Wonder balance:
The Nexus wonder seems way to powerful for its cost. It not only gives a nice economic boost, but also makes military offense/defense much more effektive. For example you only need to conquer 1 city on a foreign continent to constantly teleport all your new troops there. Or you can heavily reinforce any besieged city of yours. Maybe changing it to give a heavy production boon to any Obisidian Gates built by that empire would make it balanced. If the wonder stays the same I would at least suggest to rise the cost to 2500-3000 Hammers. Right now it can be completed by any GE or GC and is only twice the cost of a normal Gate.
The Pyramides (=early Caste System) also are too powerful and almost dominate the early- and midgame. They can be built quite early and quite quickly (with stone). And an early Caste System means you get +2 culture in every city, which often saves the time/cost for obelisks (basically your civ became cultural). It also means free production or research in every city, as well increased GP early on. Another advantate is the ability to heavily overexpand with caste system, either through settlers or conquest. Even a new size 1 city just needs a cheap market place to produce at >6 gold.
Civic suggestions: (how I love those civic icons)
The "
in civs without x" attribute of republic/foreign trade takes away many options in the late game. In normal Civ4 emancipation just replaced the often obsolete serfdom/caste system. And slavery could have been too strong in a final war, so they gave it a flaw. But in FfH there are so many more interesting alternatives to republic/foreign trade.
Aristocracy looks weak right now. Even with sanitation a mix of cottages and farms seems the better alternative (and you have to switch to rebuplic later anyway). AI Leaders with aristocracy as their favorite civic also could starve their cities if they get aristocracy before sanitation.
The liberty civic could be changed to high upkeep, since it combines 2 powerful peacetime boons. During wartime many people will change to nationhood anyway, so the war weariness won't be seen often.
Regarding all labor civics: Maybe it's just me, but I think caste system is too good, even without the Pyramides. Military state may be an alternative for big wars, but I could never imagine using the others. I would suggest some disadvantage for caste system (after all it's an unfair system) as well as high upkeep. Also guilds seems way too weak, even compared to tribalism ("how many merchants do you need to cover the medium upkeep").
I like the medium upkeep for organised religion but can't understand why pacifism has been weakened like this. In normal civ4 the main advantages were the no upkeep and a strong boost to GPs. But now all you get is a weaker boost to GPs and a civic you have to chance as soon as a war starts.
And last but not least the apprenticeship civic: I like the idea of having slightly stronger units for slightly more buildtime. But unless I play a philosophical leader the low upkeep convinces me not to use it.
Spell suggestions:
Maybe converting desert to plains could take longer in the furture. That way the scorch spell could become more useful to cripple enemy cities.
I haven't tested this exactly, but it seems the courage promotion (10% healing) stacks. This means if one adept casts this spell the whole stack will get an incredible high regeneration rate, even in enemy territory.
On a simliar topic I think the medic promotions are to strong. The infirmary/herbalist boons in your own cities seem ok, but having a >60% regeneration in enemy territory for just a single ritualist/etc is incredibly strong.
Other suggestions:
The spiritual trait seems to be much stronger in FfH2. With spiritual leaders I often end up spreading several religions to my cities just to get the benefits of the temples. For example having the Overlord/Kilmorph/Veil Temples in a city adds 20% unit production 3Gold, 2Research, 3culture + 60% culture and 3happy faces with incence for a quite low production value.
Culture producing buildings: At some point I realised that for a long perdiod the only building which produces culture is the obelisk. Most other buildings have just %-culture boons. So unless you are creative, got the Pyramides or
follow the Octopus Overlords you have to rely on the money eating obelisks. Is this intended?
Also I realised the culture rate becomes quite useless to keep your citizens happy. The gambling house will allow your tax rate to do the same unless you build the expansive theater. And even then in most situations it's just better to increase your tax rate by 20% until you solved the cause of the unhappiness (war, lost luxuries, etc).
