Sort of underwhelming to see so many narrowly-available units on the final list. TWO Lanun-only choices? TWO new Barbarian units? Only one unit intended for any civ? But what would I do if I didn't have something to gripe about?
I'm a little disappointed with the list as well; there were several units I liked that apparently weren't popular.
I like the animal pack, but I'm not sure that the shortage of mid-game animals wouldn't be better addressed by revising the animal spawn mechanics. Also, does
every city need caged animals?
I like the Pirate unit, but I've always been unsatisfied with the fact that it couldn't upgrade into a more advanced naval unit, even after declaring nationality. The "blockade" mechanic is great, but it should only apply to water routes, and there is no reason why other ships wouldn't be capable of this. Maybe this should be implemented with a promotion available only to "fast" ships?
The Doppelganger is a fun idea, but there seems to be too great an overlap with the Assassin role. I think it would be fantastic as civ-specific Assassin and Shadow units (Balseraph?) or limited to civs with the Hidden trait.
I like the Foreman concept, and I think it is more "realistic" for wooden siege equipment to be built near the location under siege (than the invading civs capital, which is often where Siege Workshops are built). However, if implemented as described-unless the Foreman is prohibitively expensive to build-there will be little motivation to build Catapults the old-fashioned way, and the unit balance at this point could be shaken a bit. I propose that Foremen are consumed in the process.
I like the idea of the Harpooner, but do we really need a new unit to accomplish this? Players are unlikely to build more than one or two, if any. Why not make a Harpoon promotion available to certain units? In any case, if a Harpooner unit is implemented, it should be strong against Beasts and Animals, but weak against other Naval units.
The Ice Basilisk is cool, but I think this should be a unique creature with a greater reward for defeating it. To my knowledge, their aren't many effects that do Cold damage presently.
The Puppet concept is neat, but why would anyone build them? What use are they?
I should also mention that the Dwarven Seer was selected by a team member, but I vetoed it because I wouldn't be able to implement it.
I hope there are plans for the Khazad to get a unit that can see Shadows, as they are forced to adopt OO in order to deal with them currently (and Shadows are usually the second Tier 4 unit the AI builds). I don't think it is necessary that the Dwarven Seer is "blind", and having to "cast" every turn to defend against Shadows is very, very tedious; why not just allow them to see invisible?