I do not post very often in the RoR forum he!?
Everybody know Assy were the most powerfull AoE civ (equal with Yammy) in bronze. But what happenned to them in RoR?
Tool age
Assy do not get the slingers. I believe they can still perform a tool rush but it's gonna be either an axemen/clubmen rush or a scout rush right? An archer rush would fail(very likely) because of the ennemy's slingers. What if Assy get tool rushed. Again, I believe they could counter with clubmen and handle most rushes.
I might be wrong though... "But Phil, what's your point" you're gonna ask me right?
Bronze age
Assy gets the Camel rider. This important fact keep Assy at the top of the list for the most powerfull civ in bronze, IMO. The other new bronze techno is logistic, do I care? not really. I believe logistic to be helpfull when to pop limit is reached and when your economy is very strong, when you do not know what to do with all your ressources... which is never the case in bronze... right (if it happen, why don't you jump to iron?)?
Iron age
This is where Assy suffers the most... BUT! there is a but! Yep, Assy do not get the Armored Elephant neither the Scithe Chariot. This is very bad because they are now weaker than they were in AoE, in comparison to the other civs. However, to upgrade to these new powerfull units require lots of ressources. A good player will iron in about 27-35 minutes. He will obviously produce iron age units as soon as he enter iron to gain the upper hand in the combats he's actually struggling to win. Therefore, these new upgrades (Scithes and AE) will be researched at about 35-50 minutes. This means, Assy is still a good civ in early iron. They will proceed with their classic combo of HAs/Cats and still put up a good fight. Their situation is degenarating after early iron, when the opponents are getting super units and super upgrades.
Please, do not tell me you're gonna iron jump and be iron at 20-23. You know my large bronze army is gonna kill your non-existant iron army and wipe you of the map... thank you...
Here's my point
Assy's weakness in mid and late-iron means you still give me 45 minutes to kick your ass with them!!
I do not see a lot of Assy players anymore in RoR and I believe, from what I see, they are underrated just because of the late game stages weakness. 45 minutes is still way more than what I need to destroy 1 player or to be destroyed...
Phil