I have played all strat iterations to date. And, to date, I like strat 3 the best. Why?....
Well Firstly, I find that my 100 man army goes 10 times further than it EVER did in strat 1/2. In strat 1, large armies were the norm, in strat 2, army sizes got reduced, but were STILL fairly large. we had several 4k man armies battling near the end of strat 2. Strat 3, has had 1 4k man battle. I like that. Army sizes shouldn't be these huge masses and 1 hit wonders. Should be smaller armies, and it is.
2, ability to make money is a plus for me. It takes time, and coordination. Both of which are much harder in grand organizations. A small group, such as mine has more than half of it's group active meaning we can do way more even though we are small. Many disagree with trading, but it adds a necessary risk mechanic into the game. Before you could just have someone sit in city and just earn gold. He never had to leave and risk attack and you had steady gold streams. Now, you have to risk the money. If it doesn't pay off, then you will find that you're losing money.
Now item costs, I think that they are a tad(tad) expensive. I believe that items should be adjusted based on wanted use. 1h/shields should be amongst the cheapest to equip then pole then archer/xbow then 2h then cav. This would mean that price per ticket of a 1h should be lower than equivalent 2h. Mail armor should be 1/3 of army for a decent sized faction.