I really like your mods, Primal Savage! I use Xtra-Savage settings for my AIs (latest 1.4 CoS game I used Challenging for World Difficulty) - which are very competitive but don't get absolutely overwhelming bonuses like in Insane. You need to play very well, but their bonuses are not so Ridiculous that they are Insane. I like the Beer mod, and the TaxRates mod, and I really love how you've set up the shops in this mod so they have random items!
Did you work out how to set these new items so that they can only be used for training units in one city, or did you allow it for all cities, or did you decide not to implement these new items as being able to be included in designing new units? I would guess they would be pretty expensive to add to units even if they were allowed to be used for ordinary units!