Ok, Been playing a bit now.  Aside from some annoying bugs (Like my 9unit Ogre squads becoming 1 ogre each after reload, that was a fun surprise.) there are some areas that could push the game a little further.  The champions to me are especially annoying.  First, some ideas for them. 

Heroes-

Nobility, loyalty, and governorship.  The main campaign is about the treachery of Kraxis, so I thought loyalty should be considered with hero units.  It could add a nice dimension of real kingdom/empire by adding a titles screen, for governors, Military titles, and even royal titles.  General of the Imperial Army, General of the Provinces, etc.  For royal titles we could have Prime Minister, advisor, chief researcher, etc.  I usually just end up buying lots of heroes, chucking them in the closest city and forgetting about them.  Unless I've given them some magic in which case they are in the field farming npc monsters for gold.  : )  So it would be nice to have some personality and interaction with them. 

Also, more needs to be done to make the family line more powerful.  Children should have something to set them apart.  Certain hereditary titles would be cool and help with this, beyond some of the other ideas I read about line specific magic or such things.  It could also be interesting to see internal factions develop, with certain heroes preferring one of your children over another.  That might be too complicated to manage though.

Interface-

Next, army and city management screens.  I want to be able to see all my cities output without moving to each one so I can decide where to build high level buildings.  For army management I want to be able to combine units once new technologies are researched, or upgrade low level squads equipment and such. Also, combined with the above nobility items it would help with showing any bonuses or losses due to leaders in the army. 

Diplomacy-

Neutral factions.  Why isn't there any diplomacy with these?  I can't seem to have any relations with them, other than they being my slaves.  These are a great possibility for diplomacy as they try to stay alive by courting larger powers as allies, it definitely should be in there. 

-Character and empire creation

Extremely important!  Alignment for your sovereign.  I like the empire, but I don't like being the slaver and burning the ground around my cities.  Its annoying.  I liked how AOW2 had the many spells of life, or fire, or earth that would radiate from your kingdom to change the terrain.  It was  a neat idea, but beyond that it is one way they allowed customization of how your empire would look in the end.  So something to think about. 

These are my phase 1 ideas.  : )  Apologies for any repeats...