The balance is broken, but still better than aoc. While AoC was mainly aztec/viking wars, now with the addition of many OP civs, you can choose between aztec and new power civs. The only thing that really needs a change is the water. In AoC it used to be about massing galleys and microing them, I enjoyed that and I played water/fr once a while. I've played 20 - 30 games with WK fire galleys and I don't see why I'd ever come back to water.
People keep complaining how unbalanced wk is, but aoc was stale. That's why it was always hun wars. WK is way better, but everyone complains about balance instead of being thankful for a the changes. If everything was magically balanced people would still complain.