Suggestions for v0.8

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Xanthippus: I must protest to the way Xanthippus was portrayed inEB 0.74. He didn't arrive in North Africa until at least eighteen years into the first Punic war, and that started ten years after the start of EB. That's 56 turns! Not that the Carthaginians couldn't have hired him sooner, but he certainely wouldn't be in Africa at te start of the game. Now I understand the limitations that CA has put on EB, so if none of suggestions are plausible than the EB team has done the best they can and I approve.
Suggestion #1: Xanthippus starts on a ship with some greek mercenaries (as it was said that he came over with Greek mercenaries hired by Carthage) on his way to North Africa. This one is probably not possible but if it is then it is a good option.
Suggestion #2: Xanthippus starts as a Carthaginian general in Greece with a transport awaiting him.
Suggestion #3: The most historically accurate, though not neccesarily possible. Xanthippus starts as an eleutheroi general in Greece with traits that make him easy to bribe and a Carthaginian diplomat right nearby.

Slightly off topic, Xanthippus turned up in Age of Empires (the first one) if you could find him in the First Punic War, the battle of Tunis (I don't know if that battle really happened as I have never heard of it). He had a reasonably Greek army with lots of Phalaxes, two Catapults and a couple of Cataphracts. Now I know who he really was. Yes!

Anyway back on topic he could turn up like this:
The Script at the games start causes a eleutheroi general and a large army of Greek mercenaries turn up near Karthage between 10 - 18 years after a major war has begun and major defeats and victories have started showing up. Then when he appears the scripts causes a box/advisor to pop up telling you "A General can be Hired". This box will tell you that a General named Xanthippus is willing to be hired by you for lets say 30,000. It could give historical infomation about him his armies and what Carthage used him for. Then it could give two options Yes hire him, No don't hire him. If you don't hire him he goes of the be hired by somebody else on a rebel navy. If you say yes his army joins you. Brilliant solution!

Phoenician colonies. It was mentioned on another thread that it should be possible for Carthaginians to recruit at least their militia citizen phalanx from any city with a Phoenician colony. After some research I discovered that this was, pretty much, true. The Phoenicians would colonize places and then the colonists, still being Carthaginian citizens, would, in times of need, form citizen armies much like those that fought invaders in North africa. Of course there was supposedly a difference between colonial citizens and homeland citizens though I couldn't find anywhere that said what the difference was. I suspect this difference would have had something to do with local influence. The ability to recruit these citizens after building a colony would help in areas where Carthage can't build any troops, like in Latium for example. It's really annoying in the campaign to capture Rome and then be unable to recruit a garrison.

Carthaginian naval reforms: The Carthaginians, at the outset of the Punic war had a large number of ships partially beause they contained very small complements of armed men(marines). Partway through the Punic war the Carthaginians began outfitting their fleet with more marines and more specifically the best pick of their most skilled mercenaries. In game this would be a normal reform with the Punic fleets starting out with fewer men than they have now and then after the reform their ship complement is brought up to what it is now.

I agree with all of the above, but I wish to suggest that the Romans have naval reforms too. The Romans, had almost no sea power at the games start and had no very good idea how to build ships. A reform should occur after Rome has started a war with a naval faction. Also I think ships sinking by storm should occur much more often. During the Punic Wars Rome lost most of it's fleet to a terrable storm and there were several more historical reports of bad weather on the seas. I also think that if you go out onto the West Coast of Iberia or Gaul you should sink, almost guarenteed.