I'v only just got the game and I'm not hard-core so I haven’t much explored the tactical/strategic options yet (I do allready love the game for its flavour though, you realy get to know your nation and its army’s rather than then just being unit spamming/damage dealing mashies) but for what its worth here are my few suggestions:

It needs to be easier to see where possible city founding sites are.

the location of a battle on the strategic map should have a bit more impact, to me location is very important to tieing the battle into the role-play element of the game and would also give more tactical variety. I'm not talking anything drastic like the Age of Wonders city battles wich themselves became repetitive but small flavourful things e.g. maybe the monks in a shrine will give a blessing to one of the units defending them, a small intitive bonus if you defend your outpost tower and of course spilling blood near an untamed warg site should be dangours to both sides…

I think the difference between map settings is a bit to big, eg. the difference between low and normal amount of monsters is huge, I would like to play something in-between particularly as a new player trying to find a level to match my current skill.