Shang

Economy:

Villagers cost 35 food (after the patch 40 food and Shang starts with 40 less food). This makes Shang one of the fast civs. 
Shang has all important Market technologies.

Religion:

Shang has all Temple technologies. It can counter enemy priests with CAs and Chariots.

Military:

Shang gets all Bronze Age units and technologies. An advantage is that you can surprise your enemy. You can make a good defense with their strong walls with double hit points. The Iron Age is not so good (all Iron Age Government Centre technologies are missing for instance) so make sure that you prevent an Iron Age war. 
The infantry is reasonable but doesn’t get any Iron Age upgrades. The Slingers are mediocre, they don’t get any Iron Age upgrades. The Academy units are nothing special. All Pit technologies are available. 
Shang gets good archery with full range but without the Iron Age attack upgrades. 
All Cavalry upgrades and the Scythe Chariot are available. 
Most siege weapons are available but they lack range in the Iron Age. 
No Ballista Tower but towers get full range. All walls are available and they have their hitpoints doubled. 
The Iron Age navy is poor. In ROR Shang still has Fire Galleys.

Best in Age(s):

Before Iron.

RM Ranking:

Excellent.

Single Player:

Once you realise the importance of your economy you’ll appreciate that Shang is really strong if you use the advantage that the cheap Villagers can offer. Because their Iron Age isn’t really good, most fighting should be over by the time you get there. The CP is often slow and is equally slow when it comes to attacking.

Multi Player:

This is a great rush civ, especially the pre-patch version.

DM Ranking:

Score: 36%

Ranking: 16th

Description: What’s this? The best RM civ is the worst DM civ. Now I see ES’s logic in balancing the civs. It looks like Shang is going to be a tough civ to play. If you end up selecting this civ accidentally and being allocated it in Random civ don’t worry, just prepared to be battered if your opponents got, let’s say Carthage and Hittite. There siege lack Alchemy, Engineering AND Ballistics, making their helepoli very inaccurate. I guess you are going to have to pull off a scythe/HHA rush.

Multiplayer: Practice a lot. You must get 50+ HA by 4 mins and rush HAs constantly. Your gold is going to disappear. Play Shang like Yamato but forget Yammy’s HHA rush because Yammy has the bonus of faster villagers allowing them to forward build quicker and rush quicker. Otherwise, hope and pray you aren’t rushed.

Best when: You can pull off a 50+ HA rush in 4 mins.