[ichbinsehselber]

I agree that the races are very well balanced. At least to the extent, that this is possible at all, given the goal that the races should differ a lot from one another. Which they do and I like it.

Still there are differences in the capabilities of the races. At least some terrain is favourable for some races. Distance between cities of 5 squares favours other races than distance 6 etc.

I only play vs Computer (I did not try to play against myself, I do not think this is fun for me).
My standard handicap is going first and doing nothing for 3 turns. This means I restrict myself on buying the first unit in turn 4. I tested Arcatta vs Gnomes and I won on turn 15. I had tougher times in other matchups. On the other hands I won also in a match where I went second and did nothing for 3 turns. But this was humans vs elves.

I do not know how Arcatta would perform in expert human vs expert human matchups. But I do think that the starting player will likely win. On the other hand going second may not be so tough for the gnomes as Ming nicely points out (T2 gardener, T3 gardener)