This.  

Elemental 2: Subtitle.  

Brad, in all seriousness, I think if you want to rebrand retroactively, there's no reason why you need to use the same brand for each title.  In fact, it gives you a lot of freedom in future iterations if you aren't stuck with some weighty name.

Yeah I know, that narrows it down to like, practically anything.

I'd say Elemental 2. Or maybe just Fallen (you can have Fallen: Enchantress, then Fallen: fill in the blank, etc)

Call it Magic: Bacon.  The "magic" covers the fantasy part, and everyone loves bacon.

Frogboy:  I was playing Galactic Civilizations II last night. I hadn’t played it in a very long time and was stunned by just how much…awesome it has in it.  That awesomeness didn’t come from the original design. It came from years and years of iteration and frankly, labors of love.

Funny you should say that because I also reinstalled GalCiv 2 yesterday after laying off it for quite some time.  And like you, I am impressed by all the great ideas that were incorporated in your magnum opus.   Even after all these years, the game plays extremely well and is as entertaining as ever.  I think one of its stronger assets is how the gameplay is very "clean", for lack of a better term.  It avoids unnecessary complexity, a trap many other sci-fi 4X games fall into.   In some ways, GalCiv 2 reminds me of an excellent board game port. 

1- run away from the 'Elemental' name (the marketeers would say 'rebrand' or some similar spin, but I'm not a marketeer so am speaking plainly).

1- embrace the 'Elemental' name.

I'm not a businessman or marketeer, I'm just an old guy with an advanced degree from the School of Hard Knocks, so take the following with that in mind.

Option 1's reasonings are obvious and no doubt you're well aware of them, and you also have folks who can make this argument.  So... I'll address option 2.

By 'embrace' I think of Tyrion Lannister's advice to Bran Stark regarding Bran's being partly paralyzed -- own your weaknesses so others can't use it against you.  Turn a negative into a positive.

Exactly what happened with the release of Elemental?  What happened is:

-you screwed up

-you told the truth

-you accepted responsibility

-you not only fixed it (Fallen Enchantress), you improved it (LH), and you even made it more than right by giving out the fix/improvement for free.

-now you're continuing to fix/improve/expand the game

That's something to be proud of.

Everyone screws up.  Screwing up isn't what's important, it's how we act afterwards.  That's what I'd embrace -- how you acted afterwards, how you made it right.  Most big companies don't make it right, they do as little as possible while moving on to the next project.  This would be a good way to distinguish SD from other companies, and build brand loyalty.  Being loyal to us encourages us to be loyal to you.

Part of which option you choose depends on your target market.  If you're going for a huge market (which means most common denominator type of games) then option 1 is likely the best choice.  If you're going for a smaller market (of serious/dedicated/etc. fans) then perhaps option 2 is acceptable.

So, if option 1 you need to drop 'Elemental' from the name and move on.  If option 2 then a simple 'Elemental LH' (and 'Elemental XX' for the next expansion).  A sorta middle road for option 2 could be along the likes of 'E-LH' -- keeping the 'Elemental' part but with some distancing.

I kinda like E-LH as it's short, snappy, and doesn't run away from the past.

Then again, I'm not a businessman or marketeer so what do I know? 

How about "Elemental II: Rise of Magic"

^

Own it like a badge of honor! (and reclaim the google search)

Although to me FE + LH feel like Elemental 2, and the next would be "The Third Elemental".

This line from the Lore page is intriguing: "What follows is what has been passed down since the days of the Fallen Enchantress, the War of Magic and the rise of the Empire of Sorcery."

The "Fallen: " idea is fun too...

"Fallen Civilizations"

"Fallen Empires" (MtG I know)

"Fallen Heroes"

"Fallen Elementals"

"Fallen Dynasties"

"Fallen Immortals"

"Fallen Realms"

"Fallen Channeler"

"Fallen Sorcerer"

NPH killed the word Legendary.

I like Fallen Elemental(s)...  All new expansions follow FE format. haha 

Legendary Heroes : War of the Frog

Elemental is a fantasy world and should be secondary (and separate) to any gaming in that world. It's the foundation, the story line, the mythology for a game set into it. It gives the opportunity of having different types games in a world that punters are familiar with.

A game name is a style of playing in the Elemental world. 

Only get rid of Elemental if you don't want to build on it, or it's not working.

Hypothetically, if you were going to take a new tack and depict channelers in a completely different world (for instance, one where magic takes the form of advanced technology) you probably wouldn't use the name Elemental.  It would be confusing.

No way should you go for Elemental 2, that's just dumb. Every time a post comes up on other forums about Stardock, be it Galciv3 being announced or anything else, someone (almost) always mentions that Elemental was a huge fail and that they are never going to preorder / buy from Stardock again. The Elemental name is etched firmly as a disappointment.

Fallen Enchantress is your new IP, as far as I can tell. NOBODY speaks only ill things about that title (of course it's not all positive) but people know Derek Paxton has been involved in the series from that point and the games have also been received much better.

 Keeping the Elemental name is just a bold challenge that there's no reason to take head on. Why would you want every preview/review start with "The original Elemental game was an absolute disasster" when you can get the good memories from FE instead?

It's like lying on your age, telling people you are older then you are, and get compliments about how fresh you look. It's no disaster if reviews starts like that, because they will most certainly end with praize and extra good rating. The game (number 2) will be insanly better then they expect if they judge it from Elemental, and not it's expansions.

By the way, Stardock must be planning an expansion or follow up since this subject is hurting the Frog's head so much. Good news indeed. Might be one of the other great announcements coming from Stardock this month. They just can't decide what to call the game when they announce.

Well if you ever decide to go for a fantasy themed squad-based magic combat game set in Elemental you could name it ECOM Enchantress Unknown.

Elemental Z.

And losts of blonde dyes and hair lotion too.

The preview/review will start with that regardless as long as its a fantasy TBS game.  I'd wager a fair amount of GC3 reviews will include mentions of WOM too.  

Those people who still rage about WOM whenever SD is mentioned... they'll never be satisfied.  Ever.  SD will never win them over.  Many of them were probably never SD fans (this issue just being a convenient internet rage outlet) and the rest who really were fans and have walked away, well that's their right.  But if FE and LH didn't satiate customers feelings over WOM, nothing ever will.  Those people are NOT your target segment, by definition, because SD can't possibly win them over. 

Keeping the Elemental name (whether it's E2 or just E:Subtitle) at least shows that SD isn't trying to hide it's history.  It also encourages reviewers who bring up WOM (which is inevitable) to tell the whole story about the Elemental franchise, because its a franchise.  Sure WOM was terrible, and they'll say that, but if they are at all reputable they'll have to mention the succeeding Elemental games and how awesome they were and how they were given to a large part of the customer base.  

The quest to find an alternative to Elemental as a brand label for SD's Fantasy TBS game is futile.  You're trying to please those who never will be.