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Prince$s
In the spirit of my Rome Overhaul, I give you ideas for a new
==== United States of America ====
Before going into details, I must say that IMO it's impossible to make America overpowered, because it spawns the latest and thus can only affect the rest of the world in ways predetermined by the older powers. In this respect America is the opposite of Rome or China, who must be carefully balanced (like China) or brutally shut down (like Rome). America is a civ that allows practically unlimited creative freedom in its design - it is time to exercise that freedom more fully.
== Unique Power: The Power of Commercialism ==
Money Slider also counts as Culture Slider.
The old Immigrant UP can be kept as an extra hidden boost (and possibly generalized to South America) or discarded. It was mostly cosmetic, anyway. The new UP does several important things:
(1) It gives America a solution to its Happiness problem, right from the start. The lack of religions or Dynasticism will be less of an unbalanced hindrance. To further enhance this effect, (optionally) give America free Amphitheatres in all cities.
(2) It gives America a more elegant solution to its Culture problem. Late spawning civs require extra Culture boosts - the Thai have their UB, the Ottomans their UP, the Dutch their free buildings in Amsterdam. America needs something. This new UP won't lead to some small Arctic village becoming one of the top cities in the world. Instead, America's great commercial centers such as New York and Los Angeles will become top Cultural cities faster, just like they are IRL.
(3) It synergizes beautifully with Capitalism, since you would keep your Money Slider up in order to hurry things.
== Unique Unit: Militia ==
The manifestation of the Second Amendment that Americans are so proud of. Replaces Rifleman. It differs from regular Rifleman in several ways:
(1) It upgrades to Infantry, Marine, and Mechanized Infantry. This means you can build this unit till pretty much the end of the game, and then optionally upgrade them if necessary. This means you can partially replace
with 
, which synergizes with the new American UP and Capitalism/Free Market.
(2) It starts with free March Promotion. In early game, this represents the home field advantage the Americans had against the European colonial powers. In mid to late game, this replicates the old Navy Seal UU in a less overpowered form.
(3) It has no Unit Maintenance or Support costs. This represents how the Militia are ordinary citizens in peace time. In early game, this gives America an easier time financially to wage its War of Independence. In late game, this doesn't matter as America's economy will trivialize any unit costs anyway. Also in late game wars you will need to upgrade Militia into Marines or Infantry for them to be effective, which removes this cost benefit effect.
(4) It has -50% Hurry Production cost. This makes the unit easier to hurry with Capitalism, which further synergizes with the new American UP. In late (WWI and later) game, this represents America's frighteningly large Reserves.
(5) (Optionally) +25% City Defense. This only matters in early game (before Assembly Line), but would be a nice touch if it's needed for balance.
In general I feel this UU is carefully designed to represent both the Navy SEAL, the Minuteman, and America's famed Second Amendment and huge Reserve pool, and synergizes beautifully with Capitalism and the new UP.
== Unique Building: Mall ==
The current Mall is already very well-designed, so I will only make one small but important tweak:
Instead of +20%, it should give +15% and +15% 
.
The difference here is that comes from Cottages and Trade Routes only, whereas comes from those, but also Specialists and Corporations. I feel the bonus will make it more appealing for America to stay with Capitalism and Free Market, instead of a pure Specialist economy. I have not tested these percentage numbers so they may still need to be tweaked, but I think 15% of either would be noticeable but far from overpowered.
==== United States of America ====
Before going into details, I must say that IMO it's impossible to make America overpowered, because it spawns the latest and thus can only affect the rest of the world in ways predetermined by the older powers. In this respect America is the opposite of Rome or China, who must be carefully balanced (like China) or brutally shut down (like Rome). America is a civ that allows practically unlimited creative freedom in its design - it is time to exercise that freedom more fully.
== Unique Power: The Power of Commercialism ==
Money Slider also counts as Culture Slider.
The old Immigrant UP can be kept as an extra hidden boost (and possibly generalized to South America) or discarded. It was mostly cosmetic, anyway. The new UP does several important things:
(1) It gives America a solution to its Happiness problem, right from the start. The lack of religions or Dynasticism will be less of an unbalanced hindrance. To further enhance this effect, (optionally) give America free Amphitheatres in all cities.
(2) It gives America a more elegant solution to its Culture problem. Late spawning civs require extra Culture boosts - the Thai have their UB, the Ottomans their UP, the Dutch their free buildings in Amsterdam. America needs something. This new UP won't lead to some small Arctic village becoming one of the top cities in the world. Instead, America's great commercial centers such as New York and Los Angeles will become top Cultural cities faster, just like they are IRL.
(3) It synergizes beautifully with Capitalism, since you would keep your Money Slider up in order to hurry things.
== Unique Unit: Militia ==
The manifestation of the Second Amendment that Americans are so proud of. Replaces Rifleman. It differs from regular Rifleman in several ways:
(1) It upgrades to Infantry, Marine, and Mechanized Infantry. This means you can build this unit till pretty much the end of the game, and then optionally upgrade them if necessary. This means you can partially replace
with , which synergizes with the new American UP and Capitalism/Free Market.(2) It starts with free March Promotion. In early game, this represents the home field advantage the Americans had against the European colonial powers. In mid to late game, this replicates the old Navy Seal UU in a less overpowered form.
(3) It has no Unit Maintenance or Support costs. This represents how the Militia are ordinary citizens in peace time. In early game, this gives America an easier time financially to wage its War of Independence. In late game, this doesn't matter as America's economy will trivialize any unit costs anyway. Also in late game wars you will need to upgrade Militia into Marines or Infantry for them to be effective, which removes this cost benefit effect.
(4) It has -50% Hurry Production cost. This makes the unit easier to hurry with Capitalism, which further synergizes with the new American UP. In late (WWI and later) game, this represents America's frighteningly large Reserves.
(5) (Optionally) +25% City Defense. This only matters in early game (before Assembly Line), but would be a nice touch if it's needed for balance.
In general I feel this UU is carefully designed to represent both the Navy SEAL, the Minuteman, and America's famed Second Amendment and huge Reserve pool, and synergizes beautifully with Capitalism and the new UP.
== Unique Building: Mall ==
The current Mall is already very well-designed, so I will only make one small but important tweak:
Instead of +20%
, it should give +15% and +15% .The difference here is that
comes from Cottages and Trade Routes only, whereas comes from those, but also Specialists and Corporations. I feel the bonus will make it more appealing for America to stay with Capitalism and Free Market, instead of a pure Specialist economy. I have not tested these percentage numbers so they may still need to be tweaked, but I think 15% of either would be noticeable but far from overpowered.
, which already works great with the new Commercialism UP. Plus they also synergizes with Mall, so pretty much every Human player would build them anyway. We could make them explicitly part of the Wonder UHV, but in practice it won't make that much of a difference.
from the 
