The idea of a standard Mesoamerican Cannon Galleon is terrible; it’s far more practical to give the Mesoamerican civilizations a unique version of the Cannon Galleon - Mesoamerican Overhaul
Galleon itself.
THROWER GALLEON is a smaller, faster, and more agile variant of the CANNON GALLEON, designed to reflect the naval tactics of Mesoamerica. Which historically relied on large numbers of small canoes and watercraft for control of lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. This unit emphasizes speed and maneuverability over heavy firepower, capturing their style of swift, numerous vessels rather than large, heavily armed warships.
Both the AZTECS and MAYANS would have access to the THROWER GALLEON, reflecting their rich history of naval warfare on lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. Their reliance on swift, numerous watercraft for transportation and combat is embodied in this smaller, faster siege ship, emphasizing mobility and numbers rather than brute strength.
The INCA, lacking a significant naval tradition, would not have access to the THROWER GALLEON.
Stone Thrower Bombard Replacement.
STONE THROWER is a primitive siege weapon inspired by the AGE OF EMPIRES 1 unit of the same name. It launches stones that deal splash damage and can destroy trees in its path, but it’s a less powerful and less accurate version of the BOMBARD CANNON and would inherit the same weaknesses of the MANGONEL.
Regardless of the Water Overhaul’s outcome, granting the Mesoamerican civs the Cannon Galleon risks feature creep. The next logical question will be, 'Why don’t all civilizations now get the Bombard Cannon and Hand Cannoneer as well?
Atleast Stone Throwers for Mesoamerican, Ballastia for Romans, grants regional units that while not as effective as bombard forfill that niche with some regional being awful opposed to bombard would make more sense oppose to Cannon Galleon for Mesoamerican.
Because they don’t need them? They have trebuchet and archers to attack buildings and counter infantry, but what they don’t have at all is a siege ship.
Honestly, how do the devs manage to come up with more and more terrible things to add to the game??? The whole point of the meso civs was that they were supposed to be the civs that didn’t get gunpowder. And now they have cannon galleons??? Now that they are actually going to be implementing a Naval rework they seriously couldn’t come up with a more fitting Naval unit roster for the Meso Americans? Even the other new civs all have purpose built historically accurate naval units but the American civs are getting Cannon Galleons???
I want to say that’s the worst decision since X but I can’t think of a worse decision they made in the past. This is certainly a worse decision then adding the 3 Kingdoms for me personally.
I’d rather see them get the Lou Chuan then the Cannon Galleon.
While it wouldn’t be unreasonable to imagine them using stolen cannon galleons, the most historically accurate approach would be to give the Mesoamericans (and Africans too) a war canoe larger than the dragon ship, fast but weak and with lower HP.
In real life, the advantage of oar-driven boats is that they are more maneuverable than sail ship because they aren’t dependent on the wind (indeed, when the wind stops blowing, the sail ship can become a prison), and therefore more agile in warfare, especially on the coast. However, the obvious disadvantage is that their hull is weaker and requires a larger crew, which doesn’t exactly translate to greater firepower.
In the game, I imagine this translating into a transport boat that is truly fast enough to evade fire from towers, castles, and other ships depending on the player’s micro. It can also fire (perhaps depending on the number of units inside?), but if hit, it dies very quickly.
(I left out the obvious fact that canoes don’t sail the ocean for the simple reason that AoE2 was never accurate in this regard: most European ships didn’t sail the ocean until the late 15th century. Indeed, the game doesn’t portray naval warfare in general well, but if you’d like, I’ll explain more later.)
For multiplayer balance I can understand the change. In the campaigns they should still not have acces to it.
Lets hope that when there is an American DLC that they get their own ship, my suggestion would be a boat function similar as the Three Kingdom Fire Archer.
Why does everyone in always freak out about everything before its even been released? its only for the tournament. its probably just a placeholder to test until Meso+inca get their own regional water unit.