Reforms in Shipe.

Well, for the last two, you definitely need to tweak their stats, add more troops, and maybe some artifacts (I'm not sure how this would be implemented, but it's common on other maps) so that they always attack the city. Otherwise, they'll just stand around or run away from the hero, and the whole point of the map will be missed. Also, when making it more difficult, you could add a couple of guarded mage huts with demonstrations of interesting remote locations. And having an artifact shop near the castle, when there's plenty of gold, seems like too much, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of extreme hardcore gameplay; I play some maps even on veteran difficulty. But to enjoy the game, you need at least some challenges to overcome heroically.