And the radical idea to give up the sea means that Persian is much more a highland and inland civ than a water civ. I'd tried playing them on the oceans because of the triremes bonus. But the lack of woodcutting has always hamstrung me.
But I do have a few questions that remain unanswered. When the Persian finally makes it to the iron age they finally have access to a fast villager killing unit - the Horse Archer. Considering the speed and lethality of the unit for villie killing, I always make a pack or two of these guys. Is this a waste of resources? HA don't cost any wood, just food and gold. At the minimum you have a unit with an 8 LOS to accompany your cavs or dumbos. I rarely upgrade past a +2 armor, just so that villie mobs can't gang up on my archers, so there aren't much in the way of upgrade costs. And a Persian HHA is probably not a good idea. I mean all those resources for range 8? I'd rather build a few hi-speed AE.
And another question that is sort of related is about seige weapons. I'm assuming that at least one of my enemies will have a ballista/helepolis civ. Since they will slaughter even my turbo elephants, wouldn't making some catapult backup be advisable? I know they suck a large amount of wood out of you - but by this time you're in iron. Hopefully I'll have 40-50 villagers pulling in the resources. Because if I don't have cats I'm reduced to rushing the helepolis with my phants and cav. A losing proposition even in large numbers.
And does the fact that Persians have all tool upgrades make the idea of an all out tool rush a smart idea? Since they are still benefitting from their hunting bonus, shouldn't they try to maximize their advantage early? Slingers, axers and scouts could do some real damage early on.
And I just assumed that you wall early and often with Persians. If you're waiting to find some more food elephants I think a wall would be a good thing to kill time building. How much do you wall Sherriff? Or do you just try to press the attack advantage through tool and into bronze?
Once again - loved the guide. Everyone should take the time to head over to the academy and investigate it.
Mr. Hanky