In my opinion, it would be great if we can make a war with computer or another player in late game when we have a strong army. Instead of just defending, we can invade to get resources. Adding wagon, knight, …
Moreover, adding political element into game. For example, if you do not make your people happy, they will rebel or you need guards to prevent thief.
It is not rts game but it is kind of strategy game. There are a lot of city building game that we can do a raid although most of them are trash. Why we dont hope this game has that function?
The reason why I think the game should have political element is at the beginning, your people have to help each other to survival. However, when your empire grows larger, there are more internal problem. Moreover, you should consider every times you accept the immigration. Maybe they are bad people or spies from other empire.
It would be better if the game had a mode where you could have the strife you seem to crave (and I can dig that; I play more warlike games, too) and a mode where others, like me, could avoid that and just have the survival aspect. That’s difficult enough!