Since the Slinger is being turned into a regional unit shared by all South American civilizations, introducing a new unit line and appropriate reskins would be a sensible approach.
Muisca, Mapuche, and Tupi could have access to the standard Feudal and Castle Age Slinger line, each using culturally distinct 3D models to reflect their identities. This preserves regional consistency while avoiding visual overlap with the Inca.
The Incas, on the other hand, could receive an exclusive Imperial Age upgrade: the Elite/Imperial Slinger. Since the Incas would lose their historical exclusivity over the Slinger, this unique late-game upgrade would serve as a fair and elegant form of compensation.
The Imperial Slinger would retain the current Inca visual design, including the Inca shield (Hualcana), clearly reinforcing its cultural origin and prestige. Functionally, this would allow the Incas to maintain a distinctive power spike in the Imperial Age.
This solution balances gameplay, preserves historical flavor, and ensures that regional unit sharing does not come at the cost of clear civilization identity.
Nope. Seeing Mapuche or Muisca Slingers carrying an Inca shield would be historically inaccurate and visually misleading.
There is already a clear precedent for handling this kind of situation in Age of Empires II. When the Eagle Scout line was introduced, Forgotten Empires solved a similar problem by reskinning the Elite Eagle Warrior to preserve cultural accuracy across civilizations. The same design philosophy should apply here.
The correct solution would be to introduce a new Slinger unit line for Feudal and Castle Ages, shared by South American civilizations such as the Mapuche, Muisca, and Tupi, each with culturally appropriate models. Then, in the Imperial Age, the Incas would receive an exclusive upgrade, the Imperial Slinger, with its own stats and visuals.
This approach mirrors existing mechanics like the Savar or the Imperial Camel Rider:
A shared base unit line across multiple civilizations
A civilization-exclusive Imperial upgrade
Distinct visuals to reinforce identity and historical context
The Imperial Slinger would retain the current Inca model, including the Hualcana (Inca shield), clearly marking it as an Inca-specific elite unit rather than a generic regional one.
This preserves historical accuracy, follows established AoE II design patterns, and compensates the Incas for losing their former exclusivity over the Slinger, without creating visual or thematic inconsistencies.
Who are you? You disappeared for like 3 years and come back and suddenly spam a bunch of fake high effott posts like asking for iron resources and awful civ lineups for a conqs style expansion and dragons and wizards!?
Chill out! You’re gonna bloat the boards with stuff that isnt worth talking about
Accurate in what sense? You described your proposal as a “solution” at least twice, but as far as I can tell you never explain what you think the problem is. Your proposal would significantly alter the gameplay of Inca slingers, but there’s no gameplay-based justification for it.
First of all, by turning the Slinger into a regional unit, the Incas effectively lose a Unique Unit. This means that all South American civilizations would gain access to a ranged unit that counters infantry, creating a clear case of power creep if not handled carefully.
A regional Slinger unit line would address this issue gradually rather than abruptly. From the Feudal to the Castle Age, the Slinger would function primarily as an anti-cavalry ranged unit, limiting its effectiveness against infantry and preventing early-game overlap with existing unit roles.
In the Imperial Age, the Incas would then receive an exclusive upgrade: the Imperial Slinger, restoring their status as a civilization with two Unique Units. This Imperial variant would offer a stronger and more flexible response against both infantry and cavalry, providing a meaningful late-game power spike without affecting earlier balance.
Crucially, the Imperial Slinger would retain the distinct Inca visual identity, including its unique aesthetics, ensuring that the unit remains clearly identifiable and culturally accurate.
This structure:
Prevents early and mid-game power creep
Preserves regional unit sharing
Restores Inca uniqueness in the late game
Follows established precedents like the Savar and Imperial Camel Rider
Overall, it’s a clean, scalable solution that balances gameplay while respecting historical and visual identity.
As far as we know, Inca slingers will remain the same, so there’s no power creep there. We don’t know anything about how powerful the new civs are, so no reason to expect power creep there either.
So your suggestion is actually a clear buff to Incas, because they would get access to slingers in Feudal Age, get a more powerful slinger in Imperial Age, and slingers would now counter cavalry. It would increase power creep, not avoid it. Honestly, it sounds like you don’t know what power creep is.
Also, Incas have plenty of anti-cavalry options already – they don’t need another.
Nope, increases power creep, as explained above.
Sure, but so does all four South American civs getting slingers as they are now.
Sort of, I guess. I don’t think it’s important for every civ to have two unique units (in fact, I think the devs have been going overboard with that recently) and I don’t think Incas lack uniqueness.
Sure, but all four South American civs having slingers also follows established precedents.
Yes, we have very little idea what the new civs will be like, or how much of a buff the changes to Incas will be. Based on past experience, probably the new civs will be unbalanced on release, but currently we have no reason to think they’ll be overpowered.
