Disciples III - Previews @ Hooked Gamers and Worthplaying

Two new previews for Disciples III have hit the net.  From Hooked Gamers:

The combat system has also received a major overhaul. Building on the strategy-oriented gameplay of its predecessors, the battle maps in Disciples III: Renaissance now include nodes that give bonuses to whoever stands on them. This of course means that for the first time in the series you can also move your characters around the battle map, making positioning on the battlefield important in devising strategies. Add to this the aforementioned day-night cycle and greatly increased combat scale, and you have one of the most strategy-heavy combat systems around - bold statement, I know. Yet, for all it's depth, there remains an old-school quality about the battle system and visuals that will appeal to fans of Baldur's Gate and Heroes. While Disciples' lack of decapitation and disembowelment will not satisfy the blood-thirsty simpleton gamer, its refined-yet-rustic combat animations are pleasantly nostalgia-evoking.

...and Worthplaying:

It wouldn't be an RPG without plenty of leveling and skill trees, and there's certainly plenty of that in Disciples III. The game, however, uses a more accessible and streamlined skill system in an aim to make it friendlier to new players while still keeping old fans engaged. Your hero character now has a skill board, instead of a plain old tree. This board allows you more flexibility in learning new skills and testing out others, as you can "move" in multiple directions on the skill board, without being forced to complete one "branch" of a skill tree before starting another branch. You have much less control of the skill sets of your party members, but through the use of a building system, you can still lead them down the path you prefer. For example, in your capital city, you can build a Magic Tower, which lets your mages turn into Battle Mages as soon as they have enough XP. At later levels, even the towers have skill tree-like branches, so you might have the option to create a tower to train Battle Mages or Elemental Mages. However, once you start buildings of one path, you're stuck, there's no going back and no way to re-spec. This system works for every class in the game, so Archers, as they level up, work toward becoming Imperial Assassins, fighters become Paladins, and so on.