The most important unit

[ramses II.]

What's the most important, most powerful unit?
The settler. And the caravan. Or vice versa.
What do you think about that?

[Scouse Gits]

I think I might go for Caravan & Diplo - but it is close

[shade]

Spy's have quite some power and they are reusable(vs diplo)

(settlers are just very much needed for developement and polution counteracting.)

Shade

[War4ever]

settlers to get your cities down....
diplos for "missions"
caravans to make your empire rich....
spies to continue your "missions"

[Smash]

well,you won't get far without some settlers but I would go with the mighty camel.They get the nod over dips as I can control things more with camels.If I'm using dips that means I am lagging most likely.And if you(the other guys) don't have any tech,the diplomat science program doesn't work.
Dips/spys would be very close second.Even first in some situations.

[monolith94]

Without the settler, you could never expand, making it the most important unit.

Now, in the end game, I'd give that title to mech. infantry. God I love them. Combined with SDI, City walls, Missle defense, coastal, etc... I can make nearly any city impenetrable!

[atawa]

Without doubt its Spies.

From a cost/benifit point of view, they are brilliant

[Messer Niccolò]

Camel (and the 4 wheeled camel version of later stages) - it is the key to become "THE Civ".
Diplos (and the breasted version of later stages) - to mantain your "THE Civ" status.

Settlers of course are the Civ

[ColdWizard]

camels

you can do OCC without settlers, but i don't think you can pull it off without caravans

[Heresson]

Settler....
and howitzer!

[dunk]

Definately spies.

It's very very easy to buy entire civilizations with spies in a Fundamentalist government. The only city you need to attack is the capital. And even then, use a bunch of spies to knock down the walls before you do. With diplomats it's tough to destroy walls since they are used up and don't get to choose a target like the spy. Plus, all the units are still in the city you buy. No need to garrison.

I don't need many settlers... maybe on Deity. I will buy almost the entire map.

Caravans / Freight are good for rushing wonders, but nowhere as important as spies.

Howitzers are only important if the civ you're fighting is a democracy... otherwise you can buy their cities with spies.

Love those spies. And so shapely.

[Pavlov]

Pah! What can possibly beat the heart-attacks you get when yet another trireme sinks because the captain is drunk or something.

Sure, the spy and the settler are effective but as for entertainment: the trireme.

Plus it sounds freaky when you attack with it, like when someone flushes the toilet.

[SandMonkey]

the only thing i can see against not saying the settler is OCC - granted you need to settler to build that city and improve the surroundings, but in games liek that caravans (!!!) and diplos/spies are far more important.

[Messer Niccolò]

Originally posted by Pavlov

Plus it sounds freaky when you attack with it, like when someone flushes the toilet.

LOL

... even if the thread was about the most important unit!

[dunk]

On second thought I would like to nominate the chariot. It's so overwhelmingly powerful I don't know how I could win without them.