I just played through about 3 hours of a game on the Tarth map.

Overall I am really enjoying this game. Here's some feedback (FYI I stubbornly played on normal, so this is feedback from a LOSING playthrough).

Good:

-Simpler economics. Easy to understand but still requires strategic choice.

-Units look great now. Visuals overall are simple but beautiful. Animations seems even smoother and more natural than LH.

-Crafting is cool.

-Summon ship! Woo hoo, oceans aren't just impassable terrain!

-Sorcerer King sends waves of throwaway enemies at shards seems to fit his "meh, I'm almost much done here" attitude, yet gives me interesting choices for strategy - can't just wander the map, have to keep my shards guarded.

-Sovereign still has gameplay presence, even though he stays at home. My initial concerns about this have evaporated completely.

-Lieutenants permanently kill champions. Awesome!

Needs work:

-Performance. My laptop rig, no powerhouse at all, has few problems with even large maps for Legendary Heroes. Sorcerer King, alas, is a chug fest. I had to play cloth map only, which I don't mind that much. But the graphics look better than in LH, so I miss seeing them on the main map. Tactical battles were generally fine, except for the 'desert' map, the one with stones formations as map barriers. This desert map chugged so bad it was barely playable.

I'm guessing this is part of the beta process. I just hope performance can be optimized more. If not, can you at least let us turn off animations in tactical battle?

-Enemy groups. I have to click on a unit, then mouseover the icon, to realize I am fighting three wargs, not one (a nasty surprise when the tactical battle starts! Those shadow wargs are tough). Can the engine stamp a "x3" over unit icons to show that they are grouped? The icons are small, so maybe there is a better way to visually show unit grouping. LH simply threw a number inside a white circle over the unit icon/portrait, something like that is missed here.

-Stack ratings. Can the numerical combat ratings get some kind of visual indicator? That way I can quickly know whether I stand a chance against a stack or not. I don't think I am the only player too lazy to stop and check every numeric combat rating.

-Defense bonus. Do units still get +5 defense between turns when they pass? No visual indicator anymore.

-Hero tree. They seem a little sparse, but I think Brad said more was coming. Do you still want ideas for more abilities?

-Resource likelihood. After playing 3 hours and revealing maybe 40% of the map, I found only 1 crystal crag, zero metal resources, and the crystal was on the opposite side of the map. I was desperately needing some metal to build pikemen, but I feel like I would have lost to the counter before I ever found metal or accessible crystal.

-Shard attack windows: I am not sure I want to know everytime a shard is under attack: 95% of attacks were completely beyond my control, and getting constant messages about losing shards on the other side of the map discouraged me more than it built tension. I'd rather see the counter tick up, and find those destroyed shards later. 

-Doomsday counter: I wish I knew more about why it is rising. Kind of a fatalistic feeling when it's going up, seemingly based on some event, but I can't do a damn thing about it. Even after I got the reveal shards ability and knew when shards were still around or not, it still ticked up outside of a shard dying. Wha happened?

-Treasure: Seems like I get a flood of ingredients (maybe useful later), but no immediately useful items. Swords, armor? My heroes need some love early game, they can easily get swarmed and killed.

-Starting crafting options: I like the crafting, but there seems to be too much early emphasis on equipment/accessories. Only one weapon, hunter's short sword, is an option to start, and I never found both ingredients required. Can't I craft some basic axes/swords? Just so that Tandis gets a better weapon.

-Quest placement: found loads of quests just out of reach, but was so marauded by small stacks I was afraid to venture too far from home. Only ended up activating two quests, total. Can they spawn a little bit closer to the player?

-Trog archers and their snipe ability: might be a little bit overpowered. A party of three one-shotted my poor soldiers, even after gaining a level or two. Can it be +50 or +75% damage, not +100?

Also, trog archers seem like they should have more HP. Trogs are tough. But not a huge issue.

-Casting a sovereign spell through units: Losing a unit's turn, in addition to paying mana cost, might be too steep a price for these spells. Can units that 'cast' a sovereign spell then immediately get another turn?

Ideas:

Reveal Sorcerer's hideout:

Wouldn't everyone know where he is? Not a big deal, but the lore suggests he won this big war, wouldn't we know the general direction of the end of the world? Everyone knew roughly where Sauron was, generally (The east), even if they weren't sure of the actual route to get there.

Moreover, what if the old locations of fallen kingdoms were known? Maybe reveal city ruins, and that's a clue as to where the neutral faction remnants of Ceresa might be close to, Pariden, etc.

I love exploring the map, but this isn't the same situation as LH, where you are re-discovering the world. Time's a ticking, and I want to exploit every clue I can get.

I also feel like maybe my sovereign would now where some shards are, already, from commonly known history.

Enhance the asymmetrical design:

I think it is working quite well, but my goals are still very aligned with the Sorcerer's. Namely, the shards. Both of us gain power by getting some form of ACCESS to them. We have different reasons, and gain power differently, but we both still want them. And the fewer there are, the more direct our conflict. I, as the player, want him to work harder chasing the shards that are far away. But what can I currently do to achieve that?

Is there a way I could hide the shards? Repair them? Cast terraforming spells that close mountain passes and block them off? Could I bury them in a landslide, and he has to spend 5-15 turns digging them up? Could I hurl a few onto the bottom of the ocean? Build a wall of bone around one, so it lasts longer?

I feel like the asymmetry could be enhanced by me, the player, just saying "This is off limits!" I forgo the power of shards, to delay my enemy. This helps me by giving me time to recruit allies, go on quests, etc. As it is now, me and the SK might need the shards for different reasons, but we both want them just as bad as the other, making our goals still very similar. 

Another idea: could there be ways, maybe quest based, to distract the SK? Could I start a Trog revolt at home, so he has to fight a little war, and I buy some time? Could I awaken a dragon near one of his fortresses?

If he is truly a victorious 4X player, how can I bog him down in empire management? How can I exploit his complacency of victory? Shouldn't he be bored, bogged down in the clean-up phase? Can I get quest-based options to fight a guerrilla war against him, while my traditional war machine ramps up?

What if I could find the tomb of a Titan, and wake him up, so he rises up against the SK? "You'd better protect those shards, master! Anyway, gotta go!" Nothing would help my fledgling empire like ANOTHER big bad, fighting with the first big bad.

Really appreciating where the franchise is going with Sorcerer King. I'll keep playing and reporting!