Papal units should be slightly buffed versions of non-Papal counterparts, not something totally different or standalone. Their stats should be equivalent to their non-Papal versions, and the differences would be limited to appearance, charged abilities, and population requirement (reduced since they are slow to train). They should also actually be units related to the Papacy, and not just random units with Papal slapped in front of their name.
Papal Zouave / Zouave
This unit has a clear non-Papal counterpart, but confusingly, the stats are wildly different. To limit confusion, these units should be kept very similar. At most, the difference should be that the Papal version takes up a little less population space and also has the deflect ability.
Papal Guard / Swiss Guard
Pontifical Swiss Guards weren’t the only Swiss Guards, there were Swiss Guards employed across Europe. The Swiss Guards were committed defenders even to the point of being massacred at the Tuileries Palace so they should definitely keep the deflection ability. They could also replace Royal Horsemen as the unit thats enabled and shipped after researching the Maison du Roi Bourbon technology. It would eliminate the confusion of having a “Royal ____” that isn’t actually a royal house unit.
Swiss Pikemen should have greater reach or something like a Push of Pike charged ability to make them more distinct from Swiss Guards and avoid getting them mixed up.
Papal Lancer / Elmetto Lancer
The Elmetto and Papal Lancer are historically the same thing, with both being based off the Italian Lancia military unit. Elmetto refers to the head lancer (literally helmet), while the Papal Lancer was a variant from the Papal States.
These two units should be more converged, with the Papal Lancer having equivalent stats and cost, but a lower population requirement and the deflection ability. Elmetto should be renamed ‘Elmetto Lancer’ to better convey its role, and also have the lance charge ability by default.
It would also be helpful to have a tag for all the lancer type units.
Papal Bombard / Bronze Bombard
This unit is not available at the Basilica and there isn’t realy a connection between the Papal states and bombards so it’s odd that it would have the “Papal” qualifier. The only connection I can think of is the history of church bells being melted down into cannons during periods of war. These cannons should be called Bronze Bombard to begin with and only gain the “Papal Bombard” name if the Papal Arsenal card is sent.
The deflection ability is also really useless on a heavy artillery unit. Most of the time this is the artillery unit you want to be protecting, not the other way around.
Priests and Spies
These units should probably just be trained normally or should at least arrive very fast. They aren’t high enough value to justify clogging up the shipment queue.
Schiavone
Schiavone aren’t connected to the Papacy at all and they don’t make any sense as a Basilica unit. It seems like they were originally intended to be a standard unit but were too strong and/or cluttered the unit roster too much so they got crammed into the Basilica to prevent them causing problems.
Shiavone were recruited from the Stato da Màr so having them limited to being trained from Forts and Galleasses would make the most sense. Another possibility would be to “ship” them from the Capitol in a similar manner to the Basilica. Other special units could also be shipped from the Capitol in this manner (Rangers, Spahi, Nizams, Magyar Hussar, etc).