Scaramanga
Brickhead
Don't mean to pick at your post specifically bud .
Let's agree that unique factors are not more powerful than each other but just situational and flavourful .
And if you are on a pangea your unique units will own so it all balances out.
Well, any time there are differences, there is zero-percent-chance that they'll be perfectly balanced. All I'm saying is that some of the UU's are more powerful than others, some of the UA's are more powerful than others, etc. But when you look at a civ, you can't just determine their relative effectiveness based on only one aspect of their unique properties. Also, an individual's playstyle (including/especially the victory condition they tend to go for) will cause the balance to change for each individual player. Bottom line is that we're all speculating til we get to play the game. I was just repeating what the people who are making the game are saying.
Let's agree that unique factors are not more powerful than each other but just situational and flavourful .
Edit:How about this as a speculative scenario: ships are really expensive and take a long time to build, so getting free naval units is extremely beneficial. Also, barbs are present much later in the game than in previous Civ's, therefore the Ottomans' opportunity to gain free naval units extends into the Industrial era or later. This would allow the Ottomans to field a much larger navy than they otherwise would. So long as you're not playing on a pangea map, I can see this being a very nice ability.
And if you are on a pangea your unique units will own so it all balances out.