Here’s a crazy idea: what if the conquistador was an Explorer replacement?
- conquistadors come too early right now, a bit anachronistic for IRL Spain
- They don’t cross deep ocean because it would be cheating if Spain got to do that with a strong land unit 2 techs early... but explorers come 1 tech later and they do that. It’s what they do.
- They currently give a free harbor on settle before harbours are even unlocked, but explorers unlock on the same tech as harbor
- They’re a little too good as just straightforward combat units right now, so they aren’t sent out to settle new colonies, they’re just stronger knights
- Outside of their settling ability, their unique promotions are extra vision that is lost on upgrade, and extra vision/defense on embark... it seems like this unit already just wants to be an explorer unit. People are just making hay on the bonus CS, and ignoring those bonuses, because they need to wait until astronomy to use them unless there is a nearby shallow island or it’s an archipelago map
- If they were explorers they could get the brute force, treasure hunter, and embarkation bonuses which are all very thematic.
- There are already loads of unique knights, but only 1 unique explorer.
- Their free buildings on found wouldn’t feel so situationally OP if it were only 1 tech before pioneers, rather than 2
You could keep the 4 moves, mounted status, and give them 22 CS (2 less than knight, but +5 over explorer) but give them all the scout line promotions and bonuses. They would still be okay in a fight, but they wouldn’t have access to the combat promotions. They would be more than enough power to cross the ocean to new lands, clear the “natives”, and found a new city there