Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Beta 3 Begins, Screenshots

Stardock has announced the availability of a third beta build for Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, which adds a ridiculous amount of tweaks to the strategy/RPG for those of us who have access to it. There are a handful of new screenshots in our image gallery, and while the changelog is simply too big to quote in its entirety, I think it's important to mention the dozens of entirely new features:
+ Altar- Gets access to the Athican Leather Curiass (increased defense and fire resistance), Fending Blade (shortsword that increases Dodge) and the Athican Longsword (longsword that allows 2 counterattacks per turn).  All Altar units get +10% experience.

+ Resoln- All wraith units get -1 hit point per level but heal a hit point each time they kill an opponent.

+ Tarth- Tarth units get +2 to Attack an Initiative when in armies of 3 or smaller.  Tarth has access to the Heartwood Shortbow (higher attack and initiative than a normal shortbow), Ithuane Longbow (higher attack and initiative than a normal longbow and it doesn't require metal) and the Ram's Horn Longbow (high attack and initiative than the Yew Longbow, it doesn't require metal and it has 50% armor piercing).  All tarth units can move though forests, swamps, hills and rivers at normal movement rates.  Tarth crafts Masterwork chainmail instead of Plate Mail at Heavy Armor.  Masterwork Chainmail doesn't provide as much defense but is lighter and quicker to produce.

+ Krax- Krax units are +10 Defense when under 50% of their hit points.  Krax has access to 1 handed versions of all the craftable spears.  Karavox gains the Silver Tongue ability which allows him flip trained units to his side in tactical combat by spending influence.  Krax also gets the Bronze Shield, a round shield that gives additional Dodge vs Ranged attacks.

+ Magnar- All Quendar units get 25% Fire Resistance.  Magnar can craft Scar Stones which give their units +1 fire attack.  They have access to the Cull the Weak (sacrifice a unit in combat to heal the caster and recover some mana), Death Lash (boost a units stst in combat but the unit is killed at the end of combat) and Candlecloak (you army is wreathed in fire, damaging any that attack them) spells.  Men or Fallen units defeated by Magnar are added as population to their cities.  Magnar can train slave units that are cheap, and weak but don't require wages.  Magnar cannot construct growth improvements (inns, festivals, etc)

+ Gilden- All Ironeer units have +1 hit points per level and +30 Spell Resistance.  It costs 50% more mana for them to cast tactical spells.  Markin improves the defense of all gilden units by 25%.  Gilden crafts Light Plate Mail at Armor instead of Chain Mail.  Light Plate Mail has a better defense than chain mail but is heavier and harder to produce.  Gilden upgrades their units for half the normal cost.  Gilden has access to the Golem Shield (an increidably heavy tower shield), War Club (a club with an additional attack bonus vs men and fallen), the Battle Hammer (a warhammer with higher attack) and the Sledge (a one handed Maul).  Gilden can construct Iron Golem units that have a very high defense and hit points, but a weak attack (compared to their production cost).

+ Pariden- All Amarian units get a bonus to their stats based on the shards you control.  Pariden gets access to the Sindarian Staff (which gives bonus dodge) and the Leht staff (which fires lightning).  Pariden has access to the Tome of the Inferno, Tome of the Mountain, Tome of the Waves and Tome of the Wind, which add the Fire Apprentice, Earth Apprentice, etc  abilities to the unit that uses them.  These tomes are unlocked at the Sorcery tech.  (it's worth a trip to Pariden cities if you are on good terms with them and they unlocked Sorcery to buy some tomes for your champions).

+ Yitrhil- All trogs get +20 weight capacity.  Yithril trained units start off at 2nd level.  Yithril cannot use ranged weapons but they get access to the Trog Battleaxe (a Battleaxe with armor piercing) and the Great Axe (a Great Sword replacement with higher attack and backswing).  Verga's Warlord background also gives -50% to unit wages.

+ Added the Autodefend ability- whenever a unit doesn't use their attack action (casting a spell, attacking, anything except moving) they are "Defending" and get a bonus to Defense.  The amount of this bonus can be modified by traist or equipment (like shields)

+ Added the Tribute treaty- Offer to pay a percent of your income to an AI player to avoid war or push an AI player to pay you tribute each turn

+ Added the Surrender treaty- Force a player to concead, destroying their empire and giving you their sovereign as a champion in your service

+ Knowledge Trading- Everytime you research a tech 10% of that techs cost is added to your Military, Civilization or Magic knowledge (depending on what type of tech it was).  This knowledge can be traded to other players (or traded from them) and is added as free resource to a random tech you could research in that category.

+ Added the Amulet of Haste item- craftable accessory, +2 initiative

+ Added the Belt of Speed item- craftable accessory, +1 initiative

+ Added the Enchanted Hammers spell- +3 prod per material in the target city

+ Added the Defender levelup traits- bonus to the defensive bonus when autodefending

+ Added the Lethal levelup traits- They increase attackget unit, but that unit is killed t the end of battle

+ Added the Silence spell- target unit cant cast spells for 3 turns, unless they resist

+ Added the Bless City spell- Reduces the unrest in the city, it can be cast multiple times but has a very high mana cost

+ Added the Urxen blood trait which gives +2 Attack when in armies of 5 or more

+ Added the Broken Spirit trait (for surrendered sovereigns)

+ Added the Assassins Tools faction ability- Gives access to the Poison Vial (additional poison damage on every attack), Scimitar (lognsword with counterattack and backswing) and the Skath Claw (Broadsword with increased attack and initiative)

+ Added the Potential 1, 2 and 3 champion levelup traits (increased xp)

+ Added Spell Resistance 2 and 3 champion levelup traits

+ Added the Monument improvement (+1 ZoC)

+ Added the Bazaar, an improvement unlocked by the Legacy of Serrane faction ability that gives +10% gold

+ Added the Gift of Iron spell (tactical spell that stoneskins your entire army)

+ Changed Accuracy to be a straight percentage chance to hit an opponent, minus the defenders dodge.  Also did the same for Spell Mastery versus Magic Resist, which are essentially magic accuracy and magic dodge (respectively).

+ Added the Ring of Life- craftable accessory, +3 Hit points

+ Added the Tidal Wave spell- do high damage to enemy armies that are near water

+ Added the Treasury Vault improvement- World achievement, +1% interest on the treasury every turn

+ Every player gets their own worker thread (aka: performance ++)

+ Added the Immune to Counterattack trait

+ Added the Counterspell spell- Allows you to cancel a spell in the process of being cast (unless the target resists)

+ Units from resources (ogres, skaths etc) are now spawned automatically from the resources instead of being trained in cities

+ Added the Smelter improvement- +50% metal

+ Added the Foundry improvement- +50% crystal

+ Added a Strategic version of the Wellspring spell (heals all units in an army)

+ New type of damage: Ping. This is when a unit hits another unit, is stopped by armor but still does 1 tactical battle damage.  (Ping damage displayed as "Klink" in battle)

+ Added the Alchemy tech

+ Added the Book of Flames, Book of Stones and Book of Frost techs- they have a 33% chance of appearing each game and they unlock spells of their type

+ Added the Dispel Enchantment spell- dispels random curse on target city

+ Added the Flame Wave spell- does fire damage to all enemies

+ Added the Frozen Bones spell- lowers the initiative of all units in target city (curse)

+ Added the Incinerate City spells- does damage to all units in target city (curse)

+ Added the Token of the Wolf- item that summons a wolf to join you

+ Added the Iron Works improvement- World achievement, Increases faction prestige by 1 and research by 2 per material

+ Added the Conclave improvement- Requires 30 influence to build, increases faction prestige by 1 and research by 10%.

+ Added the Alchemist Lab improvement- Converts 1 crystal to 0.5 metal and 0.5 influence per turn.

+ Added the Cleric improvement- Requires 10 crystal, reduces unrest and increases city growth.

+ Added the Festival improvement- Increases growth by 2 when city is idle, requires 20 diplomatic capital (this should probably be a player achievement)

+ Added the Sage improvement- faction achievement, provides 1 research plus a 10% research for city

+ Added the Scholar's Guild improvement- faction achievement, Increases city research by 25% when city is idle. Requires diplomatic capital.

+ Added the Spit Fire ability- Ignys ability to breath fire

+ Added the Aegis Robe- Magical robe that offers reasonable defense

+ Added the Dark Wizard lair and an upgraded version

+ Added the Beastlord sovereign background- Allows the player to use the Tame spell to try to capture anything with a Beast race

+ Added raze outpost action, and hooked up hotkey "X" to raze a selected outpost if applicable

+ Added the Hobble ability- Normal attack that slows the victim for 3 turns

+ Added the Frostborn trait- Slows victims that are struck

+ Added the Order of Asok Lair- Occasionally spawns troublesome knights, players that capture and build camps here can recruit knights

+ Added the Secluded Pool goodie hut- heals units that visit

+ Players can also recruit Hunters from mercenary camps

+ Added the Call Slag spell- Summons a slag into battle

+ Added the Call Uteran spell- Summons a great cave bear into battle

+ Added the Chain Lightning spell- Does a random amount of lightning damage to all enemies with an area of effect

+ Added the Demonic Ally spell- Summons a demon into battle

+ You can now equip items from the found item popup

+ Lots of things I'm sure I've forgotten