The problem is that the replacement shipments are stupid and inconsistent with how the game has always been. It always allowed you to keep archaic units but pushed their replacement in the fact that their stats generally drop off compared to their modern equivalents.
There’s no good reason Longbows need to be swapped with Rangers or require a card to unlock. They did it because they didn’t want to rock the boat and have people cry about Brits being OP with both Longbows and good rifle infantry. Rangers should be available by default in age 4, and the Church techs could do a one time “swap” and allow you to get them earlier. Make sure their roles are different enough and axe the imperial upgrade for the archaic units to favour the modern one and you’re good to go.
Ordinance Rifleman are an order of magnitude dumber than Rangers. They’re the result of a chain of half baked fixes for dumb names and skins without a thought for gameplay.
- Besteiros from the Church just means crossbowman in Portuguese which is pretty lame
- Replace Besteiros with Ordinance Besteiros to fix this, but give them ultra modern uniforms that look dumb with crossbows
- “Fix” this by making them riflemen without regard for the fact that Portugal already has great rifle infantry. Also add an awesome Crossbow skin that Portuguese players pretty much won’t get to see.
Arquebusiers should be a standard unit, not another dumb unit swap for Spain. They could fit neatly into the roster of Dutch and Swedes (and would be very historically accurate for those civs). For Spain, they could have a Tercio “banner army” that consists of Arquebusiers and Pikemen. Portugal could have their Ordinance Riflemen replaced with Ordinance Arquebusiers.