Pex, as kyrub hinted at earlier there is a new active MoM site at dragonsword.com
Among other things, we're host to two large scale MoM projects. kyrub is making an ambitious patch that improves AI + interface and fixes most bugs. I'm working on a mod that rebalances the game for more interesting gameplay (the balance is crazy broken in the vanilla version). We're also starting up various other features, and have active discussions about strategies.
It's definitely a flaw in the game that it's only difficult in the beginning. I think a lot of this is to do with the stack cap of 9 units, the human player can work around this limitation far better than the AI, who keeps using random sub-optimal units. Also, costs are generally low so you can get killer stacks fairly quickly. Heroes also work out much better for the human player, AI rarely uses them in an effective manner. One boring implication of this (as you correctly noted) is that early spells matter far more than late spells.
I'm planning on remedying these problems and more through rebalancing, and kyrub is working on remedying the poor AI. Combined, I think these two projects will make MoM a blast to play once more. And if you're a purist who prefers the original settings, kyrub's patch will function independently of mine.
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