So what does it show on the box? I didn't buy the boxed version. If it's that dragon shot, I could probably manage something like that late in the game if I adjusted the camera right.

I think metalfacekevin is asking a reasonable question. He's not asking about epic battles, he's asking if the game, at some point, will look like the screens on the back of the box.

I'm not saying he deserves an answer any more than anyone else does.

But you guys trying to shout him down are just stupid as hell, purposefully misreading what he is saying.

If I made a thread asking the devs a reasonable question, and you people showed up trying what you're doing here, I'd be mad as hell.

Well, no.  The answer has not been given.  I've never played Total War, so that reference is lost on me.  All I want to know if the dragon battle with the flying soldiers in chain mail will be possible in this game.  If the scope of that battle is not currently possible, will it be possible in the future?  Yes or no would suffice.  Frogboy did say they were rushing to get multiplayer out because it's on the box.  I just want reassurance that the dragon battle scene would be something I could find in the game.  I apologize if my question offends you, but I stand my ground.  This is a reasonable question, and I feel an answer is in order.  Players who wanted the multiplayer aspect released were addressed, so I'd like an answer to my question.

So you mean the answer was not given in terms you could understand.

So currently:

1 - I've had battles with a Dragon on my side and soldiers in chainmail on both sides.

2 - I've had battles with 10's of units with a descent number of mean in each unit and a dragon.

3 - Unit's hit for a lot of damage and killed do go flying although admittedly it tends to be only one name form the unit others just fade.

4 - You can adjust the camera angle/ zoom to get a similar battle field view to the picture box.

Finally currently you can have battles with lots of units comprising a large number of mean and with creatures like dragons (though at the start of the game you won't have vast armies) you can actually build some pretty big armies by the end of the game and have big battles that include dragons. So what are you after here?

Could you post the shot from the box or a link too it? I want to see what part of it is not achievable in the game at present, so I can judge we didn't all buy the boxed version.

P.S. Quote seems not to be working properly for me at the moment as you can see.

Wasn't that screenshot released when the game still had RTS battles....months ago?

Right I see, yes it was and I agree it was silly to put it on the box because it does make the combat look more like RTS than turn based, which was changed mid-development. Guess they already printed the boxes.

Substantially I've had a battle with about 10 units (many of them squad I think 10 men units basicly, plus a dragon and my soverign).  The enemy fielded less but I have seen large armies fielded, the dragon does still look like that and have a fire breathing animation like that. I think what is lost is maybe the chaotic movements of units and I agree that would give combat a more epic feel.

Here are a few ideas:

1 - make units fidgit between turns it makes them seem more alive.

2 - Make whole units clash rather than have one man from each unit move to the front look at Battle for middle earth (archers all attack together now think the same for melee). Have units move on to a shared tile to fight and have everyone clash, hard animation wise put looks a lot more epic.

3 - Add more background noise to battles hundreds of men make a lot of noise.

As it is you can have epic battles like the one in the box art, but they just don't look and feel as epic as they should because there is no sense of vast armies clashing even when you field hundreds of men. It's look and feel as much as substance, because as I say you can have epic battles they just don't feel epic.

They have commited to an overhaul of tactical battles, no details yet and I doubt their are likley to be in the short term. I doubt you are going to get an answer here from a dev by the way other than a refernce to the other thread.

Yeah, we're trying to get the battles to look like that again. That shot was from a battle engine test that, while it 'ran', caused some pretty unplayable framerates. When we made Tactical Battles into actual turn-based affairs, we lost what (IMHO) made that shot look 'cool' (namely: simutanious animations and movement).  There are plans on the table that will bring us closer to what you see there, but 'all guys running at the same time' may be lost forever    sorry.

That image has been my current logon for months.  

Epic tactical confrontations in turn-based fashion I am assuming to be a bit annal but thorough...

I'm fine with Turn based battles ala AoW and MoM ...EPIC?  even better....

But what about tech trees that regress technology?

The context is the key here.  We're not going for a Total War (massive armies battling it out across a huge battle field). We're going towards a MOM style battle which can still be pretty epic (ala the screenshot).

What's on the box of Elemental would barely qualify as a skirmish in Total War.

In designer terms, Elemental is going for grand tactical battles of MoM gather than grand strategy of Total War. What that translates is that while you will likely not ever field armies of divisions comprising of hundreds or thousands of people, you will be able to field an army of heroes comprised of dozens of units.

The bettles are fine, they can get massive later on.  Like I said earlier, I had a battle at the end of the last game I played that had my Sov, that same dragon, and about 100 soldiers against an army of about the same size.  I should have taken a screen shot or something, I might still have a save game from it.