I have now played a bit with the game, and I have come up with some remarks on gameplay and enjoyability.
First of all, I've yet only played in easy mode, but I believe that it doesn't impact any of my remarks.
I have begun several games (most stopped short because of an update which made previous games obsolete.)
I will sometimes refer to MoM as this is the assumed reference for this game.

I can see lots of good things in this game.
I also remember that in MoM you could win a game while never building  even one army ; this required a large  dedication to heroes, but it could work (not always!). This made it a game with at least two viable strategies (heroes, no heroes). We're far from this in this game.

Interface:
* I have build too many settlements : some do not appear in the left side of the screen.
* When settlements level up and I'm asked for a specialization choice, I'd like to be reminded about previous  choices. When one has 20 settlements, it's hard to remember which is specialized in arcane, which is  specialized in technology etc.
* The left panel should indicate with a color code or something like which settlements are not training troops (that could be optional) and which settlements are not adding new buildings (while buildings are available) ; another code should indicate which settlements have reached maximum population (and hence require more housing.)
* When hovering the mouse over a settlement, it would be nice that a resume of the settlement be shown (not only pop), with production, bonus, deficits.
* After having done some weaponry research, I wanted to build a new kind of troops. Opening the training interface, I was stunned to find that I was presented with more than 20 different kind of troops. So insted of trying to understand which is what, I just decide it was better to design my own... The game should probably not present more than ten different troops at a given time, and should obsolete the others. A button might popup a larger choice should the user decide so.

Armies:
Squads look overpowered. I'm unsure about the way they work. But I can buy a 4 men squad with 96 attack, 64 defense and more than 40 hit points for 308 gildar. It sure looks like that it actually attacks with 96 and defends with 64. If that's not the case (and indeed the game resolves 4 attacks at 24), then the interface ismisleading (because then I'm thinking I'm much stronger than I really am) ; if not, that's just overpowering. Actually, I still hope that it actually attacks 4 times, if only because such squads would render heroes hopelessly useless. If it only attacks once with the combined rating, then that's a major problem to correct! And I'm not speaking about 9 men squads...

Magic:
I've reached level 10 in spells, but have yet to see any interesting spells but a bare few combat spells. I'm currently researching summon demon (60 turns ?) even though I know I'll have no use for it... Just curious to see was is a demon in that world.
* City spells are too expensive to cast (those which give +1 something), or at least certainly look so when compared with the mana regen rate. More generally, I can see a problem with mana regen, but I'm hard pressed finding exactly what, except that it's clearly too slow for some purposes, but adequate for other purposes.
* Strategic spells are missing. Terrain spells should not be given at start. And maybe even not teleport. In MoM (iirc) one could create forest, transform terrain and so on. Here, turning a mountain into plain does little except open a door. In MoM, it would improve my city production in some ways. I also sorely miss the "enchant road" spell which made travel faster.
* There should be some early (level 1 or 2 in the magic branch) city improvment called "mage tower" that would enable the mage to cast any strategic spell over any place in the realm's territory (and also anywhere within a certain radius.) Just having to move the mage near a city to cast a spell on that city is not fun. And it doesn't make the ruler look that powerful.
* Some spells (maybe there are, but I missed them) should be able to damage (enemy) units out of tactical combat.
* I've yet to meet epic spells that made the end of MoM that fun. Casting that Gaia's Blessing was really an achievement in itself. Or that Inferno spell that damaged anything out of cities!
* As in MoM, books should come in more than have or don't have. There should be several level of books, so that it should be impossible to master all magic. At the start of MoM, one could choose for exemple 10 books of nature and nothing else ; Fire spells were then out of that mage's scope.
* Mastering a shard should be more than having it in your influence and spending 100 gildars. I loved the idea of having to fight for a node (MoM), especially when conquering one often meant one new book of that kind!


Heroes:
Heroes in EWoM just are not heroes. First of all, there are too many of them. In the middle of my game, I have maybe more than 20 of them, many just forgotten inside a city for a small (but still useful) benefit. I try to use some of them, but it's usually a pain as it's somewhat diffult to protect them!
* I believe that heroes should be both rarer and more powerful. As the game is, a basic hero is just going to be killed by a couple of peasants. Sometimes even one peasant would suffice. That doesn't feel good. I see ways to make heroes more powerful and interesting:
- first, grant heroes experience on a turn by turn basis ; it would be slow, but eventually a heroe staying in a city could become level 3 or 4.
- second, grant heroes specific bonuses on levelling up ; for exemple, a heroe that at level 1 yield 1 gildar for the kingdom would yield 2 at level 2, 3 at level 3 and so on.
- third, grant a new ability at level up (in addition to stat increase) ; or maybe once every 2 levels.
- last, give heroes some significant starting equipment that explains how these heroes could survive the wilds.
* Also, heroes cannot wield magic natively ; somehow this feels wrong because the game explicitely states that heroes  are from "the old world". I think that what could divide a (natively) magic wielding heroe from a sovereign could be the starting amount of essence. An idea could be that setting up the first settlement would cost 10 essence. A sovereign would have that amount, whereas standard heroes could start with, say 5 or 6 essence.
* I am happy that the AI doesn't target my heroes with ranged attacks ; if that were the case, most would be dead by now (including the ruler!) ; with a measly 10-15 hp and inadequate defense, they stand no chance. Well, just to be sure, usually the first (sometimes second too) action in a combat is casting a spell that dispatches all these ranged units.

Equipment:
I have little to say about equipment, except that it looks a lot bugged at the time. For exemple, some boots are supposed to increase the travelling speed, but I could not see this happen. Apart from this, there is a major blunder : equipment for heroes is much too costly compared to equipment for standard units. For exemple, a bag of healing for a hero costs 200 whereas the same bag cost 20 for a soldier. Such discrepancies are a major factor that keep heroes underequipped in relation to military unit, and causes them to soon become irrelevant to the kingdom. I can buy a 1 man army for 77 gildar, punching a 24 attack, 16 defense, 19 hit points. I'm far from this with a hero, and all of them are outclassed if only because I just don't have the money to equip them!


General:
* It looks like that the last adventure level can be reached quite soon. I've not yet researched the final quest, but it's been in the unlikely list for some time already and adventure has not been my main research line (weponry was, followed by civilization and then the three others almost equally). Not sure if researching it ends the game (bad), or if it unlocks a real difficult quest (better) ; still, it seems to be available much too soon.
* I've married late, so I only have had one adult offspring. Stats were somewhat meak (10 all, except 13 intellect), while the father (hero level 6 at the time of conception) was average (except 20 intellect) and the mother (ruler level 6 at the time of conception) contrasted (5 dexterity & strength, 23 intellect, good essence.) So parents stats did not seem to much reflect parents stats, and in any case where below what I'd have expected. I was more surprised at the resiliency (26hp! wonder from where that's come!), and essence (60 at the time, while the ruler -a pure mage- had but 48). Still, maybe that's adequate considering that child's remarquable averageness in other areas ?
* Tiles which are within the influence of a city should always be cleared. How can one have influence on unknown terrain ?
* There should be a way to easily track all hostiles within one's territory ; any hostile entring one's territory should trigger an alarm. When one has a large empire, it's not fun to have to watch over every part of the territory before advancing the turn. It's even more frustrating to learn that there is a hostile (one could have dealt with) only when it destroyed some improvement.
* There should be an auto-chase function. When I click on a distant hostile with a selected army, that army should attempt to chase it.
* I don't know how to deal with that other problem, but it's ennoying to build again and again caravan just because some low level hotile destroyed it. Maybe a way to put some soldiers as automatic escort ?
* Unused ressources within the territory should always be marked with the red exclamation mark. At this time, this seems to disappear after a few turns.
* Caravans should build road exactly as one wishes, and not as a direct (but sometimes unsafe) way. A caravan that is attacked (and destroyed) should still have built part of a road (to nowhere yet.)
* There is no significant tactical combat despite the tactical combat grid. Combat tends to be solved on a simple basis : if there are ranged units and I have my ruler, dispatch the ranged units with strong spells. Otherwise, let my mega unit kill everything. There are not enough obstacles around the battlefield, which is not very easy to read in the first place.
* Quests locations should be clearly marked on the map, as sometimes you're told to "go to the temple deep in the forest", the camera shortly shows you the place and return back. After what you wonder where it was, and you have to painfully scan the map to find the place.

Yves