The alpha 17 changes really are very very bad. Removing hard counters was a mistake and there are numerous bad decisions like the one pointed out in this thread. Spearmen get pierce attack, and to make them counter cavalry cavalry must have low pierce armor, right? But ranged units have pierce attack too. Ranged units are supposed to be countered by cavalry, but instead slaughter cavalry like hot knife through butter. And then you have a basic unit like swordsman who costs 3 different resources, food, wood, and iron. You have champion units (see Seleucid silver shield for example) who cost HUGE amounts of 3 resources too. You will have post after post of people trying to defend their decisions (the balancing branch people who basically have thrown the game's design into disarray), so it is very clear that they do not intend to change direction. It is good to experiment, but you should know when the experiment is a failure. The truth is the game's health just now relies on modding to fix game's balance.