It sounds like what's "useless" depends on your playing style. For me, as a peace-loving democratic leader, many war-making units are useless -- in that I won't use them. I even -- here comes heresy -- prefer destroyers to ironclads, because I'm rarely at war at that point in the game but I am exploring; EST's point about destroyers and the fog of war is a good one.
That being said, my nominee for useless unit is the partisan (useless to build, of course; I love the NON partisan). By the time you get it, you should be able to build stronger offensive units, stronger defensive units, and negotiate zones of control in other ways. The one circumstance in which it could be useful seems so specific (trying to move through a mountain range filled with other civs' units) that it hardly seems to qualify an a use. In second place is the legion, for much the same reason: everything it can do, another contemporary unit can do better.
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Dig trenches, with our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made. Here, run out and get some trenches.
-- Rufus T. Firefly, the original rush-builder
That being said, my nominee for useless unit is the partisan (useless to build, of course; I love the NON partisan). By the time you get it, you should be able to build stronger offensive units, stronger defensive units, and negotiate zones of control in other ways. The one circumstance in which it could be useful seems so specific (trying to move through a mountain range filled with other civs' units) that it hardly seems to qualify an a use. In second place is the legion, for much the same reason: everything it can do, another contemporary unit can do better.
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Dig trenches, with our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made. Here, run out and get some trenches.
-- Rufus T. Firefly, the original rush-builder
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