Worst/Best Specialized Unit?

[jbavon]

So far:

Chinese Rider

[Wulfram]

I'd have to go for the French Musketeer being the worst, it has no use at all that I can see as it's advantage doesn't actually make any difference, other things aren't very useful, but the french one is just useless.

My favourite is the Hoplite as it makes you pretty much immune to attack in the Ancient Age.

[Thunderfire]

The best are
Rider, Panzer - extra movement is the best bonus
Mounted Warrior 3-1-2 the best attack unit until
knights apear.

The worst
Mon o War - gets replaced to fast by a better unit
F15 - doesn't work
Musketeer - extra attack is a bad attribute for a
defensive medival unit.

[Rasbelin]

Persian Immortals are my personal favourites, even if they require iron.

[Rasbelin]

Persian Immortals are my personal favourites, even if they require iron.

[Jason]

Saying who will win given Legions vs Immortals fighting each other strikes me as a little silly. We have to look at the unit overall, not just vs. the legion. The Immortal is the only unit that can really beat up on spearmen. It is an offensive weapon. I don't use units to do field trials, I use them in warfare, and I'd rather have a 4.2.1 than a 3.3.1. Against anyone with an attack less than 3, they aren't even especially vulnerable, and even against legions in combat they aren't defensively weak, just defensively adequate.

Just because a Mig-21 can dogfight the crap out of a B-2 bomber doesn't mean the mig is the "better aircraft." You have a stack of immortals next to a city, you have the best ancient attackers, the only one with that sweet 4 attack. And they are going to root you out or something before you can attack? Only the greeks and romans have a stronger DEFENCE than the Immortals, and they suffer for it on the offence.

Myself, I play the French and have a totally lame and unrealistic UU. But it's perfectly clear who the king of the ancient hill is.

[ElitePersian]

Originally posted by Thunderfire

Mounted Warrior 3-1-2 the best attack unit until
knights apear.

Ummm no, the immortals are the best attack unit until knights appear, and knights are the SAME as immortals.

[Crom]

Just keep rolling out those Egyptian War Chariots, I conquered a continent with those little babies very early on in the game.

[Rosacrux]

Depends on the game...

Yet another silly question... what do you mean "best-worst UU"? This has no meaning as it is. I have the game for a bit more than two weeks now and my opinion on the UUs (it is still in the formation process, so it can be changed by upcoming events) is that their usefulness depends very, very much on the type of game you are in:

There are many different types of games. It all depends on the map size/layout and number of civs. I play on huge maps-12 or 16 civs - on standard (12 civs) and large (16 civs). There is nothing really common in those games. So, here are the UUs I have found useful:

On the huge maps, Hoplites and Jaguar warriors can make the difference. Period. Honorable mentions go to Impis and Legion.

For completely different reasons: The Jags are great early scouts (with their movement of 2) and they aren't very vulnerable to barbarians (on the contrary with the standard scout unit the expansionist civs get). You can pump them out steadily, they uncover a great area, give you all the bonuses from the goody huts and can fight too! If all those aren't enough, I dunno what is!

The Impis are good for the same reasons, but they are more expensive and just a bit further into the game. But they are more durable and can serve as prime defenders, so they have their advantages.

The hoplites are usefull for a different reason. Especially when 12 civs are in the game, the "first contact" of your borders is deep inside the game, so there is really no reason to start fighting early (besides weakening the other civ-getting some free workers, and the latter is a rather lame excuse for a war, since it is actually cheaper and faster to produce them yourself). So, you don't need offensive units, all you need is a good defensive unit to fight off the terrible barbarians (can you say "raging"? "There is a barbarian uprising near ...." is a reason to tremble, if you don't have hoplites to defend your cities) and the potential early aggresion.

The hoplites come in very early (off the start) and serve you well into the ages - there ain't really a reason to upgrade them till you get riflemen. Durability, lasting realy long, ready to use from the start of the game, great defense... hey, if you are in a XL map, the best choice is the hoplite, hands down. Legion is good too for the same reason, but they are more expensive, come in a bit later and require iron - if you don't find a source of iron early you are screwed. Plus the legion doesn't upgrade...

OTOH, when it comes to small/tiny maps... you got three good choices. Since you want early war in those maps (and it is absolutely viable to have very early warfare, unless you play with 4 civs ) you either want immortals (very strong offense) legion (good on the defense too, quite a bonus) or mounted warriors (fast, deliver quite a punch). They all require resources, though, so they have a little drawback. A major drawback for the first two (when it comes to maps above "small") is that they can't upgrade - so they are useless after a while.

There is another aspect to the UUs as they trigger golden ages... in that respect, the most usefull units are those who trigger the g.a. when you wish for it. So, it's either a late game unit (rider comes in mind...) or a defensive unit (like the hoplites or the legion).

Useless UUs? That's easy. Hands down, no1 is the F-15 - it doesn't even take advantage of it's advantage (bug! fixed with the first patch it shall) and it comes too late! Another very useless unit is the cossack and the man-o-war is annoyingly passe

Also the musketeer seems like a total waste of Dumas influence

[Thunderfire]

Originally posted by ElitePersian

Ummm no, the immortals are the best attack unit until knights appear, and knights are the SAME as immortals.

Wrong - mounted warriors and knights can retreat unlike immortals.
You will loose much less mounted warriors and knights to enemy
attacks compared to immortals.

[player1]

That's right Thuderfire!

You can have much more of these later, plus they'll be veterans or elite.

At the end, they'll all become knights.


Still, it would be nice if you could build those guys even if you have Chivarly (they are MUCH CHEAPER)

Pitty...

[wotan321]

Gotta sing the praises of the Chinese Rider as the best UU.

In pre-gunpowder times, its a killer. Just load up a few boatloads of these guys and dump them on a hill or mountain near the enemy capital, but out of range of catapults if possible. Any nearby units have to deal with a defense of 3, and by the time a bunch of enemy units do arrive to strike, that dozen or so Riders have spread out and pillaged every connection of the capital. If they are attacked, the 3 movement allows them to retreat 2 tiles away from trouble, holing up on a nearby mountain, hopefully.

The goal here is not to attack units, though with an offense power of 4 that can work, but instead to scrap your enemy's infrastructure quickly. After cutting off the capital, I like to roam around and pillage resource tiles too... just to be safe.

Then.... on the other side of the enemy's land, a bunch of Riders, swordsmen, settlers and pikemen have arrived, possibly with some catapults, and with the enemy already sending its might to the other side of the island, you land and take a city. Dig in, build a temple and a barracks, and wait.

Back at the capital, the surviving Riders get back on the ships and head for the newly captured city where they can recuperate, then raise some dust as needed. Comes in handy for getting great leaders. The Riders can come out of the city, soften up the enemy and retreat to recover, and other units can mop up and improve their status.