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The overall picture: What applies to all minor natives

There are some advantages and disadvantages which apply to every minor native group, and the purpose of this section is to bring up a few points to keep in mind whenever considering a strategy based around minor natives.

This is excluding the benefits that are more individualized depending on the group; such as which unit/s they have, and what technologies they have available - but I mention it here because you need to be mindful of these things when you factor in your decision of whether you build a minor native trade post or not.

Advantages

1. You get special naval units when you ally with any minor native

Of all the uses minor natives have, this is probably the most commonly used one. On the American maps when either an Asian or European civilization controls a Native American trade post, their docks gain the ability to train canoes (Native American civilizations already start with this ability). Canoes are strangely more cost effective than standard European ships without any upgrades. Canoes really allow you to control the water against an opponent who uses standard ships, due to how powerful they are for their cost.

The Asian maps are a bit of a different story. Out of the Asian standard maps that have water you have Borneo, Indochina and Yellow River. On Borneo and Indochina you get access to the Marathan Catamaran, which isn’t as effective as the canoe, but it can train Marathan Decoits and Orangutan units. On Yellow River however you get access to Wokou Junk, which aren’t very competitive against standard ships at all for their expensive cost, but they too can train Orangutans.

2. The cards that apply to the minor natives are usually significantly stronger than similar cards

While some civilizations like the French and Iroquois have additional cards, every civilization has cards that can aid Native warriors - and usually these cards are far stronger than the standard for the civilization. For example, every European and Native American civilization gets access to the cheaper native warriors card, which decreases the price of all native warriors by 30%. Very few other cards can help you this much, and it means they pay off much sooner.

3. Minor native units do not take up any population

This advantage is rather underrated in some cases. In the early game this can be significant, because say if you have 10 Inca Huaminca instead of say 10 Pikeman, as a rough example you would save on wood costs for the house the Pikeman would need. Alternatively, if you come under attack suddenly and you can’t build units because you haven’t got enough houses, you can resort to using minor natives that can be trained regardless of your population status. Obviously this bonus is only valuable to the Sioux civilization at the end of the game when they hit the maximum population limits.

4. Minor natives train faster

Minor native units usually train faster than standard units. There are a few exceptions however, but I do list the train time of each minor native in seconds in the second part of the guide. 10 seconds here and there might not mean much but it is particularly useful when you are under attack, especially if you combine that with the fact they don’t cost you anything in population.

5. You can build trading posts in the Discovery Age

Even though your opponent might know when you have the trading post you can still attempt to attack them very early with the units you get. Because you can build the trading post in the discovery age, you can start training military units the instant you hit colonial - and again this combines with faster native training times. You can use this advantage in an attempt to force your opponent's villagers to hide in the town center, and then retreat once you’ve achieved this. You can sometimes effectively stall their economy a bit, or possibly even kill a few villagers while they wait for their military units to arrive. For civilizations that can build Blockhouses and War huts in the discovery age this isn’t as a significant advantage but it could still be used as an alternative.

Disadvantages

There are a few problems when you do decide to use minor natives. Some are small, but others can be very significant depending on the progress of the game. It isn’t to say you shouldn’t use them because of these setbacks, but you do need to factor these things into your decision to use them. While the benefits (depending on the group) can outweigh the flaws, you still need to be careful investing resources into these.

1. Trade posts can be poorly located

Unlike a barracks or stable, you can’t choose where this building is placed. This means they can be problematic to defend. In addition, unless you pay another 100 wood for a native embassy, you can only train native units from that location (and Asian civilizations cannot build a native embassy).

2. A hero unit is almost certainly required to build a trade post

This is one can be a real problem for some civilizations early in the game, and it is always a problem for the Native American civilizations. Time spent building the trading post can’t be spent exploring or gathering treasures - or, in the case of the Native civilizations, their War Chiefs can’t be used to support their army unless they are also located near the trade post. A villager usually takes far too long to build the trading post, and this means that you need to have your hero unit alive to realistically use minor natives.

3. Your opponent knows you have built a native trade post

This is a very significant flaw when using Minor natives in the early game, where resources are scarce and having even a tiny idea where your opponent has dedicated their resources can be a strong advantage. When you build a minor native trade post (or any trade post) a yellow arrow symbol appears over the name of your team. This gives your opponent automatic knowledge that you have a native post, and because it isn’t hard to figure out where the native trade post, is you do lose a large element of surprise.

4. Native trade posts are more expensive than barracks or stables

Although it is true you don’t have to pay for housing costs when you use minor natives, you do have to pay slightly more to construct the trade post in the first place - unless you send a card such as advanced trading post.

5. There is a limit to the amount you can train

Of course there has to be a limit to the amount of population-free units you can have, but this limit can be rather annoying and it can force you to construct a stable, barracks or another trading post just to get additional troops of the type of unit that the minor natives were providing for you.