Thank you for your answers.
1. I, for my part, am going to try to make WarHammer series mostly separate - about as BlackMoon project was, which added 4 different nations from different setting with intention that they were mostly to be played against one another, not alongside Dominions staple nations. I consider this more logical - without thinking where they appeared from and why. As for how they work - I didn't play much with Tarent mod, but had an impression that firearms worked relatively well in its context.. Have you any information on this? And in WarHammer there are quite many firearms so I'm not sure that their abscence would make style the same. Mechanically, of course, difference isn't much.
2. Well, slightly different stats, of course. Just that when I thought about this, I realised that a) historical counterparts to Empire Swordsmen, i.e., Spanish rondashiers (sp?) used just them and b) I would need them anyway when working on Tilea...
3. Agree that in WarHammer most armies have them. But it could be a good way to represent higher discipline and organisation of Empire armies (I don't plan to include banners for Bretonnia foot, for example). Another possibility I thought of is to make Empire infantry more mobile both on battlefield and on a strategy map than their armor would indicate ("marching"; this wouldn't be the case for cavalry).
4. Generally yes. Which is why other possibility and 8.
I just don't see Empire cavalry consisting entirely of Templars and light cavalry - there should be secular knights as well as sacred ones, and the latter, while fine in RPG context, shouldn't probably be in the game which centers around gods struggling for domination...
5. Have to agree with this - there are many commanders already... And you didn't include Engineer, I fear! By the way, I agree that Witch Hunter should have patrolling, not spying ability. If any, he is more like assassin, not spy...
6. Understand now... Not sure if it would be manageable other way, too.
7. Yes, it's somewhat of a translation problem. But in this case (and some others) I am more inclined to go by art and descriptions rather than strict WarHammer mechanic (which, after all, includes just 2 general armor types)... And the question was due to the fact that north-provinces troops I've seen depicted with different armor.
8. Well, we surely can't reduce the number of things developers throw at us!
While in the mods we produce we have more freedom in regards what to not include.