Hey, here's an idea I've had for several days and I'd like to share it, regarding the inclusion of fantasy races (elves, dwarves, haflings, etc) in the current game set up...

Spread around the world would be different outposts of the different races, halflings, elves, orcs, etc...

Good kindoms would be inicially neutral with the good races and the same with the empires...  Eventually though, reasearching diplomacy you would gain the option of creating some soft of "embassy" in the outpost, which would add the specific race a resource (kind of like horses do atm)...  then you could design units using that race as a model and arming it the way you wanted it within limitations, (no mouted units, etc)...  to increase the amount of incoming, say, elves, you could  save a specific number and use them to build a special house (living quarters, etc) which would require also food and would generate even more elves or dwarves...

another way of limiting them would linking the amount of units from a specific race you can have at any time with the numbers of outposts and/or living quarters you have built in your kingdom...

These exotic races would thus be limited in numbes, but would have a certain benefit, such as elves being better archers, dwarves stockier, halflings more magic resistant, etc...

What do you guys think???