As I understand it a lot of negotiations were undertaken with the intent of Stardock pretty much redoing MoM - however, these negotiations came to nothing and Stardock went on to do their own thing.
Now, obviously since other people own the copyright, there's a limitation as to how far they can emulate the MoM mechanics without running the very real risk of a copyright infringement suit (I'd expect - I'm no expert on these matters, but it seems you can pretty much sue anyone for anything if you are in the states).
Still, as I have tried to say in earlier posts, there's no good reason why Stardock should choose to completely forgo the inspiration that MoM provides. E.g. there's no reason why the tactical battles must necessarily be so incredibly bland. Honestly, the only reason not to choose auto-resolve is the fact that otherwise your sovereign will never, ever, no chance in hell, regain any amount of mana worth mentioning. And TBH that really sucks.
