I am 1680-1700 (I know i am not expert lol... but just so i wont get flamed by someone telling me i never played Gaia, most of what i write here is based of expert recs i watched of Hotcha, Fisn0 and KS_Death) with Gaia and I will explain why she is def UP.
First off for Lush. It is not amazingly awesome, your villigers are too slow to effectively Lush in your opponents towncenters. And it only heals your buildings at 1hp per second.
Econ Bonus. Gaia has no long term real econ advantage, once Gaia and her opponent are mythic they have equal economies. In fact if they are Thor With WH they have a superior Econ, as do BoT+SC+AW eggy vills. In mythic she falls farther bhind with no Heka or Unit advantage.
Why Is Gaia so Bad? Above 1700 (not always but normally) oppoents are smart enough to watch for 2tc, and myth spam. Myth Spam>>>>Gaia. I.e. Gaia is weak to any god heavy on Myth. To counter regular myth, you must go Leto so you can Auto v. their myth. But if they are Norse that does not work, Kronos/Oranos ownz that, and so does Zeus, only really works well v. Hades. See Hotcha v. ChronoJJ (Ra) Sphynix>GaiaAlso Gaia does not get an OP god path. She lacks both Helios and Prommie. She gets Theia=awesome, but so does Oranos, and he gets Helios for Heka/Vortex, and Prommie for Myth counter.
Gaia has never been a Top 5 or even Top 10 regular
[This message has been edited by AlexanderIsGreat (edited 09-09-2006 @ 02:45 PM).]