Buckets makes a good point on the strategic stagnation of RON

The gist of it is that rock-paper-scissors is a very boring and vacuous game because it is too balanced. If all three options are equally viable, there is actually no strategy. So then at least one option must be somehow superior, to start the domino effect of counters.

I think he's right about the economy. It's very hard to really hurt someone's economy. Even if you capture a city and force all the villagers away, they are still likely to be at cap for almost everything, apart from knowledge, of course.
posted by Tim at 10:54 PM