If it makes you feel any better the bases I can't raid are the ones with an Acropolis. I really wish I picked the acropolis instead of the hanging gardens, i find hanging gardens very useless.
Im stuck on choosing a nation to advance to iron age for this very reason.. I can't choose between british and german because I want to know what their special unit will turn into in industrial age onwards!!
Do the standard units look any different depending on what nation you use?
About research: I'd bloody love to do some research on which nation to pick, but information on the internet seems to be severely limited. I've not even done any more battles than the first tutorial one - ordinarily i'd just pick the germans but I don't even know if rally is useful. So maybe...