One thing that's killing me in this game is the brutal slowness of mana regen.  For a game that features the word "magic" in the title, it's hellish.

I'm guessing one reason is to limit excessive spell use in tactical?  There seems to be other limits on spell use in the world.  If not, add something similar to...

I suggest adding cooldowns to tactical spells.  It could be something as simple as the spell level - or something more thought out and balanced.  But add something and speed up mana regen overall, or make it so you can speed up mana regen more easily thru tech, items, or something.

For example, say chain lightning is a level 3 spell (I don't remember and can't alt+tab without crashing because Stardock can't handle certain hardware configs that every other game developer on the planet CAN handle...but I digress).

If you use chain lightning in tactical, it fires, does wildly random dmg or totally misses some mobs, you punch your kitten, and then you can't use chain lightning again for a few tactical turns.

This prevents a player (or AI) from vaporizing the battlefield casting the same powerful spell every single turn (with node(s) amplifying it making it even more ridiculous).

You could even have the cooldowns carry over between battles (but this would be painful to track for the game and equally painful to the player).

I dunno man, something needs to be done about mana regen.  Sitting around clicking next turn 20+ times or otherwise sitting idle, or relying on non-magical troops, kinda sucks in a game that features magic.