but even all those bonuses might be insufficient if Sweden can't keep her empire happy (notice your -20% penalty for unhappiness?)
Same is true for every empire.
But it's possible to go full conquest even with 179 unhappyness as Mongols, I did it once and won. For Sweden it would be piece of cake.
The healing thing can be quite good, but the player cannot plan for it.
Sweden player
doesn't have to. He just needs to do war as usual. And then general just comes as pleasant surprise, and in the same turn he can just go all in and kill everything. As for enemy player it's the opposite - he will also do war as usual, but suddenly Sweden will get general and in the same turn his army will be rekd and he will have to do full retreat.
So it's pleasant surprise for Sweden and sudden death for everybody else. They both can't plan but Sweden doesn't need to because even without insta-heal general bonuses make their army somewhat superior. Other player really really need to know when enemy army will suddenly heal, but he has no means to know it. So russian roulette for him. Quite unfair, no?
Would you leave most of your units barely alife just hoping a great general will be born soon?
No. You just wage war as usual, carefully and slowly. Same as you would with any other civ. Then general happens and you win. Other player, on other hand, would have to expect sudden healing of enemy army any turn, so how must he play? Move any unit with < 60 HP away from front line? But for this he will have to have a much larger army, and he will still run out of fresh units eventually (as Sweden will get 2-3 generals and rushes in with fresh units) and then he will have no choise but full retreat.
I can see that a sweden player may risk their units a bit more
Again, no. Sweden doesn't even have to do it. You fight as usual as with any other civ, just rush in with fresh units when generals are born and decimate enemy army which he will have no means to heal in time.
This kinda helps, but in multiplayer war is still very important. Even if you play 'peaceful' style, there will still be a moment with you declare war on other player or he declares war on you. Then you decimate his army and capture some cities as needed. And so on. Our multiplayer games often end after first global war with large armies. And large army is what makes Sweden completely unstoppable (unless outnumbered 5 to 1 maybe).
Sweden, despite not having economy bonuses, doesn't have any real weaknesses also, and may still perform well. And none of economy bonuses of peaceful civilizations are as powerful and imbalanced as this 'insta-heal' feature.
If you manage to influence a neighbour, you get combat bonuses, so tourism works too. If your economy is stellar, you can field and replace more up to date units. If you control world congress, you may ban one civ, making combat against that civ easier. Also, defense is easier than attack. You don't need to conquer Sweden in order to beat her. Pillaging wars do the trick against most runaways.
Of course. But this is true for any civilization, Sweden can also benefit from those activities. None of these activities are so particularry beneficial for some peaceful civilization as war is beneficial to Sweden.
