2/2's with a "Divinity"-style toughness boost would probably work, though I think 1) it'd have to be balanced to stack with command cards and b) I worry that chainmail amazons (ie, 2/2) are going to be as unexpected as plate ones - in both cases you're not talking about a tribal jungle society - if you go that way, you're pretty much going to have to do x/1's if the faction is composed of humans, because basically no one ever wears any kind of serious armor in the jungle.
I still think plate amazons would be really cool, and that Hannibal's point about doing factions that are at least a bit less generic mcgenericson (-daughter?) is a good thing. Of course, you also don't want to do factions where the name has nothing at all to do with what you get: we couldn't have done Dark Elves that weren't elves and/or weren't dark; we just tried to put a spin on them that wasn't taken whole cloth either from D&D or from WHFB. Personally, I think "civilized, matriarchal society where well-equipped, dedicated female soldiers stand toe-to-toe with men and elves and win on the line" fits quite well with the concept of Amazons - especially if we keep things like a huntress goddess and good archery. But if tons and tons of people disagree, and think that plate amazons would be more like making a "Dark Elf" faction full of cheerful gnomes, then that's a valid point against it.
Also note that even if we keep the Amazon inspiration for the final faction, there's no reason we have to actually name it Amazons. If we feel like that theme hook is good, there's no reason not to rename it to "City of [blah]" or "The Eumenides" or whatever the hell we want them to call themselves; sure, people on the boards would know the original inspiration had been "can we do Amazons?" but who cares?
Bottom line: I like the flavor Hannibal came up with for this faction, and think that we can make it even better with a bit of discussion. I like the mechanics we've got in the draft factions from Chad and I (with input from others) though I think the perfect unit list is still waiting to be found. And I think we can make a great, interesting faction out of this stuff. Maybe we call it Amazons and maybe not, but I think it'd be a good one. That said, Chad's right that we're in early enough days that if I'm in the minority, it wouldn't be a disaster to switch to something else, but I don't think we want to let the fact that the initial thought was Amazons get us to abandon the faction if we've got some good stuff going on here, which I think we do. Easier to rename than restart!