I have one final revision I wanted to post just because I’ve been thinking about this a lot and have been really enjoying playing Mexico:
Australia as a revolution option for the French, Dutch, and British, to replace the US. We already have a US civ so it’s a bit weird having the US as a revolutionary option still, and Australia fits into the timeline as a revolution civ (late 1700s) very well, alongside South Africa (mid-late 1700s) and Canada (late 1700s). Australia as a revolutionary option would work like those two nations too, with an emphasis on economic viability after revolution, but differs a little in that villagers do transform into revolutionary units. Australia’s niche would be in a normal style revolutionary rush, but with the ability to quickly rebuild their economy by shipping mass convicts to replace missing settlers.
They would not be as powerful as South Africa in a long game due to their lack of military upgrades, but would have a little more staying power than the Canadians due to their focus on economic upgrades.
I stuck to the OG DE style 9 card revolution deck, which after playing a lot of Mexico seems fairly limited, but at least makes it balanced when compared to the Canadian and South African 9 card decks.
Settlers become ‘Stockmen’ on revolution, which would be pretty much the same as the Bear Flag/California Californios but without the lasso.
Cards:
- Pastoralism → 7 Sheep + 1 Homestead wagon (infinite)
- Eureka Stockade → fortifications build much faster, allows miners to build military buildings, and ships 10 miners
- Bushrangers → Ships an assortment of outlaws (infinite)
- 25 Convicts → Free, numerous settlers that become enemy minutemen when defeated (infinite)
- Ballarat Gold Fields → ships 1x gold prospector wagon and 10 miners. Allows miners to be trained at the town center and increases their gather rate
- Broken Hill Company → ships 2x silver prospector wagons (infinite)
- Stockyards → livestock fatten 30% faster
- Outback stations → allows livestock pens to automatically harvest fully fattened animals and removes the livestock cap
- TEAM Burke and Willis expedition → reveals the entire map and provides books worth 800xp
I think that’s pretty much the best version I can come up with. There’s a dozen other things you could emphasise with early Australian colonial history to change the civ’s niche, but I think the most important things are convicts as cheap settlers and a lackluster military. The number of convicts you get and what they cost (if anything) would be where you’d have to focus any balancing. I er on the side of letting them be very numerous and free, considering that revolutions are a pretty late game function and a player who revolts needs to be able to be able to get on and remain on the attack asap if they want to win.
Anyway that’s all I wanted to put down. I can finally let it go…