Ya Woad, I was in and out of the chat room.
Hmmm, s'pose we'll have to wait for the full interview to be offered for download to confirm the beta news.
Lots can change after an alpha, but it depends on the game. Final art is often being implemented well into the early beta stages, and of course the ES people will likely be making tweaks to units for the sake of balance.
...lots of info (so I'm told) hasn't been made public yet. They have lots of surprises in store for us, such as what Wonders will do/how they are implemented in the game. (which was vaguely mentioned in the interview)