I believe I've found a strange bug that should rarely affect people much. In fact, it may be a bug with CIV4 rather than with FFH2. I started a game and was within sight of another CIV as soon as I began. I moved, got to greet them, but decided I would regenerate the map instead of playing b/c my terrain was pretty bad (plus I would have been blocked in by this other civ from doing anything for a while.)
Anyway, after regenerating the map, I was still in contact with the other CIV. They were halfway across the map too, so it was certainly a bug.
I also noticed that there is no entry for the Goblin worker in the civilopedia, although there is one for the dwarven worker. I captured one and it didn't turn into a regular worker, so I was wondering if there was anything special about it. I don't think so.