Umm, Jaguar warriors?`This has to be a bug right?

[Thalassicus]

Colour me happy that Praetorians were toned down a bit.

Considering that they're a combination of axemen, swordsmen, and spearmen all in one unit, the slightly higher unit cost certainly is reasonable

 

[Frostyboy]

Iron is much stronger than bronze and stone

Actually, no. Bronze is stronger, but copper got more scarce after depleting sources (this is also mentioned in Civ4)

 

[rabottens]

In a tropical world Jags come out nicely. Always opt some combined arms and it will help support a Jag rush. Limited resources: field the best army you can. If you can't capture a city you can at least pillage to the point of pain and suffering.

 

[Dracleath]

The new patch is better, I still think though that anyone seriously considering iron to be a huge advantage has never simply built a worker first and dropped their second city directly on an iron deposit. You can have axes, swords or praets out easilly immediately after iron working, and not only that but you can chop them up from your second city if there are forests to give you time to get the wheel if you didn't start with it and road to your first city.

In MP everyone goes to bronzeworking to get chops and axes anyway, its rather simple if you start with mining (and guess who starts with mining?).

I think praets should be 50 or so but their power now in mp is masked by anyone who knows what they're doing getting an axer or two in every city. Same with Jags really. Even at 35 axes are still a better deal for montezuma to build to rush.

IMHO now a balanced early melee setup to go to would be:

axes drop to strength 4, bonus vs melee goes up to +85%
Jaguar warriors, spearmen, and swordsmen stay as is.
Praets increase in price to 50 or drop in strength to 7. (remember macemen still cost 70 for the same strength, and war elephants cost 60.)


Oh and of course being able to build regular swordsmen as the aztecs wouldn't hurt either.