Well it isn't quite as bad as it could be, but it gives people the scope to change leaders every 30-50 turns if they wish, whilst if not they could still last 160 turns even with a human leader without it being implausible. That and it makes the tech progressions marginally more believable. Seasonal turns felt too long for me, whilst annual turns stretched my believability about raising armies, building buildings etc.
Alright, wrote a quick bit of code to do some of my upkeep/value balance calculations quicker. What do we think of the revised values here? None of the stats have changed, so 'str' is just an average of their offensive and defensive strengths taking into account special modifiers vs other units. Str 15 having value 500 and upkeep 15 is the base; whatever I do with the math, it will pivot around that figure.
Spearmen: Str(8.0), Val(210.0), Upk(20)
Skirmishers: Str(14.5), Val(450.0), Upk(45)
Javelineers: Str(15.0), Val(500.0), Upk(50.0)
Archers: Str(15.0), Val(500.0), Upk(50.0)
Slingers: Str(15.0), Val(500.0), Upk(50.0)
Light Macemen: Str(15.0), Val(500.0), Upk(50.0)
Light Swordsmen: Str(18.0), Val(650.0), Upk(70)
Light Axemen: Str(17.0), Val(625.0), Upk(60)
Longbowmen: Str(20.0), Val(840.0), Upk(85)
Heavy Macemen: Str(20.0), Val(840.0), Upk(85)
Phalanx: Str(20.5), Val(880.0), Upk(90)
Heavy Swordsmen: Str(23.0), Val(1100), Upk(110)
Heavy Axemen: Str(22.5), Val(1050.0), Upk(105)
Light Cavalry: Str(20.0), Val(900.0), Upk(85)
Heavy Cavalry: Str(26.0), Val(1400.0), Upk(140)
War Elephants: Str(28.0), Val(1600.0), Upk(160)
Trireme: Str(14.0), Val(500), Upk(60)