Hi,
I’m a player who plays ‘random’ all the time in ranked, apart from the fact that it’s very difficult to master the 4 pantheons (and therefore the 13 civilisations) as they’re completely different and this represents a major handicap when faced with opti players who constantly play 2 or 3 civilisations maximum.
I think it’s quite legitimate to hide the random pick at the start of the game, which would give you a very slight advantage and counterbalance the disadvantage of playing ‘randomly’. When do you think?
Otherwise the game is great, I’ve rarely had so much fun on an Age of Empires game.