No one said FE doesnt run on laptops. I have been testing various peoples saved games from my laptop and desktop. I think we all agreed the hardware is fine. That being said just because it's not hardware does not mean it's the game either.

FE does have some features that other 4x games don't (but should) have. For instance you will notice turn times for most of the game is almost non-existant. I heard a podcast where they were sending AI code to the gpu processor for some of their older games to take advantage of spare gpu cycles because their graphical requirements werent that big. Strategy games are also some of the most processor intensive games in the industry. Just because the graphics aren't that good doesnt mean that it easier on the system or bad optimization if it's not. 

Try enabling fullscreen and or turning off aero. Fullscreen has a few other problems, don't tab out much, but it should be a performance increase. To enable fullscreen you have to find the preferences.ini (or a related name) file in the My Documents folder. I have turned this on to increase performance. You might receive Invalid DX call errors if you tab out. I don't think Stardock fully supports fullscreen mode. Pretty sure it's not in the regular options because of problems back in the WOM days.

thanks Illauna, it's windows 8 64 bit btw. I'll definitely try out the fullscreen thing.

The graphics are "prettier"

*edit* Sarcasm. 

if i were to boot up battlefield 3 on my laptop right now i guarantee it would use more processor than fallen enchantress.

Humans are a lot slower than AI.  First person shooters are pretty simple.  You have, on screen, maybe a half dozen units whose input comes in from players at around 1 command every 100ms.  

What makes strategy game performance hard is the CPU.  The game has to manage the entire map (so it's both client and server), all the units, all the cities, etc. every frame.  

In terms of performance, 1.4 should be much better as it does a lot more with things that are off-screen (i.e. reduces what they are doing).  

If you have a lower-end CPU, you may want to try smaller maps (fewer things to keep track of).  You can also turn off outlines if it's a GPU issue as it's expensive.

Nah I'm pretty sure it's your laptop and the crappy hardware you have in it. When I'm running the game great with my setup and as old as it is that proves my point. Laptops weren't made for GAMING. A lot of you like to think they are but they are not. Others here have even agreed with me laptops aren't the best. lol

Reduce resolutions, turn off Anti-Aliasing, turn off every graphic improving option in the options. Then you'll get more than 20 FPS.

FE:LH is a very resource intensive game. 20 FPS sounds reasonable for the hardware OP posted.

sure you do, do you chat on AOL too? LOL laptops are really bad gaming systems. If you want to game get a desktop. I've always called laptops traveling garbage. lol I wouldn't own one for gaming if you gave it to me. That's how bad they are. They are made to sell that's it. Hardly as good as a desktop.

also, i tried turning all the settings down, but it really didn't make much of a difference. I contacted stardock support so hopefully they will help me out, i really believe it's a problem with the game not using my dedicated graphics and being stuck on integrated instead.

Let's do the Stardock mods a favor and not try to derail this. Overall, the other people on the thread are correct that you may not have the "best" performance on a laptop. However, I agree it should not be what people are focusing on.

My laptop that I'm on right now is a step below yours and I run the game just fine. Teambo are you trying to play on battery. Even on the high performance power setting, right click your battery, you may experience pretty bad frame rates. Your laptop will generally be set to use the lower performance option by default. Beware, you don't already know, that this will cause your laptop to get fairly hot if it does not have the best cooling. Make sure you also turn off the applications and Windows services you don't need. If you are not sure how to do this there are tools available online. Personally, I use Game Booster. It's a free download from Razer. It's preset settings will generally give you a pretty performance increase when you are playing games. When you are not playing games it will turn the Windows services back on.

Also, on my laptop I have a program from NVidia called NVidia GPU Activity, looks like a vent cover. This should tell you right away if your GPU is being used. I get a popup when I enter the game when my GPU turns on. Hopefully this helps but otherwise Stardock should be able to get you up and running. 

thanks illauna, i'll check that program out. right now i have it in balanced performance mode, but i believe ih ave cooling custom set to max. i'm also running it with my charger.