Awesome... I'm finished with school after today so... happy times are here again

I was a bit confused by this as well.

Its gone midnight in the UK I was hopeing to get this downloaded through the night as my connection speeds only 40 kbs, I was hopeing to try it before the World Cup starts. Looks like ill have to try and fit it in around the footie its going to be a mad weekend

Edit: Nevermind - thanks Shivax that makes sense.

"Beware, armies are not stacks. They fight together as a single combined arms unit"

Can someone explain this to me, because I have no idea what it means.

In beta 1 (and presumably in beta 2), armies fight together. If you attack someones stack of units, you're attacking *ALL* of them with all of yours. It's not like in Civ where you can attack one unit with one unit in a stack.

Tactical combat isn't in until beta 3, so right now all fights are auto-resolved by the game.

Good news stardock I'm excited to try it out!! Good walkthrough.

I live in the US. I'll probably skip Mexico vs South Africa.. But nothing will make me miss England vs. US on saturday!! It's only a 2 hour match. And then i have 22 hours testing out beta 2, haha! I consider my self a huge fan of Elemental!

You should get an iPod and follow Stardock on twitter.. That way you wouldn't have to get out of bed to check for updates. You can just take a quick peek on your tweeter on the iPod and they would probably post it for sure that the beta is out Just my suggestion

I think it means that if you were to attack the units in that square. They will attack you as if they were only one STRONG unit.. But i might be wrong.. Maybe i should let Frogboy or someone else explain that one..

Great news...

Oh wait, I work this weekend.

Your archers will engage first and keep firing until the enemy closes.

Of course, if you're all archers and the other guy had mounted warriors, you'll get murdered.

Alright, this was a good primer post about what's In, and what's not in.

My first observations.

Great, it'll be going live just as I get off my vacation. Irony is full of that! *Grin* (Though to me, it's not a problem, I've had a decent vacation.)

Next, I found myself thinking out loud.

Beware the consequences of "Armies are not Stacks". 

But I feel I think I understand the significance of that statement.

When you form an army, it becomes one single combined unit, of the bits and pieces you built into that army. So if you put three archers, and three heavy infantry, and two elven cavalry into the army. (Not sure if you can name the individual armies.) But that would become a single massive unit. Which would have all the attendant gear and what not, that was part of the units individually.

So it would have all the pieces you put into it. And would become a size 8 army. With a fighting strength and defensive strength abstracted together into one set of numbers for offense & defense.

Now that brings up tactics and strategy. Tactically, it'll be resolved by the computer, it'll show a nice little animation of the battle I'm guessing. But it's an all or nothing approach. Win or lose. (Though hopefully in the future there'll be a chance for some of the units to flee the battlefield.)

Strategy. As it relates to your combined arms army. What you put into it gives it, the advantages. And also provides the strengths and weakness of all your eggs in one basket.

So as so often mentioned in the previews of late. You may think your The Rock™ and we should "Smell what the Rock™ is Cooking!" (Yes shameless WWE quote and personality back from the great old days of early 2000). But when you enter the lands of Capitar, and march on their people and villages, you better beware, sending in one army, is inviting disaster, because they don't take kindly to invaders from across the sea. And now there is a nice glowing volcano spewing out hot flaming death at your landing site, that soft little beach that was. And which has wiped out your exceptionally equipped veteran assault force. "Do you smell the burnt hair, and sulfur now? The king was heard to say."

Now mind you, I could be wrong. But I'm feeling pretty confident that this is the actual case in question.

So let's hear it for the new beta, and those who test it. Because obviously, you and I are fringe hardcore gamers, willing to put in effort for something that we believe we will love. Tempting us to spend hours and nights, alone by dim ethereal flickering electronic twilight, guiding us to one more turn.. until our eyes weep pitch and the gates of the ebon kingdom unleash their unholy terror upon the lands, that you've virtually spent many a year, toiling over, lovingly crafting each part of your unprepared demise.

(Edit: Updated some punctuation, fixed some prose, and added a few words that slipped through my mental net.)

Do combinations of units have a greater strength than the sum of their parts?

Are there plans to include specific combinations that are extremely effective?  gestalt style?

So aside from preordering, is there anything else that I have to do for the beta?

Is there still a team working on the graphics side of things? I'm just wondering becuase because in the first screen shot it looks like random buildings pushed together rather than an organic city. Sorry if this has been asked to death