well, after reading the post below about shang and how it should be balanced, I got in the mood to write my ideas about civ balancing by means of changing the new units distribution and changing or adding new attributes to some civ's .. ok, ready..
Camels: I always thought that camels are way too powerful .. but I think its nearly impossible to change its stats if there was a new patch, since its code locked as I heard.
The problem though with camels is that too many civ's have it (11 of 16 civs), although there are certain civ's that should've not got them .. Like Shang(obviously), hittite(they need to lose some units) and Phoeni.
why phoeni? well, if shang were to be toned down in a future patch (I hope) then phoeni would become the new godly civ, besides .. they are already fast to bronze and thus they are not in a desperate need for camels.If the number of civ's was reduced to 8 or 7, (maybe I would add minoans to the above civs, but I am hesitant ) then Cavs will return to life, and Yamato too.
on to the civs..Carthage: well carthage is supposed to have one of the most powerful navies in the game, but their current attributes isn't much to turn them into a naval powerhouse .. They should get +30 % speed for fishing boats and ships in addition to the transports, they should get +25% - 30% hp's for their Fire Gallys instead of +25% attack ... maybe they should get composites as well to help them defend better in bronze enable them go to Iron where they have their real power.Greek: I would give greek a slinger bonus like +1 range and piercing armor, just to make them that much better in defending against composites and CA's in bronze but not too powerful in the tool age.Hittite: hittite should lose the camel , since they have a great bronze army, and the Armored elephants, since they have the best Cats in the game to destroy everything else, and also losing AE's would be a great deal in DM's.Palmyra:Palmy only needs one thing .. oops make that two.
1) apply their gathering bonus to farms ( ie, 0.6 instead of 0.45) and give them one or two more farming techs
2) Fix their Trade advantage(double the gold per trip)
I hear many people want to reduce their cost to 65 food, but I am afraid that would make them too strong .. I think ES wanted them to be weak in the earlier ages but very strong economically in bronze and Iron, well .. I say just increase their farming rate and see how powerful the become later in the game ( higher farming rate means an easier TC booming in bronze and Iron).Persia: well they definetly need coinage for their gold intensive iron age army, then they should get either the wheel or the two wood upgrades. why not give them the wheel + one wood upgrade? well they are already a fast civ, giving them the second wood upgrade means their bronze army would be as good as others, plus the hunting bonus ... too much I think.Shang: the best for the last , well I think the best way to balance Shang is by taking Camels, Scythes and War Galleys away and keep their villager cost as it is .. they should keep the slinger though, because they should remain strong in tool and lose their power gradually until it vanishes in Iron (mid-late iron).. losing Camels would weaken their early bronze ... and by losing Fire Galleys they can't invest too much in the navy or fishing boats for that they cannot compete on seas once the game gets to Iron.hope you enjoyed reading this, Comments?