Yeah, the first thought I had was not building at all and aiming to make a powerful melee warrior, ignoring magic as much as possible. Actually, I wanted to do this co-op vs loads of AIs with a friend, but he's not playing without tactical battles for MP.
When we first heard about this game ages ago it was a multiplayer rpg/tbs!
The problem with relying on mods for this kind of thing is once everyones got a slightly different version theres no benchmark, you know? You cant have people running different mods on the same high scores table.
Also, I kinda thought it would be like Dominions3 and you could research crafting and make a squad of awesome geared commanders and watch them face off vs armies of 1000s. Such a good game, that. 
But, yeah, I'd totally like to see this play style acknowledged. Not made overpowered; just a viable option. It makes sense it would be a greater challenge and thats what we want.