To balance and be able to actually hurt Japan and Sweden when you are stronger: lower the hitpoints of a torp from 1500 (2000 with the upgrade) to 1200 and 1600 with upgrade. They can build 20 superfast so you have to burn down 40000 hp to take down those torps… that is about 6 town centers that you have to torch while he can rebuild it. Take it to 1200 and it is 24000 or 3,5 town center or 32000 upgraded which is 4,5 town center.
It is just common sense.
I always have issues with those 2 civs, do they have more health than other type of houses?
Yes, a torp has 1500 and a shrine has 1600
I would argue that both shrines and Torps should only have 1000HP, because they already are useful in gathering res.
Hence if the player wants to commit them outside of his base he needs to have a higher risk return.
Agreed. 1200 would be a great start. No need for these houses to have more HP than standard. It would encourage more interactive play on both sides and actually reward players for playing commerce age.