I'm having my first full run through on Wednesday (hence the new regional map). We had a brief shot at a combat encounter last week. One of my old D&D group (from 1ed) was a bit down on 4ed - saying that it looked to him like wizards had been screwed in the conversion. So he played a wizard in the fight and quickly changed his mind. First level wizards are heavy artillery - they're amazing! His quote - 'that's the first time I've played a wizard that actually felt like a proper wizard'. So Vancian magic goes out and suddenly the spell-slingers are happy.

The kobolds are tough though - I mean come on. More hit points than a 1st level paladin? That's taking the mick.