Agree. Slingers with shields I think better for straightforward expansion. And common slingers are cheap as dirt which eases their massing. But Bakemono archers with stealth have other uses and they are also cheap enough.
Markatas, though... they S*CK. Actually, I think something should be done with monkeys - they have good line-of-battle troops in Bandar, but their stealthy units lack any kind of punch. If you mass Markatas enough, they will lose they stealth advantage. And they die like flies. Atavi archers get no stealth bonus and if you mass them they will be easily caught. And they lack the punch to beat anyone by themselves. Atavi infantry... they just lack either the punch or staying power. So they can't capitalise on any advance their archers could make.
Either I'm missing something, or the player should restrict himself to Bandar. And while it's appropriate from an Indian caste system's point of view, I personally would like to have some way to use monkeys of lower castes other than as arrow/lance fodder. By the way, that's another nation I wouldn't give that much early game score... if not for Elephantes.
