I really enjoyed EWoM when it first came out, in spite of the issues and I've been thinking about playing EWoM again after many months but I just have a few questions for those still/currently playing first (rather not get burned out on the game now when it looks like good things are coming, especially in EFE).

1)  The AI, how is it now?  This was the biggest reason I put the game down.  I'm not looking for an AI that can just stomp all over me necessarily, but at one that at least puts up some fight.  Last time I played it wasn't even necessary to defend your cities (other than the annoying wandering monsters) as long as you military score was high enough because the AI would never attack you even if you were at war.

2)  Balance/bugs.  This was the other reason I put the game down.  There were too many things (like moral and the sovereign skills that affected it) that were just way too game breaking.  Also some units (I'm looking at YOU summoned armies and archers) were just ridiculously over-powered.

I'm not really looking for it to be "perfect."  I just want to know if it's gotten to the point where it's sorta balanced and challenging without the challenge coming from an enemy sovereign that perma-fears my entire army and slowly kills them one at a time.