I played yam alot in AOE, but in ROR never unless I get them in random. I'd say even in a 3v3 I am about 95% to scout rush with yam ! Shang can do a better scout rush since they save even more food on peons than yam does on the first few scouts, but Shang has many more options and yam doesn't really. Yam can pull a good old fashioned cav rush but they need to clearly out bronze the intended victim. Yam as always stinks in later iron and had no real defence to powerhouse siege civs. I actually think yam is supposed to make academy units in iron along with HA for raiding peons/etc. I'd actually hope to have cent's/HHA and maybe some Hcav. The whole problem with making a huge cav horde in bronze is that the enemy may have camels. On the whole yam is weakened too much in ROR.. IMO their peon speed should still be 1.5.. Assy is clearly still playable in ROR however.
If you kill yam's access to gold you really hurt them. Yam must get coinage ASAP, and not neglect any opportunities to trade. Yam has little use for wood for units other than boats, and can greatly help out an allience by putting major effort into the sea. Yam extra wood should go into a big farming operation, for food for units as well as to trade for gold. All in all yam has clearly gone from one of the top 3 civs in AOE to one of the bottom 5 in ROR IMO. The civ's that get camels and scythe rise greatly in ROR ! - neilkaz -