Palmy has a large selection of millitary in all ranges, missing very few units and have all the storage pit upgrades, minus tower shield. This is a nice feature since it gives you that all mighty element of surprise, which is very handy(i would explain more on that but thats been done 100 times in 400 places so why bother). Palmy has fast camels this is really their most useless bonus since most people stay from cav these days, but if you ever do see 10 cav in on the other side of your town from your stable it is usefull then, also it is usefull in allowing your forwarb buildings to be a bit farther back, reducing there chance at being found, which allows you to get a nice surprise villager raid. Also, since palmy has those nice jacked-price villagers, you tend to have less (while still gathering at the same rate) it will allow a few more units in the pop limit, which is always nice to have.
Lastly, They have those armored villies, making them the best stone rush civ
Ahh this is where Palmy truly shines, or crashes, depending on how you play them, I dont have the RoR book handy, but i believe what they like is Irrigation, Craftsmanship (? final wood upgrade name??), and coinage. They also
Have superfast gatherers, and while i dont have the exact stats i believe that theres farms are almost as fast as shore fish (?), which is useful if, for some reason, you end up farming early. Ahh but there downfall is there 75 food villies, i honestly think this is too much and 60 is a more appropriate price (MAX), becuase this really messed up what could of been another Arse Kicking civ. Finally they have the double (?) gold per trade, which really isnt useful except for those long games in which your basically playing DM.
While i personally, never use palmy and usually quit when i get them in random civs, they are a decent civ IF played proparlly, with a decent spot, however most people dis them cuase of those damned expensive villagers, however i really think if these villagers were normal price they would be stronger than shang, becuase they have a strong iron. It seems to me as if ES mightve rushed them a bit, becuase they really coulda used a bit more testing.
Ok thats about it, f anyone has a question dont ask me becuase i dont know, if you want to email me click
Thanks for listening and please reply with any comments or problems.