Angel-
Well. . . . really.
Yamato doesn't get cats, only stone throwers. Which is why they are weak in Iron.
Yamato gets 25% reduced cost horse archers but if the reason why you are rushing to Iron is to get horse archers you are better off with the horse archers from one of the civs that has an archer bonus and also has the full siege.
I love horse archers in Iron too but mine are always Assyrian (+40% fire rate) or Hittite (+1 attack) and they are backed with cats and eventually heavy cats.
I picture the scene as follows: Yamato against Assyrian in Iron. Both sides have horse archers and their best siege. Horse archer battle slighly to Assyria due to archers rapid fire rate but Yamato staying close to even or maybe even edging ahead because Yamato horse archers cheaper (someone else do the math). But wait, Assyrian heavy cats easily destroy all Yamato stone throwers and turn and begin lobbing rocks at Yamato horsies. Oooops.
And of course, it is even uglier if the battle is Yamato against Hittite and the vaunted Hittite double hit point siege weaponry. Any Hittite will invite Yamato to come to the dance in Iron and bring those cheap horse archers. Hittites love to watch those enemy horse units die to double strength heavy cats.
Second, if you are looking to play mind tricks on the enemy in hopes of producing panic, I think that you will probably find that the early Bronze Age arrival in your enemy's town of the second and third waves of +4, +4 Yamato cavalry do a very satisfying job of producing panic.
As always, this is AoE, not RoR, but one of the most feared armies in the game is Hittite heavy cats backed by horse archers. Horse archers keep hand to hand units away from cats and cats reduce enemy civilization to rubble. Been there, done that (on both sides of the equation).
This is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain![This message has been edited by ManBehindTheCurtain (edited 11-25-2000).]