Middle of March, I say.  Why?  No good reason, just a guess.

1.2 has to be next, then expansions can be worried about.  My guess if we won't hear much until Feb at least.

Doesn't mean there won't be news in the meantime though.  I'm more interested in hearing what the focus of 1.2 is , so I can spam the forum with my own suggestions, which will then be ignored. 

I'd say not expansion pack sooner than july. Based loosely on my vague memories of the Gal Civ expansions.

Kids these days. Back in my day (in the beta), I was lucky to finish more than one turn without crashing. Also, there was walking through the snow uphill both ways.

The Beta for the expansion would likely begin in February.  Since this expansion is of the scope of a full blown expansion (these aren't micro expansions) we're looking at a late Spring release at the earliest.

There will be a lot more details given in the coming weeks.  But I know a few include a massive revamp of game mechanics (food/housing/etc. to be a lot different and we think better), a totally new tactical combat system (not a modification of what's in the v1.1 series but a new one entirely).  A new spell system (v1.1 introduced a new magic system, the expansion would focus on how spells are obtained and cast), more personality and differences between factions, etc.

So the expansion will basically overhaul a number of Elemental's core components, practically making it a whole new game.  That should be interesting to see.

Now we get back to hypeland just like in 2008 and 2009 

Will be exciting weeks.

hmmmm. While all these areas need improvement I'm not sure totally redoing them is the answer. Some like housing could probably shine with just some polish. I guess I will have to wait and see.