I don't see a big prob with heroes leveling fast, as long as all sides get to equally. But I do agree that the moving becomes ponderous with the stopping all the time and the battle screens on your turn (Not even counting if you want to parse through the history) def takes some time. I wanted to make a map with this premise, but maybe some revisions. Having a tower every 4th tile instead of every other might help. The main goal is to give plenty of places to hide so even after looking at the battle history it can become hard to deduce where and how many enemies are nearby. Maybe a 1:2 ratio of tower to tile near capitals and then thinning out to 4:1 or 8:1 toward the center of the map. Torn between having the number of towers be a constant "blanket" across the map or having it move to areas of higher Tower density. Maybe lighten up the ratio as you go towards the center then a full 8x8 block of towers in the center surrounding something good like some ruins or a castle with awesome production. Don't know If i like the grandfather sitting in the middle...
Takes so long to place these damn towers...I long for cut and paste and save as features, when is the next version of the map editor getting here already?