For my money, this is the finest strategy game on the market.  The balance of the various kingdoms is far better than in the original, with all empires having serious strengths and equally devastating weaknesses.  One  must learn the value of combining force types into effective mixtures of  defense and offensive units to even have a chance at success.  The serious  player will probably take something on the order of a year to master the  game, because the complexity level is so high.