I'm a veteran RTS gamer who is also a veteran RoN gamer
Most of the points here are accurate, to a large degree...
RoN = RTS Game with new concepts, wider varieties of games, longer game play.
It lacks the RPG elements of AoM, and related games, but it also lacks the pure algorithmic approach of older RTS' like starcraft, TA, and AoE.
The concept of national borders, and your inability to build beyond them, limits the value of the early rush. The attrition damage to enemies within your territory limit it further. Additional concepts re-enforce battlefield tactical planning and manuevering.
It can be a clickfest - learn your hotkeys and learn them well, you'll reduce your clicking by 90%
It's the best game I've ever seen for pure hotkey control. If you get real fancy, the only clicking you'll do is selecting units.
The base game can be extremely quick and extraordinaly fast moving. It has options to slow these down somewhat, and you can easily download some mods to slow it down further.
The latter ages do come with a bewildering myriad variety of options to attack with and defend against. I'd recommend simply disabling the final age altogether - nukes and instant military production is just silly and was only included to allow a swift end to the game in the final age.
This leaves you capped at the modern age, with b52 style bombers and Abrams tanks level of warfare - doable and manageable - everything has it's proper counter and a semi-counter.
Definitely a worth while game to buy if you have a few friends to play with, and probably even if you don't. I can usually configure my games to give 3-4 humans a 50/50 chance of survival against the computers - but then that's with the mod I made for it that slows the game down quite a bit and changes a few things around.
And yes, the Chinese are quite broken in that game. Egyptians nearly are too, and most all players will agree that Mayans, pre-patch, were as broken as they get
Buy the game if you've ever enjoyed any RTS' that didn't have 'heroes'
