So now that I've gotten to play more of the beta I have some updated opinions on a few things:
1) AI foreign relations is much better, the only weird thing I encountered is Yithril declared war on me because I was too strong (literally, they feared my military enough to tip them over to declare war). They sued for peace later, but if the opponent is so drastically above their current power they should avoid them not confront them.
2) Champions can be overpowered. I don't think this needs to be nerfed like a few threads suggested, but I picked up 2 champions really early in the game and then 3 more later. Basically turns the game into tactical map Diablo (not a bad thing imo), my sovereign is powerful enough with looted weaponry and defense to solo everything but boss enemies (Shrill Lords, Dragons, the big stuff like that) and one of the heroes I picked up had skill with life magic, now he is a master of it and with 4 shards plus cost dropping traits mana running out isn't an issue.
To elaborate on my party of 6 heroes:
a) Sovereign: Shadow Broadsword (ignores 2/3 of enemy armor) and enchanted armor pieces from head to toe, plus a mastery of Air magic
Melee DPS: Berserker axe and Obsidian Shield (the axe is almost overpowered, Maul allows constant striking until a miss, and many of my heroes provide accuracy buffs, this hero managed to solo kill a Hoard Spider in 1 round)
c) Tank: Heavily armored hero with a unique mace (looted from an Empire hero that I killed) decent stats but he's slow
d) Assassin: Complete with Toxic Dagger and Counterattack, tears through lesser mobs
e) Tank #2: Nothing unique, just heavy armor and a shield, since he's the lowest level of the group enemies tend to try and take him on (not constantly though, the AI is smarter than that thankfully)
f) Mage/Heal: Master of Life magic with Archmage robes (cause why not 
) Obscuring Fog makes the party practically impossible to hit.
3) City development is WAY better than WoM, with the streamlined resource system it's also a lot easier to keep up if you get unlucky with a start location.
