Before returning to Africa it’s time to venture into Mexico. A modern of which stretches a length from ENGLAND TO TURKEY!
Yo telling me we get like 15 civs in that area and the various tribes and empires within only get 2! Nuh uh! And I’m sure my odd wordplay is confusing but AI slop machines could never pretend to be as creative as this! Let’s get to it!
Let’s explore Mexico (and the Gulf)
Take on an era before Typhoid with the might of the Toltecs! The Mayapan are closing in on your mighty empire of thick walls and have Eagle mastery you could only dream of. Queen Xochitl is at the twilight of her empire under training several women into her loyal Xochitlites whom are archers that cost half pop slots and unlike Blackwoods don’t spawn at the same time. Vs most units these 6 range units do next to nothing. Their bonuses are niche with extra vs siege, Skirmisher and Shock as the things they do bonus vs. they don’t even do more vs spears (but why would they?)
Team up with Europeans as the oft wicked Tlaxcala using Spanish provided horses and gunpowder as a civ whose Xolotls actually get real upgrades (and a weaker feudal variant) and train the Otomi a defensive infantryman who half ways between a Huskarl and a Teutonic Knight but with more durability than the Serjant it can’t actually do anything except fight unlike that Sicilian pizza boy.
The Zapotecs can utilize Slingers and have the unique Lightning Warrior who is fast and deals damage bonus based on the amount of gold a unit costs. The more gold hungry the higher the bonus. This might actually not be good design and instead a new bonus armor type called heavy armor which includes a lot of stockier units instead. The mechanics of who or what is considered heavy armored is a bit interesting but I can promise that every civ has at least one viable unit that isn’t considered heavy to help strike it down.
And to round it out the now extinct Taino aren’t Mexican and in fact might be South Americans on an Island near Mexico. Take their navy and Champis and settlements and use Eagles as well. The Blowgun has a massive poison dot if it hits since it has Arambai type accuracy but pow up front damage.
While the Slinger isn’t universal there is a new regional all Mexicans get the: The Owl Initiate/Shaman/Warrior an all atl throwing war shaman with a poison.
So that’s a damn mouthful but that’s what Owl Warriors were. They were religious shamans who used atl atls and dabbled in poison usage.
So what does that mean. These Skirmisher replacement s cost a small amount of gold but when not being anti-archer, they can heal and carry relics. Watch out for anti-monk attacks. The poison they inflict isn’t that strong although with a group of them it can stack up on a unit and put a ticking clock on its time alive. Of course they have a small bonus vs archers not as great as skirmishers but vs archers the poison is twice as effective… oh except those with skirmisher armor who take nothing.
I realize this means that civs with slingers can walk all over your Aztec army since they do bonus vs priests and infantry and are immune to poison which is why the unit line has +2/3/4 monk armor. Scouts and eagles will still annihilate them. They can heal just like monks but their up front damage is worse than a same age Skirmisher. Like this is the one unit in the game that does 1 base damage that isn’t a fire galley!
For Aztecs they can upgrade them one more time to Elite Owl Warriors. Atl atl is otherwise unchanged. No they don’t get bonus HP from monastery techs. I’m apprehensive about letting them benefit from Fervor and Sanctity like warrior monks too.
Mayans get a double attack that sadly doesn’t double apply the poison. It doesn’t get the renamed El Dorado Ho but it does get included in the archery range discount at long last!
Unlike Curare a single poison tick requires an individual owl to apply it. So 15 owls hitting one unit can doom it eventually. But an owl hitting a unit 15 times cannot and is only just prolonging the duration instead.
That and Eagles is the only unique military regionals. It’s a strong region for sure. I had considered letting everyone use slings but thought against it.
So I don’t lose all this vomit drafting I’m posting it now as is and will fix it later
) then they sack Teotihuacan and finally they come in the mayan lands.