I love this non-conformist approach, others wouldn’t dare to touch Mayans in this manner.
Let me sharpen this point and perhaps help you adjust it further more.
- Discounted unit DOESN’T necessarily have to be weaker - Yes, Huns CA, Berbers not-Paladin-Cavalier, Goths Infantry, Malay Elephant, it’s very appealing and convinient way to balance thing, but do not fall to this methodical over-simplified way to design a civ, Byzantines Skirms, Magyars Hussar, Slavs Siege, and Mayans Archers of course, all legitimate workable designs.
- Elite Plumes must have 6 Pierce Armor - Design wise Plumed is a CA, worse stats, yet cheaper price, with the additional benefit of lacking “cavalry armor type”. It must be efficient engaging bigger numbers of Arbalesters, just like CA that have 6 pierce armor, besides that it would differentiate their Unique Unit from the regular Archer-line even more.
- Do not forget Mayans is a meso civ, and therefore must have a powerspike to play with - All meso civs lack Hussar and BBC which makes them awful as game progress towards to no-gold post-Imp phase, they need a tool to finish the game earlier, to get enough advantage to bring the enemy to a defeat, so it’s a little bit edgy trying to sand-down this Arbs powerspike though doable. Vikings are also a “meso-civ” conceptually (minus the Eagles) yet Devs did the same kinda with the Thumbring, which was a great idea. Armor has less impact than damage offensively.
- Mayans Skirmishers need to be addresssed - Their UT is already quite bad, more of a gimmick rather than an actual buff, it pretty much just gives +1 damage, I’d adjust it a little, making Skirmishers shoot 3 projectiles/spears rather than 2. As mentioned, meso late-game is already bad to begin with, it won’t be OP by any more, especially when lacking BBC to form any sort of a death-ball.
- Mayans eco and meta driven design is what makes them broken - rather than their late-game supiriority. As you mention its the early game where they shine, having 1 extra vill, 15% more resources which means mostly Boars and Deer (which is tons), and their cheap Archers. The only way to solve this one for good is to address the meta, we’re currently having the narrowest most single dimensional meta we’ve ever had, some civs simply benefit from it. To fix this phenomena you’d first need to change Arabia relatively back to what it was during AOC times. Check my post regarding this subject.
Overall I really like this change, much less impactful and edge than Vikings one, but definitely a great step towards a balanced civ pool, we have to start nerfing OP civs rather than buffing desperately weaker civs. You deal here with identity, diversity and playability which is just the right approach when balancing/designing a civ. Well Done.