Stardock announces Legendary Heroes, the first expansion for Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, their fantasy-themed strategy game. This is planned for an April release as an expansion for Fallen Enchantress owners and as a standalone release for new users, and continuing their compensation for the problematic release of Fallen Enchantress forbear Elemental: War of Magic, it will be free to those who preordered Elemental from Stardock in 2010. A public beta test is planned for next month. This page has details and screenshots, and here's word:

PLYMOUTH, MI - February 5, 2013 – Stardock announced its first expansion pack for its popular fantasy strategy game, Fallen Enchantress. The expansion, Legendary Heroes, adds new monsters, new champions, larger maps, new tactical battle maps and re-imagines the role of heroes in the world of Elemental.

“One of our goals with Legendary Heroes is to tie together the destiny of your kingdom and those of your champions,” said Derek Paxton, lead designer of Legendary Heroes.

In Fallen Enchantress, champions were recruited through exploration. Once recruited, they could go on quests, acquire magical items, gain experience and choose new talents. Paxton continued, “In Legendary Heroes, the champions seek you out based on your fame. Your kingdom gains fame through a variety of means and as a result, the player’s affinity with champions is now tied to the choices their Kingdom as a whole makes.”

Legendary Heroes also expands on the critically acclaimed gameplay in Fallen Enchantress. New types of monsters such as liches, skeletons and worse begin to appear in the world. New quests, a new scenario and much larger map sizes are now available.