This would seem to prove Ensemble's contention that Shang isn't an overpowered civ. The reality: Shang isn't any less dominant -- People like civ variety, or we'd all be playing "full tech" games. Shang dominates in default start RM; therefore, rather than have everyone play Shang, most of us simply ban Shang or play Random Civ (my preference). Thus, Shang's apparent popularity has fallen because of social pressure, and not because it is in any way less dominant. The rated games do not reflect a real average of AoE gameplay. Go to the non-rated rooms, and you'll find greater game variety. Greater game variety, in turn, dilutes Shang's dominance, since Shang has no real advantage in, say, a bronze age start with high resources. Of course, dominant is more a matter of perspective than it is of overall reality. Shang isn't dominant on every map type with every starting condition. Take Shang up against Romans or Babylonians with a high-resource start, for example, to see how Shang fails to dominate every setting. The strength of a civ largely depends on the initial game settings, including map type, starting age, and initial resource allocations. The most common game -- random wet land (med, inland) map, default resources -- is well-matched to Shang's strengths. All the strategy guides are written to this setting, reinforcing the concept that Shang is somehow superior. Now that I'm over the hantavirus (yes, I caught the big nasty and survived!), I'm working on strategy guides for alternative settings...