1 - reading Penny Arcade
2 - b/c i have all age´s
3 - the ragdoll effect, and the HC level up.
4 - more places to colonize like africa or oceania
5 - hmm.. i always play russians (in civ, ron, etc.. dont know why. Ive read lots of books on russia history, maybe thats why); i dont like the fact that russia will be the zerg of age of empires. I would be pissed if my country was represented as a horde of poorly equiped soldiers.
6 - very sexy idea. I can see all the future RTS games cloning the HC leveling up concept in one way or another.
7 - Russians, no doubt. Maybe portuguese too b/c im brazilian.
8 - British. Every nation has something special, unique, but the british seems like the standart nation from wich every other nation got modded from. They are just strong, nothing exotic about them.
9 - Caçador, the russian cav archer, the tupi foot archer.
10 - Strelet, rodelero, the native americans with a portable wooden wall (i mean wtf?).
11 - mercenary cannons from napolis of whatever