4th poll : the best unique units ?

[darrelljs]

1. Cataphract
2. Praetorian
3. War Chariot

Darrell

[One_more_turn]

1. Praetorian
2. War Chariot
3. Cataphract

[Arrian]

I love War Chariots and Immortals. The beauty of a successful Immortal rush is having Darius' traits to consolidate your winnings. Hoo-ah*. But that's going beyond the unit. Putting that aside, Blake's argument that WC > Immortal is convincing.

I think both of those units belong in the top 3, or at least top 5. If you have horses, of courses.

In the no-resource required category, Quecha can be pretty useful. Skirmishers are solid. If you consider the very real possibility of having a resource-req UU and lacking the resource, those units could be deemed worthy of top-3 status.

Praets and the new-and-improved Phalanx are good too.

I have trouble seriously considering medieval or later units for something like this. The early ones just have such an edge.

-Arrian

* - my most recent game, on settings very close to those stipulated in the OP, was a MONSTER. Not only was I able to squish my closest neighbor (India - oh, so easy), but my other, distant neighbor. I trecked 5 immortals across a large expanse of jungle, fully expecting to find the Chinese had hooked up copper and prepared to fend me off with spears and of course PRO archers. No. They built Stonehenge, and thus had a total of 4 warriors to defend their two cities when I hit them. 2 civs, 4 cities... at the cost of I believe 1 or 2 dead immortals. The barbs were significantly more trouble (event-created 4 spears ). It was over so fast, in fact, that I failed to generate enough GG points to get a GG (28/30, IIRC). That was remedied much later via privateer.

Of course, given what happened in that game, WC's would've been even more effective, since I didn't fight a single AI archer (all warriors, which WC's are better at killing), and the WC's would've been slightly better against the barb spears. Still, given a massive (~40% of the world's land) continent to populate all by my onesies, ORG/FIN was key.

[Shrapnel12]

I haven't tried all the UUs, and I can't list three, but my favorite so far is definetly Praetorians. At the stage they come into the game, they are just far superior in strength to anything else. I've restarted a game already because the AI had these guys so quick.

[Arrian]

Praetorians are powerful and all, but I've never had huge success with them. Maybe it's the time required to reserach IW, hook up iron and pump out praets. Maybe it's the ubiquity of axemen. Maybe it's their 1 move/turn. Maybe it's my playstyle...

-Arrian

[Sabre2th]

While Praetorians are certainly powerful, I have a tendency to beeline for macemen once I have my early essentials down. The few times I've played as the Romans, they've had a fairly short shelf life. Of course, I tend to play shorter games; I'm sure they're much more effective in Epic/Marathon.


My personal favorites are:

Skirmisher: While not obscenely powerful or even terribly useful for a warmonger, they are a strong early unit and remain a relevant defender long past their intended era.
Keshik: Again, they're not overly powerful, but an early rush can be deadly and they're just so much fun...
Fast Worker: I've always been very much a builder type that only fights wars when necessary. The Fast Worker is the best way to guarantee that I actually receive a benefit from my UU.

Edit: I haven't really had much time to play with the BTS leaders/units and I never bought Warlords, so I can't really comment on those.

[Kataphraktoi]

1. Preatorian
2. Immortal
3. War Charriot

Originally posted by Blake
War Chariot - I think this is the single best UU in the game, no contest. It's a lot better than Immortals, because it can kill almost ANY unit for cost. War Chariot spam beats things like Swords and Horse Archers and even spears in the open. It's really head and shoulders above any other UU.

I had a bad feeling about war chariots ever since i was arguing with my buddies about then in one of our lan games. However i am still going to go with preatorians over war chariots, they are still the most descive unit around. After i get going on preats and catapults civ after civ after civ falls helplessly. Everthing that can stop them can be avoided, overcome, or catapulted to death. I see preatorians as so powerfull i try to avoid playing the romans because victory will be a given.

Regarding immortals versus war chariots;Its not just the UU that matters but the civ behind it, and Darius is better at utilizing those conquered cities. So i say the immortal is still better even though the war chariot fights better. And persians have scouts which can be huge

Fast workers became just another UU when chops were fixed

[MasterDave]

Conquistadors: 12 factor cavalry with defense bonus AND +50 vs. melee (effective if the Spaniards get a tech lead)

Praetorians: Well, duh.

Hwacha: These guys can really put a hurt on anceint era stacks and still be effective on macemen. Also they do not need metal.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
Regarding immortals versus war chariots;Its not just the UU that matters but the civ behind it,

this is precisely why id rank praetorians lower than #1- the roman UB is only so-so and neither leader has particularly good traits- more specifically, i feel like imperaliastic is a wasted trait. pre-bts however, this was not the case.

[LzPrst]

Lots of good units... I'd have to say

Praetorian is very good
War Chariot kicks butt!
Oromo Warrior. wicked!
Redcoats.
Janissary. got retarded neighbours? crush them with gunpowder.
Dog Soldiers, but mostly defensive. (try them vs Praets )

[realpolitic]

Praetorians - Swordsmen are the best nonUU of their era already, and having an early advantage is better than a late one. It's such an awsome unit, the only drawback is that the Romans aren't a creative civ, which makes a domiination victory harder, but I get such a nice advantage, it's noproblem to build Stonehenge.

[LzPrst]

(augustus - industrious)

[Croup]

1. Fast Worker
2. Phalanx
3. Conquistador

Fast Worker creates turn advantage, has longevity and is just all around useful in so many different ways. With all of the benefits the Fast Worker creates, there isn't a need for a strong military Indian UU.

Phalanx are kind of a personal favorite. An early Phalanx rush is just so easy to put together and Pericles is one of the few leaders (in my opinion) that can still pull a huge tech/expansion lead after putting together such a rush.

Conquistadors are always underrated because they aren't an ancient era UU. But if you make it to Guilds before everyone else, you can go on a conquest spree that no one will be able to stop for quite a while. Very strong unit.

[HoldSteady]

I'd like to put a good word in for the Dog Soldier. You get instant access to it after researching bronze working, but you don't need bronze to build it. Then you can start whipping them out real fast, and overwhelm close neighbours. The only drawback is that their 100% bonus against melee units does nothing with archers. Still, 4 Strength with the added 100% against other melee's makes sure you'll have a strong counter against other melee's up to to swordsmen, making it's longlivety not bad.
Another drawback could be encountering neighbours with a mounted UU. Since the Dog soldier replaces the spearmen, anything mounted will roll over your defences much easier.

[Arrian]

On a similar note, the Mayan Holkan has that advantage too. If you go for BW early and pump out a few of them, you can rush an opponent. They are immune to first strikes, which helps against archers, and (being spears) they can take city raider promos.

Hardly the power of war chariots, but not too shabby. Not top 3, though.

-Arrian