[johan osterman]

Hotknife: Dominions 2 doesnt have extensive province/city upgrade features, this is intentional. Adding the sort of buildings and upgrade paths you suggest would take dominions down a road that have been consciously avoided, so it is unlikely that it will ever appear in any possible future inststallment expansion or patch.

As for avoiding of super combatants, play with rich, slow research, low site frequency and agree to not pick blood nations, use a smaller map. And with curse and a few choice items or spells, most supercombatants can be countered, obviously it costs a bit but it should, since most supercombatants represent a significant investment in gems and research effort.