That UI does look cool. I never played beta, but I'm guessing tactical played differently back then.

The way it is now - if a unit has 3 actions in a combat round, you can choose to use those actions all at once or use them one at a time while juggling through your party. In otherwords, move unit A one square, click on another unit and move it, and then go back to the original unit to issue a command, etc.. 

Having an initiative bar doesn't seem like it could accomodate this, as you get to decide the order you spend each individual action point across your whole team.

However, it would be nice to have a more visual way of seeing all units (yours and opponents) remaining actions in a given combat round. Perhaps a green dot at each unit's base per action point remaining. Something you could toggle on/off.

that UI is way better then what we have now.  please  put it back.  ty

Wow that image looks like an awesome game! Too bad it's not Elemental.

The horses have armor, and the soldiers dont look cheesy. The lightning is not overly cartoonish, the dragon is cool, and the catapult is light-years ahead of the ingame design.

I can't wait untill that game comes out

Seriously, I'm not trying to troll. But I do think they had some great production models andthen randomly decided "the heck with it, this stuff is to good for a game, lets simplify it!".

Also look how nicely spaced the units in the squads are, and the scale is great. good camera angle. I think the scale ingame is too big, and 12 units in a company look stupid all overlaped. Especially with horses, their heads are all in each others butt.

These are ancient mockups. [Btw yeah the UI design is pretty cool on those screenies indeed.]