500G not enough compensation for moving 2nd?

[Ming]

I am from the Far East and with my time zone I doubt if I'll ever get to play on-line. So my comments are based entirely on SP - usually testing ideas against myself.

First it seems that 500G is insufficient to compensate for moving second - I win over 80% of the games playing first against myself. The exception is Gnomes. I note that the the 500G figure might be arrived at by dividing the initial city's income by 2. If that were the case Gnomes are getting an extra 100G for playing second. If all other races also get an extra 100G for playing second i.e. 600G, it would make things more balanced (at least for me). What do everyone else think?

Second, I had a terrible time playing Arcatta against Gnomes. Even though the Archmage is excellent against Legendmaker and the Sorceress is excellent against Wolfriders, the Gnome player can usually dictate the match-up because Legendmaker enters play unspent and gnome units have high movement - especially if herbally enhanced. Wolfriders against Archmage and Legendmakers against Sorceress will result in disaster for Arcatta. Also, I find that the archmage's armor bonus hardly ever get used as the Arcatta player usually need all the firepower from the Archmage to keep the Gnomes at bay. Am I missing something?

Ming the Terrible