I watched the first rec until it went out of sync (over 20 mins in). @platypus_slayer1 gave you some excellent pointers. What’s also worth adding is with players making mistakes like I saw in the rec (deck issues and some of the things already pointed out) things that shouldn’t work will. Improper micro throws things off and so do suboptimal build orders and strategies. At higher levels things work differently. The data you’re using as input when coming up with balance suggestions is flawed. That’s really not your fault.
Statements like this about Spain’s Rods show you don’t understand higher level play.
Speed is what makes them very strong at higher levels (speed allows for better micro and snaring. Positioning can be massive in fights. Rods can flank much better than most heavy infantry). They also pair extremely well with Lancers and skirms.
There are a lot of people at your level, which makes finding people of your skill level far easier. That’s important because it means you’re unlikely to get matched with substantially better opponents who could directly show you how they play (potentially isolating you from players who could challenge your perspective). It’s not your fault btw, it’s just how the algorithm works
As your elo gets higher there are less people to match with. I got matched with JulianK in November (I was probably the closest elo the game could find him lol. I didn’t think I had a shot at wining that). Somehow I overcame a ~600-700 elo gap and won. He’s a pro player, I beat him, but I wouldn’t seriously call myself a pro player because it would be laughable. That’s why we gave you a hard time about this:
JulianK is like 2200 elo. I’d put the bottom of the pro range around 1900-2000 elo in 1v1 ranked. That’s a long way above either my us.
Everyone at your level is playing sub-optimally so it’s not easy to see how powerful things are in comparison to each other. It’s like comparing people’s heights on an uneven floor. At higher levels you can start to see clearer. People are playing more perfectly so imbalances between civs become glaring.
Overall I think less is needed than you think, and many of the bigger changes you suggested would be too much at higher levels (even at mine they’d be problematic, and it would only get worse as you move up). All things considered, even the larger imbalances today are relatively small from a historical perspective for the game. As you approach the “competitive level” or “pro level”, tiny things like -50f from starting crates can be unbelievably huge (More is needed here, but I’m illustrating a point).
I’m not sure I want to spend the time on treaty recs, but some of the villager micro issues @platypus_slayer1 pointed out add up over time. If you want to post pictures of your treaty decks I think we’d be happy to look them over (we might spot something useful). If you want more long arguments, I think you can count me out. I don’t intend to spend as much time arguing on here and probably just won’t reply back.
Edit: I genuinely hope some of what I said will be helpful to you. Also, if you want Supremacy deck help let us know. The right deck can be a huge deal especially vs people with poor ones.