I thought FE would be improved from WoM but wow! This is a beta 1? This is still months from release?
Seriously though good job, from a core gameplay/content point of view, what we got here is leaps and bounds ahead of WoM in nearly every way. Some things I've noticed.... mostly positive, some issues to work on...
- Performance! I'm amazed at how silky smooth the game is. No lag or fps dips anywhere! You weren't lying when you were stressing how much better threaded everything is.
- I really like how you've taken many aspects from MMORPGs and translated them into mechanics for a TBS game. Monsters drop unique loot (spiders drop spider silk, wolves drop wolf pelts, etc...). Items and equipment have unique effects, rarities, and level requirements. I love the hero levelling system with 5 random traits of various rarities that you can pick each level. Sure all this needs to be balanced and more content needs to be added but from a mechanics standpoint, it's leagues better..
- The UI, while it still needs work, is much, much better.... especially the tactical battle UI with the ability icons of each unit on the bottom portion of the screen rather then having to go into sub menus. What's really awesome is that it's easier then ever to get the information that you need.... whether it be tooltips everywhere to explain the various options to detailed and easy to read reports. Again, it needs work... no delete button for custom sovereigns, for instance (right click to delete?). Also, I had to hunt to find where to rename a city. You should be able to rename by clicking the city name. Also... possibly a bug, but sometimes a unit simply refuses to garrison in a city even when there's open slots. I right click and it simply won't let me move a unit into a city. Also units built should start in the city garrison, not plopped out randomly.
- The world definitely feels more alive then WoM did... with many more unique goodie huts, quests, and special tiles. There still should be a little more variety but it's quite a bit better. Wandering monsters in the early game are a bit too strong, and there could be a bit more variety with them as well.
- Magic is much better, but it still needs work. Many of the spells are unique enough but many just don't seem all that powerful. You should be able to follow a magical route and be able to win just as easily as taking a route through straight military research. Again, it's leagues better then WoM but there still needs to be a greater variety of spells. I'd love to see some epic global enchantments that have far reaching effects, tactical enchantments that effect the entire battlefield, MORE summons, and maybe spells that require reagents or component items to cast (and considering everything seems to drop loot...). Also, spell effectiveness (damage) should be affected by intelligence or some other factor rather then just how many shards you control.
- The AI needs to be more aggressive and take advantage of opportunities. I purposely played poorly to see if the AI would be aggressive against a weaker player. While it did declare war, I was able to make peace rather quickly using diplomatic capital (I had a monument built), and it didn't try to attack... giving me time to continue to build up. The AI, especially the empires, need a bit more "killer instinct" as it were. You don't want them to be stupid aggressive, but they should definitely attack a weaker player given the opportunity.
- Diplomacy needs work... it appears relatively unchanged from WoM, and the "diplomatic capital" system I still find rather obtuse. Why does sometimes a rival value diplomatic capital at different rates for no apparent reason. Sometimes 1 unit is worth 100 "value" sometimes it's only worth 1?
- City building, while better, still needs some tweaking. I can't really suggest what to do, but some way to reduce the building spam. I like a good variety of buildings, but it might be just a bit too much. Also, there needs to be a better way to force cities to specialize. One suggestion is to take into account to grain/material values of surrounding tiles, not just the initial tile... more like how MoM did it.
All in all, I'm impressed. With no rush to release, I'm really excited to see what this game will become in the months ahead. Hopefully I'll finally be able to uninstall MoM 
