What do you guys think of the game in its current state?

Are there a lot of bugs? Imbalances? Missing features?

I have been waiting for the inevitable post-release issues to be resolved before buying Empire. But all the updates seem to be on Steam and I'm having a hard time finding out what the current issues are and what's been fixed.

Is it time to buy the game, or should I wait a while longer? I'm not looking for perfection, but I've heard the game has some major trouble in some areas, particularly sea battles.