The biggest difference, and it's a big difference, comes in the gameplay outside of the actual combat screens. Etherlords brought used the basic turn-based strategy overland map. Armies, heroes in this case, can move a certain amount per turn while trying to take various buildings around the map. The whole point was to claim territory and eventually exert your influence everywhere. This was fairly difficult for some players that simply didn't grasp the strategy, making it a bit difficult to actually progress through the game at a reasonable pace.

Along with the addition of a tutorial that should help players get the hang of things easier, Nival decided to back up, listen to what players of the game wanted to see, and implement as much as possible. The result is that the turn-based part of the game is now more adventure RPG. Each of the five campaigns will allow the player to use one hero per race (color). This hero will carry over from mission to mission with stats and spells so that players can feel like they're progressing a little bit more. During each level there will be main quests and side quests that will open up new spells and creatures for use hopefully driving players to take the time and explore the surrounding areas a bit more. Because of the many different quests, it was necessary for Nival to introduce a new journal to keep track of everything as well, which can be sorted by single missions or the entire campaign.