No, Wacko is actually wrong, and the community has a record of predicting the results of patches pretty damn accurately.
Let's indeed look at TWC release:
France lategame has always been considered overpowered. France has been considered strong since 1.08 vanilla, which has not changed in people's minds in TWC. If anything, people like Ultimitsu have said from the very beginning that France is just getting stronger, since cavalry upgrade cards have gotten stronger, and Cuirassers stil upgraded from veteran stats. And a few people have been pointing out the retarded nature of Thoroughbreds since even before TWC release.
Sioux was never considered to be on the same level with Spain, let's not invent things please. And they stil are a very strong civ. People just jumped on this "Sioux economy sucks" bandwagon, which is patently false until the very late game (Industrial - Imperial), which few matches actually see. In Colonial a Fortress Sioux remain a terror.Dutch considered average? They were already considered one of the stronger civs in 1.08 vanilla! And I've been shouting from the rooftops about Saloon Mercs in combination with Dutch banks since even before TWC release. I've been singing prases of the 5.2 speed Halberds since the first week of TWC release as well. Indeed many people have been labeling Dutch as one of the strongest civ in TWC since the very beginning.
Iroquois were most certainly not considered inferior. Their rush has been predicted as a terror since the demo got release, that's before TWC itself was release even. Turned out to be right on the money. Everyone ofcourse ignored my pointing out how Forest Prowlers had the same cost as Skirmishers yet had vastly better stats and stealth capability to boot, though, which leads credence to your point. People didn't realise the power of Iroquois FF because those people who'd lame with it later on, were too bloody busy laming Agents with Dutch and British. A couple of weeks after the Agent mania was snuffed out by ES, people went full steam ahead with the Iroquois FF abuse. So Agents are actually the only reason we didn't see the Iroquois FF dominating since TWC release. Simply because there was something even more broken around to be taken advantage of.
Ofcourse Kanya aren't strong and aren't used. Aside from a couple deluded optimists, nobody thought Kanya would suddenly be worth training with even with 20 more HP. Indeed, I remember writing exactly, "Stil not worth wasting resources on", after the patch changes became known.
Nobody thought Longbows would be balanced. There was a ton of people, myself included, that stated right away that they were nerfed incorrectly, if they even needed a nerf at that point at all.
AS Experts have stamped Spain as overpowered since 1.05, during the German Merc FF craze, and long before the War Wagons craze.
And I'm sorry, but the throught of Russia at any point (even 1.08) being anywhere close to #1 ... or close to Spain, makes me ROFL. It was an accepted fact that Spain murdered Russia, even in 1.08.Now let's think abit further back, shall we?
People were right on the money regarding what effect the 2x vs artillery bonus for ranged cavalry will have on the game. People were right regarding War Wagons. People were right about Spain dominating in 1.08. People were right about 1.08 being more about Colonial fighting than ever before. People were right about Dutch and Russia (to a lesser extent) coming into the spotlight in 1.08. People were right about Spain in TWC. Etc. There's a bunch more stuff but my time is limited.
But the beauty of fan patches is that we don't HAVE TO do completely blind speculation anymore. We can test things ourselves, and not just take the word of ES as gospel. And my own tests show that you know which unit has recieved an incredibly unfair overnerf. While the chances of you know which civ on you know what kind of maps have gotten even more miserable than ever, if that's possible ...
"One wants to be loved, failing that admired, failing that feared, failing that hated and despised. One wants to instill in other people some form of emotion. The soul shudders before emptiness and wants contact, no matter the cost."
[This message has been edited by Ender_Ward (edited 03-05-2007 @ 00:37 AM).]