[2023] Bring Navalons back

I know I’m not the only one that is bummed about Elyrions Navalons being gone. So here is an idea I just had:

Since now Giants immediately turn into a Juggernaut on water and juggernauts now become a melee ship option, Elyrion is missing out on this due to not having giants.

So here me out. What if Elyrion gets to choose once they buy sailing. Whenever they upgrade a city with at least one adjacent water tile and they choose super unit let them have the option between taking an egg or a Navalon.

That way Navalons become Elyrions special kind of juggernaut, just with 30 HP and the ability to chain attacks instead of an aoe.

It’s also a fair trade of since Elyrion would have to miss out on one extra Dragon later on per Navalon. Essentially making this an interesting choice. I don’t think that it would massively buff Elyrion, just giving them an option back they lost.

And we Elyrion players could keep our Navalons like that. So what do you guys think? Would that be balanced?

Edit: To clarify, right now a giant battleship needs a giant, three techs and 20 Stars to make. A Navalon needs only two techs tans 5 stars to make. And Elyrion gets the Navalon on top of getting dragons.

With my idea now giant „battleships“ (juggernauts) only cost one tech (sailing) and no stars. Same now with navalons , they would also only cost one tech and no stars (apart from the stars for leveling the city of course). But now Elyrion has to choose between Dragon or Navalon.

Also, Elyrion would only have the choice once they learn sailing, and only on city’s directly adjacent to water (to prevent landlocking a Navalon).