I think he is a generic replacement for the Cannon Galleon. The problem is that all the civilizations need a siege ship, not only the american one, the Cumans for example still lack a siege ship. Also many civilizations have Canon Galleon but disappearing before the gunpowder era, the Viking are an obvious example, they never use gunpowder even if their successor states (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) use gunpowder later.
Also they say in the FAQ that their will be a new siege ship, never that their will be a regional ship.
Also having a generic siege ship without gunpowder is good even for gunpowder civilization for scenarios that takes place before the gunpowder era. For example in the beginning of the hundred year war the English and the French fought at the Battle of Sluys in 1340, a non gunpowder siege ship is very good for this pre gunpowder battle even if the two civilization use gunship later.
I think that Canon Galleon will become a regional unit, the new siege ship will become the generic siege ship for many of the civilizations.
Dromon
Regional ship for late antiquity/early medieval european civilizations and byzantine sphere civilization (armenians and byzantine)
- Armenians
- Byzantines
- Goths
- Huns
- Romans
Potential future civilizations
- Alans
- Suebi
- Vandals
Lou Chuan
Regional ship for sinosphere civilizations
- Chinese
- Jurchens
- Shu
- Wei
- Wu
Potential civilizations with Lou Chaun
- Khitans
Potential future civilizations
- Bai
- Tangut
- Tibetan
New siege ship
Generic siege ship for all civilizations, specially for those before the gunpowder era.
Those who already lack Canon Galleon
- Aztecs
- Cumans
- Incas
- Mayans
Those of the last Chieftain DLC
- Mapuche
- Muisca
- Tupi
Here I put civilizations before the gunpowder era or civilizations who were landlocked
- Bulgarians (never use gunpowder ship before 19 th century)
- Burmese
- Ethiopians (landlocked country)
- Georgians (Georgia navy never use gunpowder ship before 1991)
- Gurjaras
- Khitans (if they build a navy this was a pre-gunpowder navy, they can also gain the Lou Chuan instead)
- Khmer (their apogee was before the gunpowder era)
- Lithuanians (landlocked country at this time)
- Magyars (landlocked country)
- Malians (western african never use gunpowder ship in middle age)
- Persians
- Poles (not a great naval power)
- Sicilians (pre-gunpowder civilization)
- Slavs (mostly a landlocked country)
- Tatars (mostly a pre-gunpowder civilization)
- Teutons (they fought many battle with the Hanseatic league but their main ship were the Hulk and the carrack)
- Vikings (pre-gunpowder civilization)
Potential civilizations with the new siege ship
- Bohemians (landlocked country but a gunpowder civilization)
Potential future civilizations
- Crusader states (Outremer)
- Saxon : from late antiquity to 12 th century, to late to use a dromon
- Serbian (pre-gunpowder civilization)
- Swiss : landlocked country
- Vlachs (romanian, landlocked country in the time of Vlad Tepes)
Potential future civilizations (can also gain Lou Chuan)
- Bai (can also gain Lou Chuan)
- Tangut (can also gain Lou Chuan)
- Tibetan (can also gain Lou Chuan)
Canon Galleon
Regional ship for gunpowder civilizations and civilizations who historically build gunship
- Bengalis (used naval power)
- Berbers (build gunship)
- Bohemians (can gain the new siege ship but are a gunpowder civilization so I put them here)
- Britons (build gunship)
- Burgundian (gunpowder civilization)
- Celts (The Scottish kingdom build the Great Michael in 1511 a real gunship)
- Dravidians (build gunship)
- Franks (build gunship)
- Hindustanis (gunpowder civilization)
- Italians (build gunship)
- Japanese (build gunship)
- Koreans (gunpowder civilization)
- Malay (used Cetbang cannon)
- Mongols (used chinese ships with gunpowder weapon)
- Portuguese (gunpowder civilization)
- Saracens (build gunship)
- Spanish (gunpowder civilization)
- Turks (gunpowder civilization)
- Vietnamese (build gunship, see here)
Potential future civilizations
- Albanian (mostly due to their ties with Venice)
- Papal states
- Venice
In case of civilization splitting
Celt
Cannon galleon : Scottish (they build the Great Michel)
New siege ship : Irish, Pict, Welsh
Spanish
Cannon galleon : Aragon, Castile
New siege ship : Navarre (a little kingdom without a big navy mostly mountain)