-Boots of the Rogue: No movement penalty from Hills or Forests for this unit.

-Banner of the Rogue: No movement penalty from Hills or Forests for army.

-Bushwhacker's Bow: +8 Initiative on first turn. 12 Piercing Attack. +5 to Accuracy. -4 Initiative. Weight 8.

-Seraphim Bow: 14 Pierce Attack. +3 to Accuracy. Weight 1.

-Bow of the Assassin: 4 Poison damage. 8 Piercing Attack. +8 to Accuracy. +3 to Crit. -4 Initiative. Weight 8. 

Those exist as mounts already.

-Fire/ice/lightning robes: 20% dmg reduction vs their element and 15% tactical spell cost reduction.

-More useful and unique Ranged staffs that actually buff mages of all kinds

-More full armor sets (Naja scale, spider silk, Drake scale)

-More spells that Protect your army from hostile magic. Fire shield, Grounded, Deluge.

Hill Mine: Works the same as Windmill, but requires adjacency to a hill. +10 Production per Material. High Labor cost.

Aegis Bracers: Defends extremely well against ranged attacks a la Wonderwoman. Maybe +6 Air Dodge. 

Throwing Axes: Ranged Cutting Attack of 6. +1 to crit.  (Would be an Ability)

Shuriken: 4 Piercing Damage. +50% chance to crit, +3 to Crit Multiplier. (Would be an Ability)

Staff of Storms: AoE has a 25% chance to do 15 Lightning Damage in radius of 5.  (Would be an Ability)

Normal attack is 12 Lightning Damage.

Masterwork Leather (Full Suit): Double protection of normal leather. +2 Dodge per item. 

War Staff: 8 Blunt Damage. 4 Defense. -1 to Crit. +2 Initiative.

Fire Tempest Staff: 5 Fire Ranged Attack in a radius of 1. -5 Initiative.

Orb of Healing: +50% to Healing Spells. +2 Intelligence.

Staff of Benediction: Can cast Lay on Hands-Heals 12hp (+10 per Lifeshard). 5 Blunt Damage, -1 to crit, +4 Initiative.

Shaolin Quarterstaff: +15 Blunt Damage. +1 Dodge per level. +8 Defense. +2 to Initiative.

Staff of Regeneration: +4 Regeneration per turn. +12 Blunt Damage. +4 Defense. -1 to crit. +1 to Initiative.

Holy Staff: Can cast Mass Heal-Heals 10hp (+6 per Lifeshard) for all units in in army. Can cast Bless- +1 Initiative, +2 Strength for all units in in army. 5 Blunt Damage, -1 to crit, +1 Initiative.

• Level 2 City Levelup Buildings
• Rare
• Refugee District: +2 Prestige to this city, 1 Maintenance.
• Clothier: +20% Gildar. Unlocks Robes and Cloaks as the city levels.
• Leathersmith: -50% Leather Armor Training Cost. Unlocks new armor with Leatherworking and higher city levels.
• Healing Temple: +2 to unit regeneration in this city. Healing Items are sold, which increase in power as city levels.
• Ultrarare
• Silversmith: +25% Gildar. Unlocks new armor with Armor, Heavy Armor, and higher city levels.
• Enchanter's Emporium: Enchanted items are unlocked as city levels and with some techs in the Magic Tree.
• Hall of Champions: +4 Prestige to this city. At level 5 unlocks rare items.

We need a Capital cityhub. It is to bland to see my main city look exactly the same as everything else around me. The misty wildlands has the best cityhub.

-Every faction needs a unique cityhub.

-They need to be visually stunning and very easily differentiated.

-They need to start out similar to the normal one and then get epic as they level.

-They need to offer some legendary bonuses to defense. This defense would be faction specific: Tarth get bandit archers in defense, Gilden get a Golden Golem, Capitar get Knights of the Round, Pariden gets mages, etc...

-They need to offer some interesting bonuses to the city.

-They need to allow me to train a few special starting units with good weapons and armor. This will alleviate the annoyance that people have about how long it takes to research basic warfare techs. 

Wow, that got long. 

I don't agree that leveling is too powerful (at least for melee heroes).

-> I don't see how +1 acc per level and + health per level can really compare with the power of caster heroes ...

Maybe encourage further specialization ... you can either be an awesome caster, or an awesome melee unit, or mediocre at both

(an expansion of the path system)

-> Currently I like how all types get +health per level ...

maybe Warriors get + ACC per level, while Assassins get +ACC and +Dodge/Dex per level?

maybe +Int per level should be available to all (anyone can be Brilliant), but only have Mages get +SpellPower per level?

Other things we can do with this ... for instance new bonuses to defense from warriors (maybe allow Warriors to add defense as a bonus from Constitution? Something unique for warrior heroes). Like 20% of con is added as a defens bonus (warrior (or defender?) trait only)

Mage -> Spell power and Casting time

Warroir -> attack and Accuracy .. possibly defense, possibly consitution

Defender -> Defense, Constitution, and dodge

Assassin -> Accuracy, Dodge, and Criticals

Everyone -> + health

exact values can be balanced, but I don't really think that levelling is too powerful (at least for champions). It might be too powerful for units, I don't know, but its not too powerful for heroes.

ONE thing about units however ... is that instead of just giving a blanket +HP and + Accuracy (For your cannon fodder) maybe allow them to gain new traits instead. Perhaps lessen their HP gain and lessen their accuracy gain (by half?) while giving them new traits at each level up

-> some traits could be unit specific/ weapon or armor specific ... and they could personalize units beyond their birth.

(for instance high level melee could get bonuses against cavalry ... cavalry could get faster/better/stronger .... etc)

Spell:

Gale Thrust: Pushes a singly unit back 2 tiles and knocks them prone unless they resist. If knocked prone, does 6 Damage (+4 per Airshard). 

Dagger of the Mind: Causes unit to lose mind, skipping their turn until a successful save is made. On each lost turn, 3 Initiative is also lost until the end of the battle.

A three strikes and your out! Sov mod.  Sov loses in battle 3 times and your faction is defeated.  Hate chasing them across the map... gets tedious.

DsRaider beat me to the horselords idea... nice!  Could also unlock special horsebows and war lances, horse training for + dodge and unlock unit trait  +damage if a charge over 3 or more squares at start of battle...

one round to cast elemental counters:

Quenching rain against fireballs, flame waves

Warmth of summer vs. water spells

Stonefoot vs. gust of wind

lifting breeze vs. pull of earth

web as a spell... found after a quest to defeat the Lord of Arachnia

could you mod a building that would take a found magic item and break it into mana or scramble it into an item 50-75% as valuable as the original?  (horadric cube style?)

Centaurs as recruitable mercs or a neutral faction

flying units?

Oh yeah... the terraforming spells should also affect food/grain and mineral production.  nothing crazy... but if I spend mana to make mountains into plains mebbe have a chance for a fruit orchard, wild grain or wild game tile pop up or a flat +2-3 grain bonus.

Faction Traits

Dogs of War: Units are produced 20% faster. Grants the Mercenary unit trait.

Frail: Units have -2 starting hp and -1 hp per level.

Indulgent: Units are produced 30% slower.

Gluttony: Cities can hold 15% less population.

Unit Traits:

Mercenary: Unit gains +1 level and is produced 45% faster but costs double wages.

Vampiric: Unit gains no HP for leveling but everytime it kills a unit it gets +3 max HP.

Frenzy: Unit gains +1 initiative and +1 attack every time it attacks in melee.

Cover: Grants the Cover ability which boosts the armor of a friendly unit by half the users for 1 turn. Does not stack and has a range of 1.

Intimidation: Increases the ZoC of a unit by 1.

Burning Blood: +10% fire dmg.

Cold Heart: +10 Ice dmg.

World events:

Muddied roads: No bonus to movement on roads.

Unnatural Fog: Vision is reduced by 1.

Forest Fires: Random Forests are destroyed. Makes wolves go on the rampage.

Invaders from the West: A invading army spawns by the ocean tile and rampages.