I've played all the elemental games and really liked them all. Sorcerer King is super polished and there is a lot to like about it. But I really wish Stardock didn't give up on some of the concepts that were in the series before. Granted War of Magic had a LOT of different things which I assume must have led to a lot of development difficulties and player issues, but I personally really like a lot of them. There has been a steady and consistent streamlining of the game-play in the series and Sorcerer King just seems a little too streamlined. In some cases the streamlining actually added to the micro management (no production queues).

I can imagine decisions were made on which parts of the game play to not reuse from fallen enchantress to create a more focused player experience, but the cuts were a bit overzealous for my preference, but then I might be in the minority