Hello, this is my very first post on this forum. I have played EL for almost 130 hours.
First - I want to tell you I'm glad you have added alied victory and unique nations, it made me very pleasant! No more 7 necro vs 1 clans (Yes, I have played something like that) :D

I want to tell you about my sugestions.

Random events (quests?)- This game needs to force players to do certain actions. Almost every war is going to have a winner and a loser, because one player decides to attack another just because he knows he will beat him. Random event like "Local tensions" will force player to attack another player or one of the cities will lose one population unit. If player decides to attack another player - another player will get random event quest "Declare War" to the previous player or couple of his units will undermine his authority and became rogues (or uncontrolled units with colors of this players going to destroy destined player city). In brief I think this game needs some more "political" flow. High influence will help to prevent all those random events (it should work just like you pay with influence points to prevent from negative effect). War will make population more happy and it will increase your authority.

Dynamic minor factions should be triggered with random events. When dissaproval in city is critically high for a long time the assimilated villages will organise a riot and spawn armies going to capture the city (not destroy) and establish own kingdom (try to go for own sovereignty). Also, this should be triggered when players expand too much - the locals will establish a city in order to defend themselves against incomming tyrant. Cities will work just like the ones from Civilizations. 

Environment based minions - just some wild minions based on environment fighting for themselves against each others. For example - woodlands from unclaimed lands might have a chance to spawn independent humanoidal bandits going to attack everyone in their sight - players and armies spawned by villages; mountains will spawn landless knight; deserts will spawn big scorpio etc.
Those environment based minions should be less common than independent armies, but they can give some more variety to the gameplay. Slaying those units might give a reward, for example after defeating the landless knight player can "posses his equipment" and get 5 Titanium or a special weapon. At least, I think the quest enemies should have a quite different look than roaming armies.
You know... You enter the dungeon and you get quest to kill some mobs, you expect big dragon-snakes and theres... just a couple of tetikes.