Well, that why I’m against it.
Find another bonus it a pain in the ***. Both for the balance and the devs. They haven’t even changed atheism, which is really a useless UT, asking to change a decent UT it would be too much.
Also, pavise as a UT work right now, it’s cheap, it affect 3 units, so changing it for no reason would just make things more complicated.
And finally, the UT it’s historically accurate and it gives the civ some identity, wich is a secondary role of the UTs that we shouldn’t forget.
The problem isn’t pavise itself, the problem is that it’s not enough alone, and it’s a lot more easy to simply give a small bonus to the civ without changing too much.
Also, the problem that pavise is too similar to viets bonus would remain. My idea is that yes, italians should pay for their advantage on their archers, but after they paid it, they should have a stronger advantage.
That can be achieved by giving a bonus that can be stacked with pavise (armor for free, +1PA) or by simply buffing pavise.
Coming up with a completely new UT that also solve this problem is the more complicated solution.
It’s not that is a bad thing, but it’s longer and complicated, so there is more risk of disturbing the delicate balance of the game right now and there is more risk to make mistakes along the road. Plus it’s a lot of work more for the devs, that seem already stretched thin.
Silk road is a good tach that fit the imp UT, there is no reason to move it.