Elexis, i dont want to hire a hero just to raid eco. Its a bad choice. Hero is needed to boost main army , not some separate small groups like cavalry. Also i have read enough info about punic wars and Maharbal was a commander of all cavalry( incuding light numidian cavalry (ranged) )
I hope borg will join disscussion and wll bring his opinion here, because in lobby he agreed with it.
Raids on traders can be counterd by normal citizen cavalry as well. Britons, Gauls,Athens, Maurya( +2 atack for sword),Persia can deal with Carthage cav pretty well, their horses dont need much iron to be trained.
And as i said, so far all heroes who increase units atack, they increase champs atack or citizens atack but not separate types of units like melee/ range.
May be let Maharbal increase + 4 atack for melee and +3 for ranged at least? Mercenaries cav is pretty expensive, i have played for Carthage a lot and i know that feel when u have a lack of stone / iron. Only lucky position from the beginning can help significantly.
Idea of nerfing of the Briton heroine Boudicca and Roman hero Marcellus seems to be fair.