Well, I too think a few of the spells are kind of powerfull for their price/level (raise and lower land should probably be level 8-9 or something considering that they can make strategic terrain decisions pointless). However I think once the AI actually starts using these things more actively, they will be putting up much more of a fight. The problem now doesn't seem to be so much that the abilities are there, but rather that the AI isn't using them. I'm looking forward to seeing what Brad can do with the AI in the coming months.

Oh god no. Don't even think about further reducing the game's spell / ability list. The AI is a pushover right now because they (tactically) just charge after one unit and because (strategically) they just sit around waiting to be conquered.

no the ai does go on the offensive sometimes. what is really overpowered too and needs to go are multiple rings/amulets

i conquered the qhole map i a couple of turns with my sovereign at 4000+ combat rating

i rather like the organized talent, imho it should stay. teleport should only work on the cast, i agree. though there should be more kinds of teleport spells later that allow to take your army with you and even teleport outside you territory (although with a limited range).

Teleport is a great spell, one of the only one's I use regularly. Last night I noticed that on the level 8 spell list there is a teleport group spell, or somthing to that affect. It suggested to me that the level 1 teleport spell was always intended to be caster only and is currently bugged.

The one game I've played - I started with the spell from the start. So I'm guessing bug.

afaik, the vanilla level 1 teleport is supposed to be sov only, considering there is a much higher level ;teleport group; spell.

The starting teleport spells teleports the sovereign's stack. I believe the higher level spell teleports a stack to the caster.  Could be wrong, though.

I remember in the beta at least that there was a separate teleport (teleport other??) spell that said it affected the whole army.

I agree strongly that the Teleport spell should just affect the Sov himself (so he can for example escape from certain death in the early game if you overextend).

And then later on you can get a higher level spell (with higher mana cost) that teleports the whole army.

The only problem being the "only in friendly territory" restriction - odds are the group you want to move and the destination aren't both within friendly territory. But is the higher level group teleport any better? Have never bothered with it myself, does it still have the friendly territory restriction or is avoiding that restriction the advantage of getting it?

Anyway that aside, the basic teleport definitely should be sovereign only, or perhaps entire army but you can only go to capital, not anywhere in friendly territory - a more limited form somehow. It's just too good for its availability and cost, a spell that flexible and useful should take more mana and be higher in the magic tree.

One possible easy nerf could be to only allow teleporting single individuals with the basic version. That still allows a small group of escorts in the early game, but no teleporting the more powerful army or multiple-soldier groups. Still 9 people is powerful, but not game breaking late in the game.

This would effectively nerf both teleports and the Logitistics tech, but only a little. This might not be enough for proper balance, but it would be an easy first step.

It's not cheating if the game mechanics allow you to do it. How many new players have built more than one merchant, more than one library, or more than one of any other building that you are only supposed to be able to build one of and not realized it? Are they suddenly cheaters for doing it? No. It's a bug, and they probably didn't realize it was a bug. They just clicked the building and built it and then built another one without realizing they were supposed to be limited to one. If the game allows it, you cannot really call it cheating. You might call it a bug. But it is working exactly as it was designed. They drastically nerfed all the items to make it more difficult to make over powered units, but until they change the mechanic, it's not cheating (and right now, it's not even a bug unless you hear a dev say it's not working the way the intended).

I, for one, don't have a problem with the way it works right now. For the costs involved for me to pump one unit up like that, I could have had an entire army of units doing the same kind of damage or even better and not had all my eggs in one basket.

Turn down the map difficulty so the MOBs are not quite so powerful and put AI on each opponent on challenging and the AI will do much better. 

So you are suggesting not playing the game as an alternative to improving it? I kinda like the game, and I guess the others do to which is why we are suggesting ways to make it better rather than "not playing". 

Removing organized and teleport won't make the AI better. The I played a 600 turn game where all I built were 2 cities and their improvements and the AI did absolutely nothing of worth aside from building legions of unarmored spearmen.

Teaching the AI to make use of organized and teleport will make it better but we can't do anything like that.