Talk:Italians/@comment-24900905-20150816233103/@comment-26842175-20150817132324

15% discount on gunpowder units is decent. You don't get much more for other civs, unless they have a missing tech to balance. I don't think their naval bonus is as usefull as those of other civs, but they are better than an average civilization.

You might think Genoese Crosbowmen are not good vs. arbalests, but you might find yourself wrong. an FU arbalest needs 10 to kill an FU Genoese Crossbowmen, while Genoese Crossbowmen only need 8 shots to kill an arbalest. That makes up for the -1 range, even more since fighting enemy archers isn't the specialism. Their Cavalry bonus is invaluable.

The Condottieri is an unit that requires no extra upgrades, so if you don't like it, you can use the Champion.