BALANCE ISSUE
Jaguar Warriors can 3 shot a 12 pop city attacking over the river (and it has so little hp after 2 attacks that I am certain they can 2 shot it when not attacking over the river). Plus I am afraid that defense penalty is not counterbalancing it, since iron for swordsmen is pretty sparse and spearmen and archers are not very effective even considering that penalty.
Looking at numbers:
Attacking:
Jaguar strength
vs. swordsman^ 42:35 = +7
vs. spearman 52*:25 = +27 (!)
vs. rider^^ 42:35 = +7
vs. archer 42:15 = +37 (I usually see my archers one shot by lone Jaguars)
vs. cataphract^ 42:39 = +3
Defending:
Jaguar strength Production ratio (Jaguar: X)
vs. swordsman^ 28:35 = -7 1:1
vs. spearman 38:25 = +13
vs. rider^^ 28:35 = -7 9:8
vs. archer 28:25** = +3
vs. cataphract^ 28:39 = -11 ~ 1:1,35
*Melee class bonus vs. anit-cav
**Ranged
^Requires Iron
^^Requires Horses
As you can see, you either need Horse resource for Riders to get a chance to get a fair fight or Iron for Swordsmen (but remember, Aztecs can and WILL spam Jaguars, in really amazing numbers) or for Cataphracts. Now Cataphracts require Iron, cost actually more production, get penalty vs anticav and are still effectively only 8 points stronger than Jaguars (Jaguars get +3 on offense and -11 on defense totaling -8).
In the cost category it should be considered that Jaguars can capture defeated units as Builders with 3 building charges, which effectively can make them pay off for their production just by attacking, which they are horrendously good at.
Also its worth consideration that of 3 units capable of countering Jaguars (and as I said all 3 of these come with setbacks) only Swordsmen recieve +4 bonus from Oligarchy.
My ideas for fixing the problem:
1) Lowering the bonus to 4, which with Oligarchy would still make for +8 offense/ - 3 defense.
2) Increasing the penalty to 10 or even more: this would empower archers and cav chases and require more tactical use;
3) Removing the ability to capture units as Builders;
4) Making them only purchasable by Gold or Faith (I mean both options, not one of these);
5) Changing their type to Heavy Cavalry (I know this may sound a bit crazy, but this actually suits their playstyle as chargers considering Heavy Cav promotion tree, would lower the difference between them and Spearmen with the latter still losing sorely and require strategic thinking ahead and consideration for finding Iron for further upgrade to Knights).
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