Worst (non-unique) Unit in BTS

[Jvstin]

Originally posted by couerdelion

The other one I was tempted to go for was the spy. I don’t know about everyone else but I find these to be expensive units and the cost benefit for their missions is quite limited. Standard units can pillage for free.

The value for spies in my games is to make it more expensive for the computer to use spies against me. (employing that mission to make missions against me cost more)

[TriMiro]

The popular opinion seems that the Explorers are the most useless unit. I play mostly on Pangae, so by the time the explorers come by, I already know all of the map, however, are they not useful on Terra maps, when exploring the "New World".

I play RFC a lot too and explorers are extremely useful when playing the Dutch and Portuguese.

[Iskandar Reza]

Originally posted by couerdelion
The other one I was tempted to go for was the spy. I don’t know about everyone else but I find these to be expensive units and the cost benefit for their missions is quite limited. Standard units can pillage for free.

When I use spies, I don't go for those missions. The ones that have most value for me are the ones that reduce the size of the rival city. Poison water supply + foment unhappiness. If you can destroy the granary as well, even better.

Paratroopers are also not as useless to me as it appears for others. I like to give them the Pinch promotion (because they almost always have to face gunpowder units) and use them as a distraction for the enemy. They will last long enough, and if I support then with bomber strikes on the enemy stack, they usually last the whole duration of the campaign because the AI seem to prefer attacking with a healthy unit.

A key concept of the game is making turn advantages for yourself. So it pays to reduce your rivals' turn advantage. That's where both spies and paratroopers can come into play.

[DaShi]

All the air units. I never use them and ignore them when the AI does. I don't even bother researching them. The internet will usually get them for me. Though I usually win by space, culture, or diplo; air units don't help with any of those.

[gwynnja]

Umm... longbowmen? Cannons? Why are they even on the list? Might as well put riflemen on there too, they're about as useless as longbowmen and cannons.

[EPW]

I put them on there because they are often skipped by human players.

[Wittlich]

Originally posted by EPW
I put them on there because they are often skipped by human players.

I see your point...but quite frankly, I often upgrade to them just on the principle that their further upgrades will, in the end, be cheaper than upgrading them from the basic unit....or am I wrong in this assumption?

[Boracks]

Explorers are the most useless, IMHO. I have occasionally built one or two to serve as city garrison as a quick cheap unit but that's about it.

Privateers I will build even when frigates are around. Even if all they do is sit in port until being upgraded to destroyers, then I have destroyers with +1 visibility which means they can see into other ports from outside the culture boundary.

Ironclads are good defense, and if you get the harbormaster quest taking nav I and prove the world is round, well, speed 4 ironclads are neat!

Oddly enough, I do have games where I don't build longbow. I prefer the archer upgrade path and crossbow.

Paratrooper? er, I think I built one once, never dropped anywhere. Maybe I'll try that some day...

[Garth Vader]

Originally posted by Wittlich


I see your point...but quite frankly, I often upgrade to them just on the principle that their further upgrades will, in the end, be cheaper than upgrading them from the basic unit....or am I wrong in this assumption?

I believe you are wrong. I think it is cheaper to go archer -> rifleman rather than archer -> longbow -> rifleman.