I actually played several games last night with few crashes over 10+ hours so that in itself is a huge improvement over .75.  I was trying several different strategies to see the changes from patch to patch.  The most effective strat seems to be to completely ignore the military tech tree, pump up both the civic and magic tree and just "creep" with champion units and finally expand in ever direction.  The AI seems to expand extremely well, however they do not use loot or try and clear the neutral camps as well as they should.  Now even with the experience nerf champion units are just to strong.  The problem as I see it is with troop strength and how ineffective they are even with levels.  With each level my champs get a random set of stats for me to choose from while my troops become slightly stronger cannon fodder.  I really feel that giving Champs ability choices that directly effect troops would help change this.  A few examples would be a ability that gives archer units a percentage chance to fire twice with each attack or a infantry unit the ability to charge through a unil for double damage.  I also think that units should get flanking bonus based on which way they are facing.  A bonus of 50% damage from the sides and 100% from the back would make tactical battles much more tactical.  The experience nerf was a very good start but it is still not near enough to make this a balanced and fun game.