Conquistadores design in Civ7

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

What unit class should Conquistadores represented in Civ7 ? Or should they ever set foot in Civ7 as Spanish UU again?
A: Recon/Scout: Because they were all active outside Europe and Mediterraneans entirely.
B: Melee class as in Civ6: Again, active outside Europe particularly Continental Americas where natives didn't have any cavalry at all.
C: Light Cavalry as per Civ6 Civilopedia entry https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Conquistador_(Civ6)

The Spanish conquistadores (“conquerors”) were the soldier-explorers who colonized the world for Spain from the 14th through the 18th centuries. With the end of the Reconquista in 1492 AD, there were a lot of veteran Spanish soldiers at loose ends; luckily, shortly thereafter the Spanish discovered a New World, just ripe for conquest and conversion to Christianity (the latter actually did motivate some). The conquistadors would spread across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and even Oceania, exploring, exploiting, and even settling down in places. Drawn primarily from the ranks of light horsemen, the combination of European tactics, weapons, mounts, and ruthlessness meant most of the natives had little chance of defeating the conquistadors … and that small chance only due to sheer numbers (provided enough of them were willing to die). There is no doubt that without the likes of Cortes, Pizarro, de Balboa, de Soto and others chasing fortune, there would have been no globe-spanning empire.

Highlighted sentence implied that early conquistadores were once Ginettes (A kinda medieval lightcav originated from Iberian peninsular both in what's now Spain and Portugal, mentioned in Courser civilopedia entry as this unit also represents.) and definitely ventured in Continental America on horseback, and maybe even fought mounted and might dismount to fight as well depending on weapons choice they carry (and this included firearms as well)
D: Heavy Cavalry: Replacements of Knights and Cuirassiers in Civ 4 and 5 respectively, originally they began with heavy armor but humid climate in Middle and South American jungles eventually rendered heavy plate armor useless, and soon these chaps did learn Native armormaking craft and switched to light armor entirely.
E: Gunpowder / Firepower as in Humankind. (They did bring guns as well, though not many of them were arquebusiers but the most common elements were rodelero swordsmen)
Or should conquistadores ever return as Spanish UU ?
F: Nah! Spain can have other UUs which were more universal (Personally i'm lean on the Tercio which were the beginnins of Pike&Shot. Firepower class because no swordsmen can even touch them nor any cavalry without significant mounted shooting techniques could do anything against them. Spanish Tercio Square were a role model both as weapons loadout and as tactics as no copycats have any fair chance to defeat them on equal terms until much later with Linear Infantry concepts were concieved with musketry elements of Pike&Shots).
G: Spain isn't the only users!

If Conquistadores did return. should they also have religious conquests ability?

 

[BuchiTaton]

A: Recon/Scout: Because they were all active outside Europe and Mediterraneans entirely.

A. Scout, it is. The whole point of Conquistadores was to discover, claim and conquer land in the name of Spain gaining small feuds (Encomiendas) for themselves.
One problem when people ask "how should be X civ this time" is that we should not think in the civ as isolated elements but part of the whole set of civs. Spain is synonymous of "Conquest of the New Lands", found a new land, conquest and conversion. There are no other civ that would have a better use for and unique scout as Spain have.

B: Melee class as in Civ6: Again, active outside Europe particularly Continental Americas where natives didn't have any cavalry at all.
C: Light Cavalry as per Civ6 Civilopedia entry https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Conquistador_(Civ6)

There are a lot of civs that could use melee, light class class UU, while also lack the autonomy of proper scouts.

D: Heavy Cavalry: Replacements of Knights and Cuirassiers in Civ 4 and 5 respectively, originally they began with heavy armor but humid climate in Middle and South American jungles eventually rendered heavy plate armor useless, and soon these chaps did learn Native armormaking craft and switched to light armor entirely.

Conquistadors should not be heavy cavalry, the warfare they faced made the use of heavy cavalry not just unnecesary but even counterproductive.

E: Gunpowder / Firepower as in Humankind. (They did bring guns as well, though not many of them were arquebusiers but the most common elements were rodelero swordsmen)

The use of gunpowder by Conquistadores is overrated (same about steel armor), the use of crossbows was way more relevant and efficient.

Or should conquistadores ever return as Spanish UU ?

Spanish is now the second language with more native speakers, covering basically a whole continent, and added most of the current catholics in the world, all of these as direct result of Conquistadores actions.
Conquistadores as unique scouts have the best synergy with the whole concept of "explore, conquer and convert" civ.

F: Nah! Spain can have other UUs which were more universal (Personally i'm lean on the Tercio which were the beginnins of Pike&Shot. Firepower class because no swordsmen can even touch them nor any cavalry without significant mounted shooting techniques could do anything against them. Spanish Tercio Square were a role model both as weapons loadout and as tactics as no copycats have any fair chance to defeat them on equal terms until much later with Linear Infantry concepts were concieved with musketry elements of Pike&Shots).

An Early Modern Anti Cavalry UU, like should be Swiss Reisläufer. Tercio is and infantry unit that fit in an Imperial/Religious European Wars design but there are a lot of civs that could use that like Bohemia, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, etc. There is not need to waste the actually unique classic Spanish role just for the sake of "change", specialy when that other design could be used by other civs.

If Conquistadores did return. should they also have religious conquests ability?

The ability to recruit native units from "barbarians" and CS is a pretty historical alternative.

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

The ability to recruit native units from "barbarians" and CS is a pretty historical alternative.

I would definitely favor interactions with City-States or their successors to represent the reliance on regional powers by Cortés, for instance. In the current iteration, two ideas of how it could look include levying forces from each CS a Conquistador meets or accruing a delegate advantage.