You had a crash? It is pretty rare that the game actually crashes. The game is relatively easy to mod, though new units most of the work is of course, artistic.

Re: Independants. Yes, with the patches there has been some improvement to the spell and normal orders to a degree. I myself tried playing a 2.02 game a while back then changing to 2.12 and saw the incredible difference. Harder Independants are a good thing Eventually they will become pretty consistant and you'll be able to take them relatively easy.