I was disappointed that the enemy sovereigns don't seem to use their abilities or resources effectively at all.  I found a piece of Champion armor and a mauling Berserker Axe early in the game, which made me practically invincible against all the other nations.  And I used fire and death magic to destroy the toughest monsters.  But the AI sovereigns tried rushing me naked with daggers.

I found that I could make spearmen that cost only 15 labor if I selected both the Conscript and Weak traits, so I could build units of them one per turn and overwhelm everyone by sheer numbers.  The AI guys never massed enough troops for proper defense or offense.

One guy (Magmar) with tons of crystal never tried to build the guardian statue, so I easily captured his town.  Then I built the statue and it single-handedly wiped out another sovereign and his army.

Procipinee slipped her army (of five champions?) past mine and we captured each other's capitals.  Then she left her army in town and wandered out alone to cast spells on the town and herself and just stood there alone until my army came all the way back and attacked her.  At least in her second attack she eventually defeated my town militia by using lightning, instead of getting killed by them meleeing with only a dagger like the first time.

There were some super-powerful monsters roaming around enemy towns without attacking them, but they did attack me whenever I approached.  I used an army of my super-wimpy spearmen and my sovereign to wipe out an army of guardian statue and ten golems by casting mass-curse and deathseal and chopping them up with my mauling axe (four or five critical hits on every attack).  I noticed the fire spell Focus also stacks with the mauling axe and deathseal so you can do almost infinite damage with a melee attack.  I never saw the AI use any constructive spell tactics or strategy, or weapons and armor for that matter.

Doesn't the AI go out and get any decent equipment?  It seemed like the sovereigns could never stand up to spearmen even late in the game.

By the way, isn't the "seasons" thing a little weird?  I mean I played for over 300 seasons, so I guess most of my troops and champions were dying of old age before I even began researching the basics of metal armor and weapons.  I know it's the same "magic" that keeps a group of spearmen alive for 1000 years in Civilization, hehe.