The winner does come as a shock to someone familiar to the game. In every 1v1 game it is rarely ever viable to not Axe or Slinger rush. Many players add there own rules to be able to safely pull off a fast bronze, Chariot Archer rush, such as D3KT or Kor.
In team games, it's a bit more varied with generally the flanks Axe or Slinger rushing while the pockets go with their strongest early bronze unit, whether that's Chariot Archers, Camel Riders, Cavalry, Compies or in rare cases, Hoplites.
I'm not surprised to see peon rushes, vill rushes, so high on the list. In RoR, Assyrian, Sumerian & Yamato could pull off devastating peon rushes that looks to slow their opponents down enough to allow their team mates to finish the game off.
As to AoE4, I'm optimistic to where they will take the franchise. Unlike others, I would have preferred them to stick to the flavour of following linear time periods that the franchise was going for up until AoE Online.
♚Lost Empires Mod♛
Maybe it's only a fool who'll perilously journey out to what might not be there. But if you want to solve problems, you don't just solve the ones that are there, you find more and make more and go after the impossible ones.
The neanderthals never ventured into the unknown and they went extinct, so who are the fools?