Woops, thought they were the same thing. It was the newest Master of Mana that I had tried, I was using the terms inappropriately. I had downloaded it from that subforum linking to the website. But, yes, found it a little too complex... interesting but complex. I know my MP friends wouldn't be able to get into it, FFH is hard enough as is. That being said, it looks like the most complex, magic heavy sort of mod for a good singleplayer game.

EDIT: Tried it again, was main world power but couldn't compete with the AI's military power. idk how they were building so many units with the city unitcap. Anyways, was overwhelmed and defeated... again, lol. MoM just isn't for me.

I've downloaded the Rise from Erebus Mod and it plays very similar to the FFfH Mod as it has commanders, passive XP, unit buildings, and just feels very similar. However, it seems to have more races, more leaders, and is also lacking espionage (darn). One thing I dislike is the heavy implementation of bombardment for a lot of units (including Ogres, what?) which complicates combat. idk if it was just my playthrough but it seemed to progress faster (construction and building-wise) then the FFfH Mod did, which is a plus.

EDIT: Was enjoying this mod but ran into multiplayer instability that couldn't be resolved. Thinking this is likely either due to the number of patches or the launcher.

There was also a Tweakmod that was nice, but that got abandoned.

Wildmana had the best AI and the Better Naval Battles patch for the original came in a close second.  Master of Mana was the designed in mind for more advanced users only but paid off with improved decision trees and dynamic complexity.  Orbis had the best custom sound tracks and additional content.  Rife later followed suit by adopting most of them.  Big thumbs up, they were really good, fit the settings very well and each was triggered according to the religion you chose to adopt.