That's basically what tactical battles are. I am around 80% sure they will be included.

TBS and TC are NOT mutually exclusive, remember.....

Me too. Despite my hard-core anti-RT"S" leanings, I would be happy with a real-time tactical battle as well, provided that there is a pause button that still allows you to issue orders and observe the map.

Same here. Except for the part about simple. That word is the second greatest bane of my existance.

the bane of your existance?   never heard of "keep it simple stupid" (or "keep it super simple" if you don't want to insult the person to whom you are talking)   Its something that Sonic Team should learn (you don't need some stupid mechanic, or 300 characters to make a story interesting)

huh... I don't know why, but I was solidly under the impression we were going to have real time battles.  Looking back though, I cant really find where that idea came from...  My best guess is that they kept talking about how, even if you were letting your generals command for you, watching the battles could be "breathtaking," etc.  I can't see how *watching* turn-based combat play out could be "breathtaking," but I may just be crazy.

Also...

What do you have against RTS?  Sure it's harder to actually use tactics, but you can't use them at all in games like Civilization.  I mean, since when did Civilization, etc, give bonuses for flanking your enemy, or other manuevers?

Multi-Layered...  let's take even a deeper look at possible strategic elements if the battlefield could even be more multi-layered.  I'm talking about not only ground units, but flying units and burrowing units.  The amount of strategic options would triple if a group of flying units could exist on the battlefield above a group of ground units and burrowing units under the ground units or slightly in front.  There could be weapons and spells specific for attacking units under the ground, on top of the ground or in the air.  

While I do not think we'll see this level of battlefield depth it would definitely be interesting. 

@KellenDunk:  I find that often the best solution is the most simple.  You could have very complex combat and tactics mechanics and have them be fun for a number of hardcore players.  However, the best mechanics might be some very simple mechanics with only something like 5 basic easy to understand stats. 

I feel that the base game should be easy to pick up and play.   So the world development and such can be very complex, but the 'surface features' should look simple and easy to understand.   A place where I can see over complication hurting the base-game for 1st time players is the tactical combat if its made ovely complex.  I'd love to see things like terrain and weather and such playing an effect, but I personally would think it best to avoid things like regiment formations and such unless its fairly simple (there are like 3 formations in Total War, so its pretty easy to understand when you 1st sit down and play)

If you're asking about my shot at the sonic team.  I'm just upset at them using the sonic franchise (which has a lot of room for some great gameplay) and ruining their games by either adding more annoying and/or useless characters (rouge, silver, cream, that fairy thing in unleashed) that could have had their role in the story easily filled with an existing character, or by adding some game mechanic that breaks what might have been an otherwise decent game (team mechanic in heroes, werehog in unleshed, guns in shadow the hedgehog), because the sonic team keeps thinking they need to add something to make a game sell.   Likely not the place for me to make pot-shots at sonic team, but it seemed to fit since the reason for my harsh words is a mistake I hope to avoid in games like Elemental.

Edit: Bah, Psychoak ninja'd my joke. But yeah, I'm with Landi.

We'll have real-time battles. That you can pause, to give orders.
As for watching turn-based combat play out, I can only advice you to play Dominions 3. While the graphics are horrible and the UI a constant stab in the eye, just try to *imagine* it with the Elemental engine. It could be epic.

I'd say that this is a latter development of the RTS genre, however.

Also, in defense of Civilization, there are merits to flanking, although entirely outside the context of instant battle.

i'm with you guys, i'm quite curious as to how the battle time system will work out. will it be:

1.) similar to Worms 3D where it is turn based/real time combat where you a set amount of time to make your move.

2.) Similar to the Total war series in that the combat is in real time but you can pause to make quick and complex battle manuevers.

3.) an over glorified game of chess (Purely turn base).

4.) Purely real time but pausing wont allow you to issue out commands.

5.) a hybrid combination of 2 and 3.

Then we have to ask ourselves how will the terrain be mapped out:

1.) grid system (units are confined to their own individual grid square/hexagon/octogon) (ideal for turn-based where moves are of concern)

2.) Gridless System (units can move more freely and can easily overlap) (more practical for Real time)

3.) A hybrid of the two

And Finally how or will troop formations be implented (if yes will they offer bonuses for certain tactic situations) and which kinds:

1.) Solid Formation

2.) Loose Formation

3.) Phalanxe/Pike formation

4.) Wedge

5.) Hedgehog

6.) Shieldwall

7.) Testudo

8.) a hybrid formation like "Testudo Phalanxe" or Shieldwall Wedge"

Heck, There could be an entire tech tree branch oriented around troop formations (maybe even group 'em with training tech).