[Loren]

I think the biggest thing the game needs is things to reduce micromanagement.

Off the top of my head:

Routing on new production.

Pathfinding--order a commander to where you want him and he'll find the best way to get there.

A spell that increases the supply available in a province. (There are magic items that provide supply, being able to provide an increase to the province itself shouldn't be imbalancing.)

Work lists: Mark a province that you want <x> done. A commander may be given an automate order--he runs around doing all the <x>'s.

Get rid of the meaningless messages caused by insanity. I don't need a hundred messages telling me my insane commanders failed to find magic sites.

Magic item work list: You indicate what you want produced. Mages with a generic <forge> order produce things on the list.

A larger item inventory.

Repeat production orders--queue stuff and select repeat, it keeps being provided until you cancel it.

Remember your orders after insanity.

Spell inhibition--turn off spells you don't want cast. (You could still script them, though.)

A bit more control in the scripting--the ability to give the mage priorities. I really disliked having a high power mage completely unable to harm my opponents because he buffed himself like crazy then relied on low-level summoning spells until he routed at turn 50.

Get rid of the automatic rout at turn 50. I do agree there needs to be some sort of auto-rout to avoid infinite battles. This could be handled by looking at damage, though--compute the slope of the line graphing the number of hp's of real units (not counting summoned units that will vanish at the end of combat.) Go past turn 30 and you rout if the line ceases to be negative.