Last I suggested was that various cultures have unique sprites with semi-unique traits for their units until the 20th century where tanks and machine guns force everyone into camoflauge fatigues.

Here I would like to suggest that in standard units like infantry be customizable. For example, you can equip an infantry unit with so many men in one unit. Then, you can designate the type of weapons they use (machine guns/grenades/rocket launcher). Equipment can be interchanged whether with supply lines, or at camps, etc. Of course, this also requires the difference between special "individual" units, and "squad" units.

Squad units can be consist of individuals who each contribute to the attack power of the unit. Each type of unit has its maximum individuals per squad. For example, a squadron of fighters should be limited to 4 fighters. Infantry squad with 10-15 men. Broken units can join other broken units so long as they do not exceed the max. They should all be stackable.

Individual units would include men like spies. This is pretty self explanatory.

Jets should be broken down into their own classes: fighters, interceptors, bombers as before, but rather than having to "fly" missiles into them like moving a cruise missile around, they should come equipped with a cusomizable loadout of weapons that can be reloaded and interchanged at an airfield, aircraft carrier, etc. Of course, each class would have its own limitations on movement and ordance.

Thats the idea on creating unit types. What about creating units. Rather than building these units over matters of "years," I think that units should readily be avaliable by conscription or recruitment programs (effects of happiness and population possible), but, the limitation would be the upkeep and amount of training they go through. Being able to maintain larger, more diverse armies would make the game interesting overall. As with real life, units called up in quick notice would not be effective against an invading standing military (hehe, lack of forethought on the victim). Also, you should be able to maintain a reservist population who can work as scientists, businessmen, laborers, etc, but can be called up on short notice with relative experience.

So what does that leave for combat ? One of the many gripes I had with combat is that units were not easily created, and they died too easily. Granted, an arrow can kill a man just as good as a bullet can kill a man. So.. with human units, they should be done as squads, and attacks should wear away at the number of men in the squad. With jets, tanks, and other vehicles, each individual would have its own HP, and the squad that it is in, would only be reduced in power when one individuals go down.

So it begs the question, what is Civ ? A wargame ? A politics game ? A simplified mixmatch of the above ? I find that previous civs gave us too little of each. War is way too simplified and the profound effects are not as pronounced as they are in real life. Internal politics are very small. You do not find yourself dealing with lobby groups, civilian interest groups, coorporations, etc. I feel the fusion of an automated civilian life plus a strengthened political scheme, and a detailed military scheme will greatly improve the game. Hence my suggestions.