Yes, it's stand alone. Those that bought WoM can get FE at a discount or for free, but you don't need to have WoM to buy FE.

Anything more than that is speculation at this point, but from what we hear it should be very different from WoM. Based on WoM, using the same game engine, but many systems completely redone (particularly the three focuses of FE: the entire magic system, tactical combat, and the 'world', i.e. all the wild critters and quests and special locations you can run into out there).

very coolz

Well.. again this is just speculation, but I wouldn't call it WoM 2, more like WoM 1.5. It's not like they're remaking the entire game from scratch, which is what I'd expect from a true sequel, but they're not just adding on some extra features/content without changing the core gameplay, which is what I'd expect from an expansion pack. Somewhere in between; a stand alone expansion.

.. Of course, I look at some "sequels" in the game industry, particularly certain popular franchises that millions of people will buy the next iteration of no matter what, and those sequels can have fewer changes than FE is promising. So I guess you could call it WoM 2, by current industry standards

Well, it depends on genre. For say a classic RPG, I have no problem with a sequel that is very similar gameplay-wise, mainly a new story transplanted onto an existing engine and game mechanics. For a TBS, where any story is the one you make yourself, one has to expect more drastic changes for a true 'sequel' or there's no point to it, you could just keep playing the original. Elemental tends more towards the TBS side of the equation, especially since its content is newly generated with each game and not heavily based on a fixed campaign.

Edit: who was it, one of the Civilization devs I think, that said a sequel should be one third completely new, one third changed, one third the same? That's a good standard for a TBS sequel, and I don't expect FE to be quite that different from WoM. Not that there's anything wrong with that; since us WoM owners are getting FE for discount/free, I'm not expecting it to offer a sequel's level of new content, it's closer to an expansion pack cost-wise. Not that I would complain, if it did..

This would be my opinion as well. From what I've heard so far in dev logs, FE seems closer to what E:wom should have been. Ie - depth to individual mechanics, and real choice between how you choose to win (build armies? become a powerful magician? recruit champions?), and a balanced game. Of course, we all fill in the gaps of what we haven't heard, with what we'd like to hear. So who knows.