>>527891546
>Not a big deal for me, but it makes your species choice practically meaningless now
And that's the problem. Races were a major thing for me.
>individual maps campaign
Not that you mention it, there is a sort of thing like that in AoW1. Almost all scenario maps, besides one, have time dates and I think some lore in main menu description that you can read once in the game/playing on the map (people miss that it's a thing, I think). They serve as a sort of prequel to the campaigns. Pic related is the order you should play them.
https://aow2.heavengames.com/gameinfo/story/aow1timeline/ This timeline also helps.
>no unit descriptions
That's sad too, but I think AoW2 had the same problem that Shadow Magic fixed.
>lizardmen are back
That's nice at least, but I imagine they lack flavor with how the races are now.

Also, on another note, I assume you know of heaven games website, where you can get user created map?
Just in case, here.
https://aow.heavengames.com
https://aow2.heavengames.com