They can't recon, no heroes, no RELIGIOUS heroes, huge GP reduction, can't gain XP and must devote production to unit upgrades that seem dramatically unlikely to keep up with actual upgraded units - a stack of four level 10s is generally more than a match for ten level 4s, let alone what happens when a group with heroes hits a group with no heroes - and their unique civ benefit is that provided you build roads to every new city, which risks your workers from going insane, they have no unhappiness without any unique growth options?
I mean maybe there's something crazy you're holding in the wings but it sounds like these guys would get creamed on even middling difficulty, let alone against an actual person.
As an unrelated note, could you use foreign ambassadors to troll the Clan into starting a war with barbarians by constantly sacrificing them to the rampant leashed minotaurs or whatever?
That's a hefty list of weaknesses you've pointed out. Maybe, I need to revisit some aspects. At the moment, here's how I see it.
Regarding Confused/Crazed topping recon, the intention isn't to stop recon, just slow down the Ydil offensive. Perhaps I'll remove the Crazed part of the Disconnected scheme and just have them occasionally Confused. Confused will only make them Held for a couple of turns, so they'll still be able to explore.
I was also planning on making higher level Recon units immune to being Confused.
Confused was to slow down parts of an attacking Ydil army. I was considering that some units might culture bomb by building a short duration improvement, which would temporarily claim surrounding tiles as Ydil, so that an army can stay Connected while launching an offensive. Perhaps some sort of synapse units, similar to tyranids.
Esprit de Corps (until I think of a better name)
Spoiler :
This is the Great Commander equivalent for the Ydil so the AI should know to attach it to units it's sending off to war.
"Those who show most promise when being cultivated to form part of a Locus are sent with Ydil armies. Channelling the power in the minds of the army, they provide a continuous link to the hive mind, wherever the army goes. No longer cloaked by anonymity, they are always surrounded by a force of bodyguards. Even so, if threatened, the whole army will mobilise to defend them."
Give a 10% conversion chance to all Ydil units on the same tile.
Block gaining Confused for all Ydil units on the tile.
Can cast spell to attempt to culturally claim the nine surrounding tiles for one turn when in unowned/enemy territory.
The units base defence is 4 but it is boosted by 1 up to a max of 7, if there is a unit on the tile with Combat1/Combat3/Combat5.
"Those who show most promise when being cultivated to form part of a Locus are sent with Ydil armies. Channelling the power in the minds of the army, they provide a continuous link to the hive mind, wherever the army goes. No longer cloaked by anonymity, they are always surrounded by a force of bodyguards. Even so, if threatened, the whole army will mobilise to defend them."
Give a 10% conversion chance to all Ydil units on the same tile.
Block gaining Confused for all Ydil units on the tile.
Can cast spell to attempt to culturally claim the nine surrounding tiles for one turn when in unowned/enemy territory.
The units base defence is 4 but it is boosted by 1 up to a max of 7, if there is a unit on the tile with Combat1/Combat3/Combat5.
I could give a similar Confused promo to enemy units in Ydil territory as their minds are attacked by the Hive Mind. This could slow down attempts to conquer them. The chance to convert enemy units in Ydil territory could also be pushed up from 5%.
I'm going to stick with the no national heroes. I think the political power given by the ambassadors is enough to make up for it.
Religious heroes might be something I should look at again. They do have a few religious advantages; instant spreading of religion and keeping their high priests.
They have the potential to gain a lot more traits than any other civ. Again, this is something where they are weak at the start but could become a powerhouse later. I might give them Insane from the beginning.
A 101 xp equates to 10^2+1, which is 10 levels of promotions. If the Ydil can survive long enough, their late game units will have more promotions than this as soon as they are built. Even their late game tier 1 units will be starting out as effective level 6 or more.
Getting the balance right on those promo buildings' costs will probably be the big challenge.
The roads are fairly vital to them unless they go for a harbor approach. Maybe, they need their own worker unit. Essentially the same as the standard worker but who can build roads faster to reflect the emphasis that the hive mind will put in establishing the route connections.
At feudalism (probably) I'd allow a Wonder to provide a second Hive Mind Connected bonus.
A late game wonder, probably around the same tech as the Nexus would mean that all Ydil cities could never have their link to the hive mind broken.
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Sacrificing ambassadors is an interesting idea but not one I'll use. There is potential to give them abilities to stir up trouble among other nations or other powers akin to the old espionage.
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I don't think I'll get much time to mod this week so it'll be at least the week after that before I can run some AI test games/issue rev 0.1. Please keep giving any critiques, comments or suggestions in the mean time.