I started with Greeks for this exact reason. I'm playing since a week and got to classical, and their companions are so ridiculously overpowered that I'm having second thoughts. I wanted to switch to Japanese in medieval or later but the Greek unique troops are IMO the best cavalry in the game. Even if the chevalier have more hit points, the companions have higher dmg which allows them to destroy defensive buildings faster and therefore take less dmg from them. I imagine the French need backup troops to catch up with them and help destroying stuff, while my companions just go in and wreck everything, the infantry and archers clean up from way behind. With 6 royal companions (lvl 2 troops) I am able to destroy a pretty maxed medieval base with minimal casualties. For anything classical and below, 4 will be enough and not a single one will die. I very rarely have to train new soldiers after a battle, most of the time I just non stop farm until I get the resources I need for my next upgrade. I really think that they need to be balanced, it's not that I'm complaining, especially that I play them, but in my opinion they should strictly be tanks and not be able to deliver so much dmg. In clash of clans we have giants that are very similar to the cavalry in this game, but they have way less dmg and you need to use a lot of them to make any difference. The reduced construction time is actually pretty good if you're an active player. Most of the time I set alarms to properly take advantage of the ability and I think it saved me decent amount of hours in total. I'm the kind of player that maxes everything before advancing to the new age so it really helps me. The resource savings are actually what I think is useless, the amount is so low that you never feel any difference. Even if it adds up in time it's not something of much use. If you play Greeks until you get to enlightenment it would probably mean the resources from one raid.
