So, I've been playing some heavy ransack runs recently, trying to pick a culture that has ransack bonuses in each era, and I just noticed the Spanish as a potential pick. Honestly I've overlooked them before, at a first glance, let's be honest, they seem absolute trash. Their unique building is faith based, so it's pretty much automatically in the trash tier, it doesn't even give influence or any side-resource to make it viable, their empire bonus has great synergy with being an expansionist culture - being able to move into enemy territory before declaring war and attacking - it's only +3 strength, it's not that big of a deal. However there's also their unique unit and oh my goodness it's a doozy.

They are unlocked at the same tech as Arquebusiers, they have 4 higher base combat strength, they gain gold from winning battles and extra gold from ransacking AND they don't have the restriction of not being able to move and attack in the same turn! Something that even the higher tier unit, the rifleman cannot do. In fact this ability is not unlocked until carbines and/or line formation in the next era!

I don't know if this is just an oversight from when they added this move or attack restriction to early gunpowder units and just forgot to add it to the Spanish unique unit or not, but this is SO powerful. You can retreat wounded units and be able to attack still, you can reform your line of sight so all your units get to hit where you want them to. You can move your units to get optimized combat strength from unit adjacency. Being able to move and attack in one turn is great, but being able to do it when nobody else can is amazing!

Honestly I don't know how balanced this is, they're a bit like the Huns or Mongols in earlier eras in that their unique unit is amazing, but everything else is kinda trash, so it's all or nothing. You can smash neighbors with it really well, however you WILL fall behind other cultures if you're not conquering cities. Is that healthy for the game? I dunno, but taking it away would make the culture virtually unusable, so if this was an oversight and they're not meant to have this ability, then I sincerely hope they get some massive buffs in other areas, like gaining some sort of resource from faith would make their emblematic district not suck.

Aeram wrote:
PS : I tought about it but forgot to mention it, the Polish have a simular bonker thing with the winged hussards, which are terrifying. It's a melee cavalery unit that do not take damage when charging / attacking, not sure. So the peculiarity of the Conquistador is, I hope, made willingly.

Yeah the winged hussars are pretty brutal too, they're essentially this pseudo-ranged unit where charging makes you not take damage, which gives you a massive bonus for attacking first. The problem is, the AI often attacks first because of their reaction time.

RedSirus wrote:

Ottoman Jannisaries and Haudenosaunee Rotiskenrakehte have similar benefits of being early Gunner units with unique traits that aren't stymied by the "Move or Attack" feature.  Janissaries are also top-notch.

The Rotiskenrakehte, unfortunately, are a little sub-par.  I was looking forward to using them, but they come at the end of the era, with Flintlock, and so can be replaced by the Partisans pretty quickly.  I'd love for the Rotiskenrakehte to also appear near the start of the era, with Gunpowder Warfare, the way that Janissaries and Conquistadores do, so we can appreciate the stealthy warfare with the Haudenosaunee during their era instead of in a thin slice of the industrial era.  They're also a much lower Combat Strength than the others, feeling more balanced with start-of-era than end-of-era.

I don't know about Jannisaries never tried them, but Rotiskenrakehte are stealth gunners that require further tech.

Melliores wrote:
They have a base Combat strength of 43 and you add +3 due to the Spanish Legacy trait when fighting in foreign territory. Line infantry have base Combat strength of 47.

However Conquistadors are 3 times cheaper to build and cost 20 less gold to maintain per turn. They also have a higher speed (5 compared to 4) than Line infantry.

This is why I thought it was not intentional. The unit is SO good that it's equivalent or better than the base unit an era behind and multiple techs away.

It was intentional and that makes Both the Spanish and the Ottomans (jannissaries work like conquistadors) some of the best warmongers in the era. Winged Jussara are nice too but the fact that cannot Cross walls is a bummer.