This would have been a lot better than dominions!

[Tichy]

A thought: It seems to me that magic summons are part of the design. The nations are supposed to become more powerful as time goes on, both horizontally (more provinces, money, larger armies) and vertically (more powerful individual units available). Vertical power is implemented in two ways. 1) Magic summons that must be researched, 2) items to give to recruitable units to put them more on a par with the units available through magic. The problem seems to be that most veterans agree that recruitable+items is almost never as powerful as decent mid-game summon+items.

A possible solution: A third way of introducing an increase in vertical power. Add in researchable spells specific to different nations that create magic sites that either allow the nation to recruit uniquely powerful units (thus adding in an upkeep component to certain particularly desirable troops) or allow mages to 'enter' the site and summon these units 1/turn (to prevent horde-ing).

I know that magic sites exist with these properties, but I don't know if the capacity exists for spells that create them. (Or if anyone would think this is a good idea.)