Fallen Enchantress

[Yskonyn]

Well they are not *that* rare actually.
But you might have had an unlucky roll on your map area. Keep exploring and you'll find spots with essence.
You certainly need them to get your manapool flowing. ;)

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah I'm on my first game so perhaps I have got unlucky because I still haven't seen any.  I'm not sure I like this system.  You're already limited in where you can build cities, and now if you want essence (and why wouldn't you?) you're limited even further.  Does this mean there's only a handful of viable build spots on each map?  Bleh.

I won't give up on my current game though, I'm not like that; I'll just have to take a more military route than magic.  Thanks for the info by the way, Yskonyn.

[Yskonyn]

Yes there are only a limited amount of spots to build on.
Trust me, essence should be rare. It's a strategic commodity and if you look at the mana cost for most spells you will understand why essence is rare. I think its a rather simple but effective gameplay element like this.
Which faction did you choose to play with?

[Huw the Poo]

I'm Tarth at the moment.  I was always Tarth for WoM and never finished a game due to its appalling issues, so I kind of feel like I need to finish one in FE as Tarth before I look at the others. :)

The terrain movement bonus is nice.

[Yskonyn]

Tarth is going to be nerfed in the next patch, just so you know. ;)
They are considered an overpowered faction at the moment. But I think you have chosen well to play it for a first match. They make surviving a lot easier with their stealth movement and mosters not attacking.
Tarth doesn't need a lot of magic, I suppose, so you can do without some essence at the beginning. Hit and run tactics with high initiative counts are what their armies excel at! :)
You might have noticed that the factions are not all a shade of gray anymore, but each has specific playstyles.
I like Gilden's turtle style very much as well as Resoln's dark magic.

The upcoming 1.01 patch will address some glaring issues with AI interaction (mainly quests) which will make the random maps a lot more interesting and varied over the span of the difficulties.
Just yesterday a user pointed out an issue with simultaneous movement for the AI where two factions could move at the same time and avoid combat altogether. This will be fixed and it bound to change the game for the better.

So far, already really enjoying my time in FE. Although it's pretty hard at times to progress or survive in the lands as certain factions.

[Huw the Poo]

The upcoming 1.01 patch will address some glaring issues with AI interaction (mainly quests) which will make the random maps a lot more interesting and varied over the span of the difficulties.

Historically, 4X AI has always been weak.  I'm not looking for a genius to play against or anything.  However, I really hope they fixed what I called the "suicidal sovereign" bug from WoM.  That was a game-breaker.

Although it's pretty hard at times to progress or survive in the lands as certain factions.

I would imagine that's intentional.  Presumably some factions are designed to be difficult in early game but start coming into their own at mid game.

[Yskonyn]

However, I really hope they fixed what I called the "suicidal sovereign" bug from WoM.  That was a game-breaker.

Yes this has been fixed, but mainly because the way the units work in general.
Sovereigns are pretty much powerhouses now. There is even a question going on at the moment where specific players don't even have to build an army at all. They can just clear the map with their Sov and a few Heroes.
Brad and Derek are looking into it at the moment.

Although it's pretty hard at times to progress or survive in the lands as certain factions.

I would imagine that's intentional.  Presumably some factions are designed to be difficult in early game but start coming into their own at mid game.

It is intentional. You're right, but there are a few annoying bugs at the moment where the AI factions do not get in battle properly due to an oversight in the simultaneous movement the AI factions do.
Also, there is a problem with the way AI heroes and quests (or the battles in the quests) work. On some maps these issues make it much harder than it should for the player to survive.

Then there is the overal difficulty settings that are going to be tweaked for the next patch, because due to the randomness of the game there have been some weird experiences with difficulty setting gameplay feedback.
A thing that is probably not ever going away, just because the game has so much random stuff.

Both items have been identified and are being fixed.