@ dacty4491
Here's some tips regarding your condition.
But first thing first, i've experienced similar situations many times (i play expert/expert at minimum, and sometimes ridi/ridi, and insane/insane if i have the mood, been playing this game for more than 500 hours total), i believe in your expert/expert looking for tips thread i've said it that you can win with bad spot, like 2 cities againts AI which have more, this is a game with 9 AI, with fewer AI you can build more city much easier. Of course this depends on which faction you are using. And in my case, i never use custom faction, i loathe them because they are insanely overpowered.
I assume you set the number of AI opponent at maximum number allowed for the map size, because if you don't do this, you'll rarely have a situation like 2 cities only, that almost always happens if you set AI to max (example: 9 AI for huge map)
I'll use the tips for ridiculous/ridiculous and insane/insane opening for pre made faction that is pariden and altar (no custom faction), because this easily works for expert/expert, and from my experience this always give you advantage, the rest is up to you. This is an opening that aim for winning as fast as possible with any means necessary (except cheats and exploits of course).
First, train 1 militia, forget about that tower of dominion, just train 1 militia, then make a custom scout with stealth trait, train 1 of that dude, then train militia to fill all your remaining slot in your initial sovereign's army. Control the scout manually, don't use auto explore, the stealth traits help but if you auto explore it won't help much. After you finish with the militias, make merchant then tower of dominion. As for research, if you don't have inspiration from water magic, research knowledge or leather armor (optional, and only for altar). Make the capital as fortress, it's better to aim for high essence yield, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't have any, the most important thing is the accuracy booster the fort gives.
The sovereign must be a mage, aim for summoner, rush that light bringer dude. Don't forget to cast Tulelage on the sov if you have it. After you have lightbringer, getting air elemental is a good choice, but it's optinal, if you decide to stop the summoner line, get heal and growth/shrink which synergy well with wisp and lightbringer. If you need spearmen, always make your own custom one with traits: fast (+2 init), finese (+3 atk if higher initiative), charge/constitution/ironskin (optional).
After researching knowledge, look around at your surrounding tiles near the capital, if you manage to discover some crystal crag, you can rush to enchantment (for training mage), if there are no crystal crag at all you will need leather armor. Your 2nd champion if possible should be a mage or commander, if you want fast win, go for mage and aim the same goals as with the sov, make sure to give the 2nd champion some militias/spearmen.
Also look for a horse, if you get one, upgrade the spearmen with horse, and if you have enchantment tech researched, upgrade spearmen weapon with ice spear, this should settle all and allow you to defeat all AI opponent if you act quickly and not dragging the game, at least untill you have 4 or more city, at that point it's safe to drag the game and just play around. It's best to upgrade everyone with horse (including champions and sov), but you must prioritize, the order of priority is: spearmen>defender>mage (Unless you have overabundant of crystal), if you have decent number of crystal income then mage is top priority. You can neglect this in expert/expert, however in ridiculous/ridiculous and insane/insane (especially this), strategic mobility is very important, it's like the deciding factor whether you are defeated or victorious.
If you need a good unit beside spearmen, the default defender is good, its traits is already good enough, but i'd advise you to make your own and replace the plate armor proficiency with other things, like +25% damage on damaged enemy, this will make the defender synergy well with your custom spearmen, because spearmen will always act first, it will inflict devastating damage, allowing the defender to mop up the rest with its crushing blow ability (whose damage is increased by 25% thanks to the trait) because enemy unit will be in damaged enemy condition, which will always trigger the +25% damage to damaged enemy trait on your defender. When using spearmen, always try to impale as many target as possible, this not only maximizing your spearmen efficiency but also maximizing the synergy with the defender which has the said trait.
If you have enchantment tech, you should at least give 1 mage unit to each army (especially those with champion in it). For the mage, make a custom one too, recommended traits: anything that give accuracy and initiative, like fast, discipline, precision. 2 mages for each army is better. Also, if you don't have many crystal, prioritize upgrading weapon of spearmen (spear> ice spear) and defender (hammer> thunder hammer), with spearmen being the top priority than defender.
Important tech: knowledge, leather armor, enchantment, civic (for decreasing unrest), training (for accuracy booster building).
2nd city can be town or conclave, depends on whether you need more gildar income or not.
If your 1st city have high essence like 2 or more, try to cast Heart of Fire when training units. Aura of Grace>Aura of Vitality>Aura of Might.
That should be more than enough to win expert/expert with said settings, because it's enough to win ridiculous/ridiculous without problem. You can drag the game in expert/expert after you capture 2 or 3 cities of your first AI enemy, if you initial cities are limited by 2, then you should have 4 or 5 now, enough to equalize the situation.