialize.

One of my favorite new features of the unit design system is upgrades. When you design a unit you can pick the weapon or armor it will have. Or simply select for it to get the best possible of that type. Defenders, for example, always try to get the best armor that player can produce. So whenever you train some defenders they will have the best armor available at that time. Players can also upgrade their units, so that if new armor becomes available the player can upgrade his existing defenders (for a moderate cost of course).