Actually I went back on AOW a long long time ago and went back to MoM.  AOW just never impressed me as much as it seems to have others.

But EWOM will be the game to replace MoM for me, I'm sure of that.

id have to agree with rishkith and red and say i never really got into the game, but Id also say if you liked AoW, you will most likely enjoy this game as well, perhaps even more so! I thoroughly enjoyed MoM and im hoping to see this game take the best of it and improve on it ten fold  

One of the major reasons I liked the game (AOW:SM) was the combat system. I never saw the point in using the fast combat options since the funnest part of the game was directing your troops in combat on the battlefield.

I did play MOM and while it was ok it did not grab me like the AOW games but it has been a long time since I played it.

Elemental is going to slaughter AoW:SM....end of story.

Well I hope so. I also hope to be able to create units in a editor without having to be a programmer like in AOW:SM.

Yea the multipule mapps were pretty cool.

You just stretched the definition of the word "turn" far beyond what it originally meant, good work!   

Unfortunately, when you do this, you essentially redefine all games to be turn-based, almost completely negating the meaning of the word.

I prefer to use the dictionary definition of turn:

–noun

a time or opportunity for action which comes in due rotation or order to each of a number of persons, animals, etc.: It's my turn to pay the bill.

Using this definition of turn, the phrase "simultaneous turn" becomes an oxymoron.

While true it's not exactly saying much.  AoW:SM really was pretty terrible game mechanics wise.  It looked nice, and had a decent though not overly impressive story line.

A better comparison would be to Wesnoth I think, even though Wesnoth is almost an entirely different kind of game.  At least Wesnoth is a really freaking well done game.

I just played some AOW SM based on this. And i only played like 30 minutes but i like it. Reminds me ALOT of MoM. Infact nothing else i played comes close.

What about AOW 2? I read reviews at Gamespot and they seem to be better than part 1.

Why AOW SM? and not AOW2?

Isn't AOW SM the most recent version of the AoW series? I'm pretty sure it came out after AoW.

Either way they are both gigantic improvements over AoW 1 (which had lots of promise but was a giant disapointment).

I think that AoW is the best fantasy strategy turn based game since Master of Magic, but, after playing the beta, I think that EWOM is different, specially in technology path and city management. EWOM is something like a Civilization with tactical combat and adventure, and I like a lot.

I think I will play both, and King's Bounty and Disciples III.

Raven X:

http://www.wesnoth.org/

Test it, it's free

Also have a look at the Wesnoth Experimental forum - for those good ideas not in mainline Wesnoth.   I especially recommend Wesnoth-XP (currently for version 1.8 of Wesnoth), talked about in the Reduce RNG influence thread.   (I use RNG-Smoothing setting of 3 and default Damage split ratio of 0% - so each attack does 0, one third, two thirds, or all (standard damage) depending on how many, 0, 1, 2 or 3, respectively, of the simulated rolls for each attack, result in a successful hit.  I find this good because in this game, the effect of bad luck is worse than the effect of good luck.  This mod makes the game a little more forgiving, yet still keeping you on your toes.)

The game is also *very* balanced.   Simple, but it has a wealth of tactics.

Best regards,
Steven.

Well, I only started on these forums on the last day of June (so effectively July).  When you're new to a game forum, you don't immediately go suggesting other games to play, at least not initially.   And Wesnoth will still be good to fire up every now and then for a change, even if Elemental is really fantastic and has been released.

Best regards,
Steven.