Some conq3 friends of mine (and myself) consider the current patch not interesting to play due to several reasons:
Mounted archers able to hit and run too smoothly, it’s hard for horsemen or lancers to counter them;
With good micro they are unbeatable, notably in teamed games
Longbowmen should not get access to silk bowstrings;
They already have a much higher range and DPS
Gunpowder units suck, they are end-game tier units but behave poorly;
They are supposed to counter melee infantry, but melee infantry’s already too weak for this patch
Strong civs like the Byzantines counter weak civs like the Chinese too hard;
The Byzantines are able to defeat around 10 civs easily when there’s only 15 other civs
Farm-transition is painful except for the English or the Abbasids;
Thus making a game against them frustrating, they don’t even have to battle for map control
Exit the game after matching an opponent of a higher rank;
A waste of time
Elite army tactics better remains unchanged;
Melee infantry without 20% extra health are too fragile against ranged units or melee damage higher than 20, which is quite common for age IV
Balancing the game by some numerical changes is the easiest method, and if it pains game designers to do so, it is also likely that game designers are not able to make the game interesting or attractive either.