Lt Commander Chris

The elves are meant to be powerful. They are meant to own. But they are meant to be hard to play as they are harder to train and costly to recruit. It's gameplay; it's not meant to be balanced unit for unit.

I'd prefer the choose-to-build option; it did occur to me, I wonder if it's possible though.

I would like to see Glorfindel stronger. As we see but a glimpse of him in the films, we must fall back to literature, and he was strong enough to make 5 of the 9 flee just by his presence with Aragorn:

Quoting Gandalf and Frodo in the Fellowship:

Frodo (lying in bed after recovery): 'I thought that I saw a white figure that shone and did not grow dim like the others. Was that Glorfindel then?'
Gandalf: 'Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of the Firstborn. He is an Elf-lord of a house of princes.

And more importantly, Gandalf recounting the routing of the Nazgul:

'Caught between fire and water, and seeing an Elf-Lord revealed in his wrath, they were dismayed and their horses were stricken with madness...[they] were now hurled into the water by their horses'.

Here it certainly implies that Glorfindel has great power; and he is indeed one who can ride openly against the Nazgul. Here just at the sight of him 'revealed in his wrath', the Ringwraiths had no chance to fight, but were thrown away by their own steeds.

Of course it'd be a bit imbalancing to give him such power in-game, but he certainly should be deadly and powerful; his current combat skills and powers are really quite unimpressive.

I see the logic in having the elf fortresses not as strong as men and dwarves, but contest this on the grounds of the literature (as we do not see evidence of them in the films). Loosely quoted from The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Numenorians were skilled in stonework and building, which they in turn had learnt from the Elves.

The Men learnt their skill in building (eg. Orthanc and the walls of Isengard, Minas Tirith's walls, etc.) from the Elves, who do not just rely on wood etc. Indeed speaking of Rivendell Gandalf describes that 'We are in a fortress', merely describing the House of Elrond.

Really most buildings I think should be limited in bases, but yes walls etc. for defences around new bases.

The dwarven one is a high level power, 'citadel', and it's a full fortress.

And yes so do I ithilien .