I think that if you play the Europeans civs like you used to, you are more or less screwed against Aztec/Sioux. The key to fighting against them will be the saloon. The Native Americans don’t have spies so they don’t have a hard counter against mercs. The natives can still focus fire on the mercs of course, or simply out mass them. Even so I think mercs will be very important when fighting against the natives.
It is very possible the saloon will actually improve balance between the European civs as well since civs with weak military, like Germans in age2 or Portugal in age3 will have a better chance now. Then again it is possible that a new combo like ronin/abus will completely screw with the balance.
[This message has been edited by MockHamill (edited 10-13-2006 @ 03:24 PM).]