Pierce and hack armor upgrades first, then damage depending on most used unit. I usually play Rome or Sparta, so it's melee damage first.

Right. I read a bit too quickly and didn't realize when you said idle time you were referring only to barrack idle time

If I need to just go and modify the XML files "raw" I don't have any issues with that.  The problem is that the documentation talks about an Actor Editor, and I'd love to use it, but it doesn't seem to actually be included in the packaged files.  Considering the documentation of the tool is 12 years old, now, is it just wildly deprecated and lost to time?  Or am I just overlooking something?  

You can even see in his glasses he is pausing while a ally is about to rush 

@vanz the hotkey to select all units is in autociv, but call to arms and back to work are both available without any mod. so you can just bind the call to arms hotkey and not worry about the mod.

My go-to is  1. Ranged Damage Upgrade 2. Pierce Resistance Upgrade 3. Hack Resistance Upgrade 4. Melee Damage Upgrade but it does depend on which units you are planning to go for; with athens/sparta, you might opt for melee first, against rome you might make the hack resistance upgrade first.