or massive world ending spells?

I will be buying...

BOTH!

Some people will never buy Elemental becuase they only like the "real" style of Civ. SOme people will only buy Elemental because they only want the fantasy theme. Otehr will buy (and greatly enjoy, like me) both. Some will buy that with better mods (this one is speculation).

And in any case, Stardock doesn't need to worry about Civ V or the second coming of Elvis. CIv already has an extensive player base developed during years and Elemental is not going to get over that. Stardock better stick to the plan of "Released when ready and when it's the best we can do". That's the onyl thing they truly need.

Its true.  Though one could catapult into demand for the other, in theory.   I mean, really popular media of X genre creates swelling in demand for similar products.   Assuming they are not released on top of each other in a why they directly super-compete.   (a season or 2 apart should be fine I'd wager though)

I must agree the two games will likely be too not-the-same to really be enough competition to worry even if they are released in the same season though.  

I remember when Galactic Civilizations was being developed it was supposedly doomed because Master of Orion 3 was also in development.

The two games shipped within 30 days of each other.

Maybe?

Edit:

Damn slow internets!

I'm sure I'll eventually buy the Civ game, but I am much more excited with Elemental! I mean the reason I play Civ is because it's similar to MoM.. follow me?

Though as to the original comment, I can see the concern. I've know enough people who would maybe buy a game like elemental cause they like the genre of game, but know the Civ series as "the best" and would want that much more.

That said, I don't think it's cause for concern, and maybe, just maybe, the popularity of a game like Civ5 will even help the sales of Elemental! I'm hopeful.

I don't think I woulda been interested in Civ 5 as much till I saw the screen shots. HEX grids for Civ excites me. I know it sounds dumb, but really it allows for such awesome terrain possibilities, not to mention army movements and such. Call me a sucker from the old Mechwarrior Pen and Paper on hex days I guess lol.

Provided they aren't within say a month of each other there won't be a problem.  Also I suspect that at least one of them won't get released on time anyway.

What!? Brad you're such a fanboy....

A lot of Elemental's features (magic, quests, champions, dragons etc) will be modded into Civ5 eventually, just as those things have already been modded into Civ4, but I'm not afraid it'll compete directly with Elemental. For one, it won't have tactical battles, it wouldn't be Civ5 if it had tactical battles - just like every previous civ game, it's going to revolve around city/economy micromanagement with very streamlined combat. Even if they mod in earth-shattering spells and dragon allies and such, Civ5 won't let you watch those things annihilate entire armies at once, and what's a fantasy game without epic battles?

So let's say you don't care about tactical battles, you don't even want to sit back and watch your dragon flame broil the enemy army, you just want fantasy-themed turn-based strategy. You're still going to play Elemental instead of a Civ5 fantasy mod - granted, Civ4 has a great fantasy mod that approximates many of Elemental's features, but it's taken them years to get that far, and it'll be a long time before Civ5 has a similar mod to compete with Elemental.

Anyway, although I don't doubt Civ5's quality in the least, I just think it's going to fill a different niche in the market than Elemental will. The only way Civ5 can compete directly with Elemental in the fantasy-TBS-niche is by being heavily modded, which won't happen anytime soon - and even when the modders have done everything they can with Civ5, I doubt it'll compare to a game designed from the ground up to be a fantasy TBS.

My space bar is going to be worn out from all of the epic TBS.

Hex or square...  I don't care what shape my plate is, as long as the food is TASTY!