Again, if true, this is a deal-breaker for us.  We went through all that "in a future patch" stuff with Demigod.  Tactcial battles ARE the reason for this entire game.  Why would we all spend all that time making towns; to make resourses/gold; to make units; to make huge armies only to click in a "roll a die, you lose/win" button like they use to do 2 decades ago in MP games?

I'm just going to have to see for myself.  I just can't beleive they'd release the game without it.  No way. 

What do they mean "it was not fun"?  That is what WAS fun in Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might and Magic for Decades now. . . . ?

He said that it was not fun to watch every single tactical battle being fought by all the players and that the game in general takes far too long to progress. He also admitted that he personally doesn't think multiplayer is worthwhile in a TBS game because of that, but that they will try to implement a valuable system for the fans. Nevertheless, the focus of Elemental is clearly the singleplayer sandbox mode, not multiplayer.

Let's see: you just have to do what games like Age of Wonders have been doing since the dawn of MP: You can watch the battle or not watch it.  Easy.  If you don't watch it, you can still fiddle around with all your own units/towns/econimics while the battle takes place.  I feel like I'm buying a used car, and the salesman is trying to convince us how we would really not have fun with passenger seats anyway. . .

Well, a friend and I had several days of co-op games planned when we got this game tommorow.  I just informed him there is no tactical in MP.  He was in as much shock as I.  In fact, he actually thought I was kidding, and it took me a minute to convince him I was totally serious. Luckily, I told him before he purchased his game, or he would have been furious. 

I can promise you, there are going to be a LOT of people out there, purchasing multiple copies of this game to play against and co-op with people/friends, who are going to be shocked (and or just plain major ticked) that such a basic feature of any TBS game was left out.  I can just see their faces when they pair off to start their very first MP battle, after possible hours of building up their economy/units, only to see "Die-Roll, you win/lose"

And with CivV comming out soon, I can't imagine anybody "waiting" for a standard MP feature to be implemented "in the future".  Heck, my friend said we will just get our old Age of Wonders: Shadow magic out and play that till Civ5 comes out.  Sad, sad, sad. . . .

Because the civilization series is well known for its awesome tactical battle system.....

Here's another player eagerly waiting for multiplayer Good thing I didn't know about the plans for not including tactical battles in multiplayer, I'm sorry but for me it sounds like madness   No matter though, if they're going to be added in the future. I've been playing AoW: SM multiplayer with friends for six years now, still do sometimes, and we are hoping Elemental will be a worthy replacement for it one day. Games taking long isn't an issue for us really, but I understand that we probably are kinda a niche crowd withing a niche crowd... Most people won't be interested in playing like this. Considering that it's extra nice that guys at Stardock are making the effort for it! Multiplayer with tactical battles, doesn't matter to me whether other players watch them or not (though not watching would be nicer, so you won't reveal your forces to them that way), and this'll be the best RTS ever for me

Tactical battles will actually see their way into the MP side of the game pretty soon, according to a very recent post by Frogboy. Your friend shouldn't worry and just buy the game.

People need to stop skipping the posts pointing this out, seriously.

Tactical battles are making their way into MP again, as a couple people have already said. I'd still put off buying the game for MP though. Tactical battles is just one of many issues with MP.