You can hit bronze pretty quick, or do a good tool rush with their bowmen (though slingers put a dent in this). A group of 10 assy Bowmen backed up with a scout or 2 is nothing to sneeze at. And in terms of inflicting damage, Assy CAs are right up there. And you get STs and a decent navy. So in tool and bronze, you can keep up with almost any civ.
But then comes Iron and you're in trouble. Yeah, you can upgrade your STs, but no engineering. Alchemy is no big deal for STs or Cats, but sure would help the CAs and HAs.
I think the addition of just a few techs and one unit would make Assy a very viable civ for all types of games.
Nobility: Xtra hit points for CAs and HAs
Alchemy. Increased rate of fire and the 1 extra point. Sweet.
Chain Mail. Better armor for your CAs and HAs, and according to the tech tree, chain mail allows HHAs. If Assy could get HHAs, that would REALLY be nice.
So these techs and HHAs and Assy, with their speed, would really be smokin'.
And Yam. Poor Yam. Used to be king, but no more. And why not? They get great upgrades. I haven't played Yam much in RoR. Give them the Cat and ballista That's all they need. I think that would make a big difference.
And what's with Hittie? Do they really need AEs and EAs AND HCats? Puh-lease. Take the elephants away. Now granted, against a priest happy civ, the elephants don't do a lot, but picture this:
6 HCats, 6 AEs and 6 EAs, and 10 +1 damage CAs for priest killing, with about 5 priests behind them. Ug. That's ugly.
Did they really play test for civ balance? If they did, all I can think of is that they must have MEANT for some civs to be so much more powerful than others. Go figure.
Well, I'm done venting.