by the way while waiting for wedsaz's response.... without reading all the posts in this thread, since reading them would probably make me fall off my chair laughing my ass off, i will reply to the main post...
here are the top 5 best civs to be in ror:
1. Phoenician-they have an awsome woodcutting bonus! and have good ellies!
- phoenician wood bonus is nothing now unless u chop wood with a large number of vills.... eles are too expensive, no matter how cheap they are for phoes... eles are no reason to pick a civ
2. Macedonian-they're impossible to convert!
who cares..... nobody dares use that much gold for a slow, fragile unit such as the priest.... mace's true power lies in their unit los, and in their hops that can take on pretty much anything in bronze...
3. Yamato-cheap horse archers!
if you dont play it right, u wont make it to iron, so no ha.... besides yam is very vulnerable to iron siege....
4. Choson-Unstoppable legions!
choson will only get to legions with luck.... either the enemy is stupid not to touch the slow, weak, fragile choson until late iron, or your nick is maimin_matty 5. Babylonian-double tower hit points!
towers die to st's no matter how many hp they have.... even if u put up towers... i would just send 3 cav to murder ur vills and run away..... besides even tho bab has a nice tech tree.... they are a weak version of hittite, whats the point then?
now here is what i think are the top 5 civs to pick:
minoans - super compies that mow down bronze armies, full iron siege, cheap boats for super booms, and winning sea battles guaranteed ....
shang - very versatile - can boom, can fast bronze ... full bronze techs and army, decent iron .. bonus has been cut, but they still have a fair advantage...
macedonia - a really feared civ .... rush them or die .....non ranged units get big los.... so villagers have amazing exploring (really good for finding those starting berries) and boats can find fish better.... hoppers with +3 missile armor in bronze slaughter anything... cheap siege which u can make in masses ... and these guys dont miss out on archers either ..... compies , ha..... they have trouble with massed iron siege, but, mace shines in bronze so the enemy shouldnt be allowed to get big....
hittite - these guys have it all when it comes to army ..... and then some..... super ranged galleys, super hp cats, archers do extra damage.... etc
phoenicia - even though their major bonus got bastardized, it is still viable.... they can still pull off a good boom, and they will have extra wood when u have 20+ vills chopping away at your forest.... their strangth lies in bronze age though .... they dont have a good iron tech tree..... scythes are the only thing keeping them alive in iron, but, still a good civ nonetheless
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