I think the Spanish late game is seriously underrated IMO. Ports only have one more Eco tech that Spain doesn't, manor economica, but Spain has gold trickle.
Spain's unit selection is as big as that of France. Rods can beat Gendarmes, although not as well as before, and can use Lancers to beat Voltigeurs. Against russians, Imperial RG pikes can take down a fort pretty fast and are instant with team Archaic Training card+Fencing School, and lancers can easily own non combatant muskets trying to spam forts. Lancers+Skirms will almost always beat a combo of Cassadors+Dragoons in the open just because lancers are so good at surviving dragoon fire to kill Cassadores (who drop like flies).
Spain really only has three major drawbacks late game, lack of good skirm upgrades, lack of faster training artillery, and their inability to boom as fast as other civs.
As for Dutch I actually think ES_Sandy said it best, "Friend, you have a 50% larger army than them, go destroy their base instead of trying to compete economically."
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| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TROLLS |
+----------+[This message has been edited by TheRomans (edited 10-02-2007 @ 06:14 PM).]