Well I just finished my first full game of 1.4 with after the war mod.  I normally love turn based strategy. I still am disappointed in this one though even after all the upgrades. I set the game on challenging and was having some fun with it for a bit. The avatars are just plain ugly and don't have enough customization options.The armies are excruciatingly slow to build. In the end it feels more like an RPG with allies. City building was easy to learn. I did not have enough to build everything in every city so I focused on building a few strong and specialized the rest. The AI attacks were generally ineffective. The stacks were divided too small and it did not use magic well. I was still having some fun though until the end. I got the spell that summons the volcano . The game was over in a few turns . I was astonished there was a spell that could destroy enemy kingdoms so easily. Especially when things like the summoned elementals are so weak. It ruined what would other wise have been a mediocre but fun game for me. I would really feel cheated if I were eliminated with such a simple one shot move.