A couple of caveats. I haven't played this kind of game since Master of Magic. I bought WoM hoping it would be MoM, but I started it, couldn't figure out what the hell to do, got frustrated, then forgot about it. I'm not particularly good at this game, but I've gotten a little better over the course of today. I have also not read many of the forum posts.

1. The initial militia seems far too weak. I could not figure out a way to keep them alive other than to have my sovereign tank and have them stay away and not fight. Therefore they seem pointless to me especially since they don't level.
2. Mage champions seem almost as pointless at first. I have no mana to cast anything and they die very quickly. Maybe if they had a weak magical, non mana using, ranged attack by default they might be more useful.
3. I was hoping for more fantastical troops. Start out with warriors, then archers, then knights, then I want to recruit angels and dragons. Upgrades to the weapons and armor should be faster. But I'd like to also see magical foundries that I can build that allow me to equip my armies with flaming weapons and bows. I don't even know if this fits in the vision of this game, but that's what I was envisioning when I read  about it being like MoM.
4. I felt like the starting points were a little too random. One time I spawned next to about 15 (not exaggerating) epic quests, surrounded by deadly and epic monsters and no champions anywhere near that I could actually recruit. There were plenty for the other side. Another time I spawned on a peninsula with water surrounding me, there was a separate land mass that looked like it should have been connected but wasn't (I could actually see under the land) and another sovereign had placed his starting city between me and the rest of the continent (again no champions that I could recruit) and I couldn't pass through his zone without attacking him. That game ended quickly. If I knew how to play this game better I could probably have made a go at a couple of those, but as it is didn't do too well and got a bit frustrated.
5. I was very happy to see the tutorial. The only recommendation I would have would be to have it go through an entire min campaign. Like having you build armies, casting tactical spells, doing diplomacy, and finally conquering the other side. Just to show your vision of one way the game can be played. I felt the tutorial ended abruptly and hope this is because it isn't finished.
6. I love all the equipment with the sovereign and champions, but equipping your troops feels like too much micromanagement. My suggestion would be that your troops level up from fighting, Possibly capped at city level + 2. Whenever they level their equipment improves up to a maximum based on your current Warfare research. Whenever you create new troops they are leveled to something like half your city level and given gear appropriate to that level. So for example militia would start out with shields and clubs, 2nd level gives them leather armor, 3rd swords, axes, or spears, and so on. I think that you could still use the custom troop design within that, especially if you let the sovereign choose from troop load outs at level up.

In the end it's fun. I was away from home so I told my wife about the game and told her to try it out. She fell in love with it and I had to fight her off today so that I could play it -- for FAR TOO LONG. Played it for about 8 hours straight. She said she pretty much did the same yesterday. She's preordering it now and can't wait for Beta 2. Keep up the good work!