[moodgiesanta]

Well more gold just means you can build more castles to be able to build resource intensive units. Also in most cases in the late age from what I've seen a ton of gold just isn't a replacement for resource-heavy troops. Sure you can throw tons of no-armor troops at heavy infantry but they are going to die in droves, especially if you've got good archery support. With all the crossbows and whatnot in the late age you pretty much need the heavy armor to stand a chance against massed archers.