The horseman is only so-so imho, as is the noble.
The problem with the noble is the huge gold cost, so it does decrease your research speed. And 45 resources !!!
Mictlan has solid troops in early era too. Ok that might be an exageration
. But with a single bless like w9 their sacreds already rock. And you can even take an SC god and no bless if you want. The slingers can expand vs. weak indies just fine and they also are somewhat useful at swarming humans.