First, kudos to CmdrRogdan for this great post: https://forums.elementalgame.com/417120/page/2/#replies.  Following in that theme, been playing FE and trying to contribute ideas to help it be better. It's a lot better than eWom, but still not great yet.

1) I found myself often casting the same spells in battles. Maybe a beta thing?. It was better than eWom, yes there are more spells to choose from, but having chosen Earth, Fire, and Life, maybe one more, but I didn't get fun buffing spells worth the mana (that I could find) till MANY turns later.  Fire Spark,  Summon {wolf pack/naja},  Fireball was fine, and Heal yes, and I used Haste, but where are Increase armor, Increase attack, Sanctuary, Invisibility, Trip, Confusion, Warp wood, Double strike, Poison, etc.,.    An opponent had the fog spell, cool, but I didn't have it so couldn't cast it.   I just didn't see many concepts/combinations to make the battles more interesting and varied in outcome .  For most of the early game I often didn't have better alternatives that seemed worth the mana... 

2) The balance was off with magic-wielding champions in the party. Even from early in the game.  Anytime you go up against a neutral unit (bear or pack of wolves or even a non-magic using army), it was mostly overwhelming once your champion got up even a few levels.

So why is it hard to balance with mages in a party?  Because there isn't a mage on the other side fighting you in every battle to create balance.

voilà!!!  I think this was a MAJOR but hidden balancing factor in MoM.  Anytime you went into battle with opponents forces, you were going to face a mage.  So that implies...it should be EASIER to balance the game if the Sovereign can contribute in some way to remote battles.  Maybe he must be inside his territory to do so, or even in his home capital, but I believe this would make the balance easier to achieve.

Also, this brings in another fun option to help out the neutral/natural units.  Remember Hile Troy/ Caer-Caveral Forestal of Andelain from the Thomas Covenant Series, and Treebeard from LOTR?  They could act in a similar way--a mage to protect their territory/protect their subjects.  Ooooo,,, this sounds like fun to me!  No longer can we just go walking through the forest (and if you're a Pee Little Thrigs fan, who doesn't like a good falk in the worest?) stomping on the natural creatures, the Lord of the area might smack you down when you mess with his creatures.

Note that I think this idea is in line with CmdrRogdan's general theory that the complexity and variety of MoM were apparent in the different ways to win. IMHO, adding the OPTION to station your Sovereign somewhere to let him participate in far-away battles gives you more variety/options for gameplay/approach.

p.s.  Per another post of mine, I once suggested it would be really cool if your Sovereign could participate in OTHER's battles. Let's say Opponent 1 is smacking Opponent 2.  Could your Sovereign contribute to helping Opponent 2 out with some magic in a battle? Now we're talking in-depth strategy!!!  Don't know how to do it, but it sure would make the massive army /stomp all in your path slow down if your opponents were willing to team up against you in actual mage power during battle! 

Thanks for listening.  It is getting better--keep going Stardock!