I have to admit, that I find it good, that in Civ 6 the unique boni arent the same as in Civ 5 or 4. So we dont get the floating gardens again, instead that playground, like not having again the cho ko nu instead that tiger canon or not having the man of war/ship of line instead the sea dog etc.
But there are some question regarding the new UU of the aztec. Will be the unique ability carried over to the upgrade, so you have swordsmen who enslave defeated enemies? Or will that "promotion"/"ability" get lost like the ability of the roman legions to construct roads and forts in civ 5 after upgrading them to longswordmen?
I assume, that ability will be lost, because the aztec have already a combat bonus which will get higher during the game depending on how successfully they can expand their empire.
I think the best advantage of the eagle warrior will be to defeat the new barbarians to enslave them to push your infrastructure. Maybe they will be usefull against one or two neighbour civs, but I think mostly they will be used against the barbarians.
The biggest question of the usefullness of that ability is still, how likely will it be in civ 6 that you can capture enemy builders or builders of city state. I think in most cases, the builder will have lost at least one charge, because when they are finished in the early game, you can instantly pop up one improvement at least. So the aztec seem to get a big advantage in early wars even if they dont conquer at that time of the game, they can pillage and buff their own infrastructure.
But there is another question. If I have the aztec as my first neighbour, can I abuse their eagle warriors depending on the AI patterns?
F.e.: Rushing some units, declaring war on them, pillaging their early fast districts and baiting the AI to attack and kill damaged units, so I can capture the new created builders? I see that possibility, but I can only speculate if it will be realistic to achieve that.
Also, fighting the aztec early isnt that scary anymore imo. The Jaguar Warrior were one of the strongest early game units, as a player in civ 5, you wanted to get as many as possible online, maybe even with the heroic epic national wonder buff, and then upgrade and train them throughout the game to elite troops. The forest/jungle bonus was good, especially in most cases the aztec had those tiles around them in the most starting positions. But more importantly the selfheal after defeating an enemy was immense, only the Janissaries were more potent then the Jaguar Warriors.
That said, now the aztec depend on owned and improved luxury ressources. We dont know how exactly the movement system got reworked, but civs with early cavalry might be in a good position to defend themselves, they just have to pillage those improvements to cut off the Aztecs of their advantage.
But I also see the snowball possibility. If you get lucky and find quite a few luxuries around your start and can use them to expand (aggressivly) and continue that path, you will always have a certain advantage over others when you reach a point, where a lot of those ressources are save in your home country and you just can increase that bonus with further conquests.
And regarding that those new amenities are the new limiter for expansion, the Aztec's playstyle and UB will be the solution to counter that and increase further grow.
Even the ability to rush districts can get used to push the aztec further. I think the encampment will be available quite early, so you can rush its building process and train better eagle warriors or other soldiers earlier then your opponents might be able to.
A lot of question, cant wait to see how the mechanics actually work out and if those early thoughts can get reality.
Ballcourt is fine but doesn't scream Aztec to me like floating gardens or something with culture.
