The most USEFUL unit...

[Sandman]

Spearman. Cheap, early, upgradable.

[Windwalker]

Originally posted by Anti Spectator
Is the guy above Joking or what????
Explorers are generally not useful unless in a specialist situation.

I like Cavalry but then again most people do.

LoL... Did you even read that guy's post? He said that he DID use the explorer as a terrorist/saboteur type of unit, which IS a specialist situation...

I may even try that in my next game...

- Windwalker

[Carbon Copy]

Cavalry is totally overrated

I'd have to say that Infantry, during the time you get them, are the most useful units you can build.

Cavalry is overrated, and I would attribute most of their success on the AI's incompetence on defense more than any inherent dominance of the unit. Their 3 moves in particular causes trouble for AIs, whose threat radius only extends two squares (and thus it is possible for a cav rusher to conquer AI cities before the city can be prepared for war, something that is unlikely to happen against a human if Multiplayer is ever offered). If you find yourself with a tech lead and are facing off versus muskets or rifles, though, then I guess cavalry are useful

Consider their window of dominance (where their attack value is greater than the highest defense value). Cavalry come with Military tradition, which is not a required tech to advance to the Industrial Age. Riflemen, which have the same defensive rating as cavalry's offense, come with Nationalism, which Scientific civs often get for free when they get their last required Middle Ages tech (and other civs can research it right away prior to Military Tradition, making it possible that cavalry can be outclassed before they can even be built). And once riflemen are in wide use, the age of cavalry comes to a close, except as support troops, doing jobs like pillaging resources or capturing workers or piling into cities to prevent flips. Furthermore, the defensive stat on cavalry (3, IIRC), sucks, so those lowly riflemen, other things being equal, are likely to beat cavalry on both attack AND defense (Persian Immortals, with their 4 atk, will often make cavalry retreat or die when they are on the offensive, too). Plus rifles upgrade to infantry, which are the undisputed kings of the battlefield until Motorized Transportation, and still upgrade once more to mech infantry, which is the end-all, be-all defensive unit.

[Velociryx]

I'm firmly with Skanky on that one.

Jaguar Warrior, hands down.

Pound for pound, price for price, you just can' t GET a better unit. (even better, cos you can set your crap, 1-sheld producing cities to making them and still get them in a reasonable timeframe, especially if you stagger production there....set it up so that your fringe towns with lousy production are still giving you 2-3 new Jags a turn...and that to the 1/turn that your GOOD towns are churning out, and the game's over before you even GET any of the fancy-schmancy middle ages units.



-=Vel=-

[DrFell]

Jags are less powerful post 1.17 - now they die about 50% of the time when entering combat (because they used to lose often anyway and never retreat when the opponent has 1hp), and if you get iron you can no longer build them. This only really makes them useful if you have a big enough empire to support enough for an attack - and I'd rather build war chariots with that production, you suffer far less losses and they have a long term upgrade path. It's always been the support factor that's killed them for me though, by the time I get enough cities to support enough for a decent attack and build the units, I find myself facing AI cities with a couple spearmen in each.

[civman2000]

Re: Cavalry is totally overrated

Originally posted by Carbon Copy
Furthermore, the defensive stat on cavalry (3, IIRC), sucks

What about cossacks? 4 on defense is pretty good for an attacking unit pre-tank

[Pius Popprasch]

I like the Knight, out of the non-special units. He will usually face only subpar defenders, unlike the Cavalry.

I haven't tried Jaguars after 1.17 but before they were strong.

[faded glory]

I think Conscripts (riflemen) are the best. Dual use...

[cassembler]

Best unit ever: warrior. With the editor, it now has a 9 attack, 12 defense, and a bombard range of 8.

Stock rules though, I find the Hoplites nice [on higher difficulty levels]... If you play defense, you can trigger your golden age as late as the mid-middle ages, but until then, you can rest assured that your empire is safe.

[Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe]

i luvs panzers.. addicted to blue color aswell... also dont mind cossacks but hate russian color so i give germany cossacks aswell...

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Originally posted by Feephi
Well, I'm just barely into the Industrial age in my current game and that's the farthest I've ever gotten, but I have to say that Explorer is the most useful. Not only can you uncover a lot of undiscovered territory but also its ability to move 6 spaces per turn across any terrain make it invaluable as a recon unit to expose enemy troops moving near your cities. In my current game, I am also using them on suicide missions to move quickly into enemy territory onto enemy strategic and luxury resources and pillage them. 50% of the time the AI doesn't even go after them and the other 50% the AI will capture them but the AI doesn't know how to use them fully. All this for only 20 shields per unit.

I've never built an explorer before, if it's true you can easily pillage with these units I'll definitely become a devoted user.
Never thought about that, thanks for the tip.

AJ

[MarkosSuckanos]

hoplites are great for the majority of the early game.

[DrFell]

Actually I just tried the Aztecs again today... the Jag is still pretty powerful.. in fact I managed to kill a whole civ with them and got a leader all by about 1000bc. Looks like I either got lucky or I've improved since I last tried them (on one of my first games I tried the Aztec a couple times, haven't used them since). They get so many elites (and thus good retreat) that they tend to generate lots of leaders.