Quoting willie sanderson,
{No I disagree this was an optimum choice the designers made to keep the humaan player from overpowering the AI too much as the AI has never been good at summoning or combating them in any other game I've played. I recall in MOM that the AI was easily swarmed and beaten just summoning Ghouls and Firedogs in the early game.]
Perhaps you have never played the game, but AoW:SM had AI routines that were good at balancing summoning and "gold-based" armies. So, would it be better stated that you are arguing against the current AI routines than my proposed mechanic?
[Why place something unplausible or unrealistic into the game. Hvy Plate has always been the best suit of armor in defense unless it was some magical component like mithril chain, if that's what you're saying I'm fine with that. But, it has to be magical and very "rare" hard to find and you might not see it in 10 games.]
With all due respect, magic spells are not plausible or realistic either; that is the reason why this is a game and not a simulator. And no, I wasn't arguing for better defense on Leather than plate (or even equivalent defense stats!) I was arguing for a different set of bonuses that play to mobility and evasion. I think THAT is somewhat sensible. Think more of a modification of the current encumbrance system that gives higher bonuses to the lower encumbrance tiers.
[I'm sure this is to keep "balance" on as close of a level playing field as possible, everyone knows when you start giving faction bonuses to just about anything it throws the whole game out of whack and others start complaining about this is imbalanced and that is imbalanced and wah whah wah and boo hoooty hoo hoo I want the faction "I" play to be powerful. Already I find just the traits and talents we can choose and mix together to be quite overpowering vs the AI, so don't need to add more to the fire.]
This is true, but I see a trade-off between balance and flavor here. If you make everything too homogeneous you do get excellent intra-faction balance, but you lose out on the fun-factor. Too much flavor and you run into the issues that you cite. I think that, currently, the system is too homogeneous and the factions have too much overlap in tech, buildings and units. Again, the AI would need to be updated for this, but it would be a big "fun-factor" boost, IMO.
[Turn up random events to maximum as I don't see a problem with this in the games I play and also play on smaller maps]
I play at maximum and I do not get a high frequency of random events; but even so, more events and more higher quality events would always be a bonus, no?
What do you think that the game needs most at this point?