Will 9.0 be much more difficult? I love Wildmana but find that with any civ, I can slowly promote one or two heroes or units to level 15 fighting barbarians etc. meanwhile the ais never attack me, or, if they do, not in any truly dangerous way, and then I can destroy any civ with those two units and some catapults or mages. This is on Deity level. In normal Civ4, the ais become very dangerous if you lag behind them in tech and their cities become impregnable.
In FFH, even if you start way behind, all you need is a hero or two and a stack of siege and you win. So games become repetitive, no?