I'm playing my first Balseraph game (Emporer, Lakes, Standard size map, Marathon, 10 Civs) and I have a couple questions.

The Gypsy wagons give -2$ and -1 Culture to enemy cities they sit in. Do they give any of that money and culture back to me? If so, does the money go back to a specific city (and get multiplied by +%$ buildings) of just back to the general treasury. Do I have to pay to support a gypsy wagon that is sitting in someone else's city?

I like the slaves that The taskmaster can get by killing weak barbarians but he seems to be MUCH weaker than the Assassin he replaces. An assassin is str 12 against melee but a taskmaster is only str 4! If a taskmaster is upgraded to a courtesan does he get to keep the taskmaster promotion?

all promotions are kept on upgrades, unit specials that aren't included in promotions are lost.

I like the slaves that The taskmaster can get by killing weak barbarians but he seems to be MUCH weaker than the Assassin he replaces. An assassin is str 12 against melee but a taskmaster is only str 4! If a taskmaster is upgraded to a courtesan does he get to keep the taskmaster promotion?

You must be playing an older version of FFH. Now assassins and taskmasters get the marksman promotion instead of the bonus versus melee.

Thanks for the responses.
My last game that I had an assassin was on an older version of the game.
So the difference is just 4 strength vs 6 now?

Hmm, I think gypsy wagons don't send the gold back due to programming limitations (unless I'm behind the times). Excluding them from support costs would be a good work-around for that, I think.

A great workaround. And maybe espionage benefits in that city (like what loki has, but beef up loki's even more)

The answers are in the wiki entry (http://civ4wiki.com/wiki/index.php/FfH_Gypsy_Wagon_%28Unit%29), which will refer you to the Gypsy Camp entry (http://civ4wiki.com/wiki/index.php/FfH_Gypsy_Camp_%28Building%29)

Specifically:
1) They also reduce the great People points by 1.
2) They give 1 gold to your general treasury
3) It appears to give the owner of the Gypsy camp 1 culture in that city, which appears to be modified normally (since you don't own the city, presumably it's only by your culture slider).

I never noticed the additional gold from gyspy camps but I could be wrong (only used them once). Getting rid of maintenance costs would be useful!