Ever wondered how to leverage the UU of a particular civ you're playing? Do you find half the UUs lacklustre? Do you find yourself not using a particular civ's UU at all? I think you could use some suggestions.

While the War Academy has civ-specific guides involving extensive use of UUs for the Incas and the Romans, there isn't a guide to the various UUs to explain their uses. Everybody knows how to use strong ones like the Praetorians, but many are not exposed to the possibilities that the more subtle ones present. What spurred me to start this guide are the fairly common disparaging comments about some UUs, comments that are often simply wrong.

Please note that this guide is written mainly for single player games. Some tips may still be useful for multiplayer, but I can't promise that. If you have something in mind, please feel free to contribute. You can also add to the entries already written.


Arabia: Camel Archer (Knight)

Camel Archers are knights that have a higher withdrawal chance (25%) and don't require horses or iron. You could simply use them like normal knights, but the thing about them is Flanking promotions make them very good at surviving failed attacks (+55% withdrawal chance with Flanking II). This means you don't have to balk so much at attacking a city or a stack that has a defending pike, making them more reliable as an attack unit. Of course, if you end up with no horses or iron, they give you the option of building knights in the first place.

If you're playing on Warlords and are not running Vassalage or Theocracy, stables would help you build Camel Archers that start off with Flanking I and II. Also, you can improve their ability even further by attaching Great Generals to them as warlords. Give them the Tactics promotion (+30% withdrawal chance) and they would have 85% chance of retreating from a failed attack. Of course, you might get unlucky and lose your warlord unit if you often use it to attack at low odds. You should consider that 85% is far from 100%.

Aztecs: Jaguar Warrior (Swordsman)

Traditional whipping boys, these guys get 2 free promotions in Warlords now, Woodsman I as well as the Aggressive trait's Combat I. If you've built those cheap barracks, giving them Woodsman II immediately would allow you to rush a relatively cheap stack of them to enemy cities through forests and jungles. Of course, this comes at the price of not being able to give them the City Raider promotion first, but depending on how strong the target cities are, this may not be such a problem (they do get the inherent 10% bonus when attacking cities).

On a more conventional level, the benefit of the Jaguar is probably similar to that of the Gallic Warrior - better stack protection when standing on a particular terrain. Jaguars can even defend against counterattacks by axemen when positioned in forests and jungles as they get +70% terrain defense bonus there (+50% from the terrain and +20% from Woodsman I), making them good all-round defenders in this situation. Give them Woodsman II or Shock (both available immediately with barracks) and they would have no need to be afraid of axemen. Hence, if the land has plenty of foliage, you may want to bring a few of them along in any case. Note that this advantage applies only in jungles in Civ4 vanilla, where Jaguar gets +75% (+50% from the terrain and +25% jungle defense bonus). Remember, they don't require iron so you can start building them before hooking up the resource. The value of this UU greatly increases when you find yourself without copper and iron.

More on this last point, Jaguars are a sure way to rush a neighbour early in the game. You can plant your second city on the best production site in the direction of your target without waiting for copper or iron to be revealed. Then you build barracks and granary, research IW and start whipping Jaguars out without even having to bother with any resources. Get a stack of them and attack Aztec-style.

Celtia: Gallic Warrior (Swordsman)

Warlords only. The Gallic Warrior is a much-maligned UU. Most people wonder why an offensive unit is given a promotion for hill defense. How on earth is that going to help him attack cities, which is what it does best? Well, for me the answer jumped out immediately.

Attacking a city is the culmination of an offensive movement, which begins with your entering enemy territory. If you're careful, you would want to move your stack along the safest route to the target city as far as possible, which often means favouring forests and hills over flatlands. This is where the Gallic Warrior's free Guerilla I can help. While spearmen protect your stack against mounted units and axemen/xbows protect it from melee units, the Gallic Warrior is the best defender against other type of counterattacking units (eg. catapults) when your stack is on a hill. If your spearman is badly injured, the Gallic Warrior can even take over the job of defending against chariots or horse archers on a hill. Normal swordsmen may be badly injured before even attacking in these circumstances, while Gallic Warriors would probably be in a better shape.

Another neat thing about this UU is you can upgrade it to a maceman without losing the free Guerilla I, so the effect can last for some time. Also consider the fact that forests can be chopped but hills are permanent.

Egypt: War Chariot (Chariot)

The Egyptian War Chariot is an axeman on wheels with no City Raider promotions but has withdrawal chance. As such, it is a very powerful mobile unit and can make your game as early as the Ancient Era.

An Egyptian player who does not have copper has little to worry about. In fact, horses are much more important for him/her, making Animal Husbandry (AH) a priority. Since Egypt starts with Agriculture, which leads to AH, this is not a problem. In fact, both of Egypt's starting techs fit perfectly into the picture. The Wheel, the other half of the pair, is required to build chariots and would ensure that you can hook up those horses quickly. Feel free to delay Bronze Working till you wish to use slavery, unless it turns out that there are no horses within reasonable distance. If you discover horses nearby, get a settler there as soon as possible and hook it up. You can then begin preparing for your attack. Chariot rush has never been so fun or so effective.

While the standard chariot rush policy of pillaging the enemy's metal mines should still be applied, War Chariots aren't as afraid of spears as normal chariots because of their increased strength. Additionally, you can give some of them Shock promotion to help deal with enemy spears that you encounter. This would also help vanilla players who face enemy axes, since the chariot bonus vs. axes does not apply (fortunately, vanilla players are compensated by having 20% withdrawal chance instead of just 10%). That said, I have found Flanking promotions a generally better choice when up against spears. Even with Shock, War Chariots have lower odds of winning, so you might as well increase their survival rate (which can be done better in vanilla due to the extra withdrawal chance).

A little later in the game, a combination of War Chariots and axes would be good to guard against counterattacking spears, since War Chariots don't get defensive bonuses and would almost certainly lose all the time. Often, axes (and maybe swords) should gradually replace them as the premier city raiders anyway. As enemy cities accumulate more defensive ratings, those defending spears become more and more costly to dislodge with War Chariots alone. The loss in mobility that would result from this shift is usually nothing to worry about, since it roughly corresponds to the need to slow down expansion until you can get upkeep costs down.

On that note, a little caution must be taken not to over-expand with War Chariots. It's easy to fall into this trap since they pack such a punch so early in the game. While judicious use of them can make your game from a very early stage, their careless use can conversely break it as you fall far and hopelessly behind in terms of technology and development, especially on the higher levels. This and the lack of close neighbours are the greatest adversaries of the Egyptian player.

France: Musketeer (Musketman)

Although they are 1 strength point weaker than knights, muskets have no hard counter in their time, which is the whole point of this unit. Also, knights don't get defensive bonuses. So, assuming production and tech are not problems, when you need a unit to protect your stack at this stage of the game, which one would you pick? You probably want pikes to defend against mounted units, but against all the others? And when you defend a threatened city, would you want to do it with only longbows and pikes? Wouldn't it be good to have some versatile units that can both defend and counterattack?

Admittedly, these situations don't always come up, and the few times they do in a game might not be worth investing in enough musketmen to prepare for (but do take note that muskets can be drafted). However, Musketeers have 2 moves. That means they can reinforce any threatened city quickly, which makes them potentially better defenders than longbows. And when you need stack protection during a campaign, Musketeers, besides being an insurance that covers you against almost everything except knights (against whom you can simply bring pikes), are also able to pillage along the way. Not just that, their 2 moves mean you can have reserves catching up with your stack to take over the role of their wounded comrades should your stack come under attack. Musketeers can also do clean-up work when all your siege weapons and CR units have spent their turn, since they have 9 base strength and aren't afraid of pikes that may still be defending the city. Of course, Musketeers are great for a pillaging campaign, if you go for that kind of thing. Mix them with pikes in small stacks and they can move and pillage within a single turn and with near impunity. Musketeers are thus very versatile units.

A major gripe that people have about Musketeers is the fact that they obsolete too quickly since Chemistry is only 'a few techs away'. Their two moves actually help with this, since you can get them to the frontline to be used a lot more quickly compared to normal musketmen. Also, switching to Nationhood and drafting some can help you get enough of them out in time to be used effectively, especially since nothing upgrades to muskets and you have to build them from scratch otherwise. Of course, whether or not it's worth switching civics for this depends on the situation, but keep the option in mind. You can stay in Nationhood and research towards Rifling next so that you can soon start drafting riflemen.

On this note, there's another interesting use for Musketeers. Have you ever tried postponing Chemistry and beelining to Military Tradition for early cavalry? With Musketeers, this strategy is even better. Research techs along the Education route, be the first to get Liberalism, grab Nationalism as the free tech, research Gunpowder (which is also needed for cavalry), start drafting/building Musketeers (and use them first if you want), research Military Tradition, start building cavalry, escort your cavalry with Musketeers and launch a lightning campaign or pillage with impunity. Only Musketeers can keep up with your cavalry and protect them against costly counterattacks by enemy pikes. And Flanking cavalry are only afraid of the toughest longbow-defended cities, so there is often no need to bring slow moving siege weapons along. If you do this right, you can finish off one or two neighbours just like that before riflemen start appearing.

Greece: Phalanx (Spearman)

I think the Phalanx is in fact one of the stronger UUs in the game. With 5 strength and +25% hill defense bonus (not to be confused with free Guerilla promotion) it has enough going for it to be a league above its ordinary counterparts. Don't forget that they also get free Combat I from Alexander's Aggressive trait.

The Phalanx is essentially a super spearman, but if you build them early enough in single player, chances are the AI might not have anything except archers. Thus, they would do just as well as axemen when used as a rush unit, except that they aren't afraid of chariots in Warlords (which gets +100% attack vs. axemen).

Besides this rather unorthodox use, the Phalanx also boasts a very long lifespan of more than two eras. Elephants give normal spearmen cause to worry and knights are too strong be really countered by normal spears. Phalangites, however, are able to counter elephants effectively and hold their own against knights. If they are defending on hills, no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions (with the exception of Conquistadors). Their hill defense bonus also means they are good at defending on hills against everything except anti-melee units. A solid package for a UU.

Korea: Hwacha (Catapult)

Warlords only. If you like axemen, you'd love the Hwacha. It is a catapult with 50% bonus vs melee units, making it an axeman with collateral damage, bombard ability and withdrawal chance for a mere five hammers more (Normal speed). The only downside is the Hwacha doesn't receive defensive bonuses like an axeman, so you might want to use your Hwachas offensively and turn up the heat so the enemy is forced to defend in his beautiful cities.

The Hwacha has some interesting synergy with Wang Kon's Protective trait. Protective really shines when you have no metals and are forced to adopt a defensive position with archers in the early game. Construction represents the departure from such a stance, since you're now able to build catapults and attack. Hwachas, being super catapults, puts you in an even better position to go on the offensive, with Protective archers/longbows for support as defenders.

If you have iron, Protective crossbows and spears/pikes are perfect companions to Hwachas. They eliminate the threat of enemy melee and mounted units and help defend new possessions while your Hwachas take down enemy defenders. You don't need axemen. A few swords to help clean up can complete your arsenal.

When macemen and trebuchets come into the picture, Hwachas gradually take a back seat, but not before you can deal some serious damage to a neighbour or two. Nonetheless, a Korean player would benefit from picking up Construction as quickly as possible. Why not put these weapons into use as early as you can? And Wang Kon's Financial trait can certainly help with that.

Mali: Skirmisher (Archer)

Skirmishers are archers with 4 strength and 1 extra first strike chance, making Mali more than half a Protective civ until Feudalism. With them, Malinese cities are certainly not ones that are taken easily early in the game.

The normal use of Skirmishers is pretty straight forward. Defend your cities or hill improvements with them. As such, they play a rather passive role as a UU. This puts into question the rationale of going straight for Archery even when playing Mali. Firstly, you don't start with Hunting (required for Archery). Secondly, the threat of barbarian or enemy axes make axemen a better unit to defend with, since they are able to counterattack and prevent your improvements from being pillaged. Lastly, Bronze Working is needed for Slavery and whipping anyway, and if you find copper nearby after researching it you can simply build axes soon. Skirmishers can help with defense if you don't find copper around, but in that case you might want to beeline to Iron Working anyway (so you wouldn't be researching Hunting and Archery). Of course, in the worst case scenario where you have neither copper nor iron around, Skirmishers become quite important.

Warlords improves Skirmishers a little by making chariots a counter to axes. Now you don't have to fear barbarian/enemy axemen if you don't have copper but have horses. Barb spearmen, if they do appear, can be countered somewhat by Skirmishers. Hence, you can sit peacefully with your cities and chariots and Skirmishers for defense without having to beeline for the rather expensive (at this stage) Iron Working. If you want to be aggressive, you can rush a neighbour with a stack of chariots and a few Skirmishers. The latter can help secure newly conquered cities.

That said, a less conventional use of Skirmishers may warrant beelining to Archery from the beginning. Skirmishers don't require resources, so you can technically rush a neighbour with them Aztec-style. Get Archery as quickly as possible, build a barracks, maybe settle a second city and start building Skirmishers. After you have enough of them, rush the nearest neighbour's capital. Skirmishers are better than normal archers, so with a ratio of 4:1 in your favour, you may be able to overwhelm the defending archers. The surviving Skirmishers would then help you hold on to the conquered city.

If you whip to build Skirmishers for this tactic, becareful of the overflow. You might very soon begin to whip them out for one population point each and run into serious happiness issues. If you want to try this rush, you should have a food-plenty and hilly area (i.e. a good production city site) as the site of your capital. You need the hammers because you'll be building most of the Skirmishers the slow way.

Mongolia: Keshik (Horse Archer)

Keshiks are horse archers that ignore terrain movement cost and get 1 first strike, but aren't immune to first strikes. Hence, they are extremely adept at raiding and pillaging, but aren't as good at attacking archers/longbows with Drill promotions. This has a few implications on a Mongolian player.

Surprise is the best asset of the Keshiks. Ignoring terrain movement cost means they can traverse forests/jungles and hills as easily as flatlands. Thus, it is easy for a Mongolian player to strike across difficult terrain at the unlikeliest of places, grabbing unguarded workers and lightly-defended cities or pillaging improvements (especially on strategic resources). However, this advantage relies on the enemy's inability to counterattack immediately with spearmen or a superior force, so good intelligence would be needed to know where exactly the enemy places his spears and the bulk of his units. If you do not have this luxury, you could always send more Keshiks in case you meet spears, but be prepared to lose quite a few of them. In addition, you could pillage enemy roads to eventually cripple his ability to counterattack. However, at the end of the day, the strategic advantage you gain from your harassment must outweigh the lost hammers you spent on the dead Keshiks

The Keshiks' first strike, meanwhile, makes them better than normal horse archers at picking off non-spear units in your territory or in the enemy's. Combined with their terrain movement advantage, this makes them good empire defenders and hit-and-run units. Unfortunately, the enemy can easily counter them by having spearmen guard his units, so this might only work effectively against the AI. There's also a limitation on how good Keshiks are in fighting non-spear units compared to normal horse archers. The immunity to first strikes that normal horse archers get makes them better at fighting archery units with Drill promotions or units with Drill III/IV. The Keshiks' own first strike can only negate one of the enemy units' first strikes. To remedy this, you have to give your Keshiks Flanking II so that they get immunity to first strikes as well.

This, in turn, highlights the Keshik's relative weakness (compared to normal horse archers) in attacking cities defended by Drill-promoted archery units. In Warlords, this means Protective civs are better covered against attempts to take cities with Keshiks. The 10% city attack penalty that the horse archer unit-type gets in Warlords makes them even less desirable as city raiders. Thus, the only hope Mongolian player might have in using Keshiks to conquer in Warlords is to rely on speed, Flanking promotions and numbers (also applies to vanilla, but not to such a large extent).

With barracks and Ger in the city, a Keshik gets 7 exp upon being built. Unfortunately, none of the Mongolian leaders are Charismatic, so that will only allow for 2 initial promotions, just like if you have a normal stable instead of the Mongolian UB (of course, Gers mean they could be promoted to the next level sooner). But, at any rate, 2 initial promotions are good enough. Give most of the Keshiks Flanking I and II to give them 50% withdrawal chance each (including the natural 20%) and immunity to first strikes. Give Combat I and Medic I or Combat I and Shock (for defending against spearmen) to the rest. Have at least one Medic I Keshik and one Shock Keshik in each stack. If you get Compass early enough, you can use explorers (strength 4, ignores terrain movement cost and starts with free Guerilla I and Woodsman I) to help protect your stacks when they stop on hills or forests/jungles. 3 or 4 cities with Gers pumping out Keshiks would usually be good enough to amass a sizeable army in reasonable time.

As your Keshiks attack enemy cities, some will die, some will withdraw and some will win. The medics will ensure that the withdrawing and winning Keshiks heal up more quickly. If you manage to overwhelm a prepared enemy with numbers, your speed advantage (from ignoring terrain movement cost and faster healing) will ensure that the enemy cannot fight back or resist as effectively, hastening his destruction. If the enemy is unprepared in the first place, your speed advantage will ensure his quick defeat. Note that this strategy can only work if the enemy doesn't have longbows yet.

You should be prepared to build courthouses and marketplaces to help you keep your winnings. But even if you're not, you can just resort to razing and pillaging for some barbaric fun. Long live the Golden Horde!

Persia: Immortal (Chariot)

It seems odd that Immortals are chariot-replacements, and you may miss the ownage days of playing as Persia with their Civ3 incarnation. Fortunately, they are still very effective in Civ4.

When you have horses and a neighbouring civ nearby, you know you're in for some fun. Immortals get 50% bonus vs. archery units, as well as an innate 30% withdrawal chance. No AI I've seen can resist them very early in the game. Hook up those horses quickly, build/whip out some of these creatures and head straight for the neighbour. If you managed to build barracks, you can give them Flanking I for an extra 10% withdrawal chance. If you have time to kill some barbs as well, before heading for your neighbour's cities, you can promote some with Flanking II for immunity against first strikes and a total of 60% withdrawal chance. This would give them a high survival rate against archers. Don't they sound like excellent AI city busters? What's more, they do get defensive bonuses, making them less vulnerable to counterattack and decent garrison units.

If or when your enemy gets spearmen, however, Immortals lose much of their power. Even one spearman in a city you're attacking can give you a lot of trouble. You really have to count on the withdrawal chances if you want the first few Immortals to survive a direct attack on the city. In Civ4 vanilla, enemy axemen would be a problem too, since chariots don't get the 50% bonus when attacking axemen like in Warlords. To help prevent difficulties from arising, you should pillage any AI mine that you see sitting on a metal resource. If a city is on top of one, pillage the roads around it to limit spear production to that city. You would thus prolong the effectiveness of your Immortals. Until your enemy gets Feudalism, that is. If he can. Although the 50% bonus also applies when fighting longbows, the latter are too strong when defending in cities to be dislodged by Immortals alone. The same may be said of enemy crossbows. But with the help of siege weapons, Immortals can still take them down quite easily.

The biggest problem is when there is no neighbour near you. In that case, you can't use Immortals to their full potential. However, they are still quite handy against barbs, since the latter usually take the form of archers. In Warlords, they are also great for dispatching barb axemen. Clearly, the expansion has given this solid UU even more oomph.

Vikings: Berserk (Maceman)

Warlords only. Hate them or love them, Berserks are a popular UU. Although, not as powerful as their Civ3 incarnation, these guys can really be useful. Their 10% bonus vs. cities is certainly nice. However, for many people the problem is finding a good use for their free Amphibious promotion.

The Vikings have a higher potential to rule on water maps than any other civ. Ragnar is Financial, which means coastal tiles produce 3 commerce instead of 2, and his UB allows his ships to move further earlier in the game by giving free Navigation promotion. Combined with the Berserk's ability to attack amphibiously with no penalty and its city attack bonus, a Viking player on a water map can fast tech to Civil Service and Machinery and have fun raiding enemy coastal cities with Berserks on fast galleys. One method to do this early is building the Oracle and grabbing Metal Casting as the free tech (which, by the way, gives access to Colossus for a further boost to those coastal tiles). Then build/whip a forge and run an engineer in a city without the Oracle. Research your way to Code of Laws and Civil Service a.s.a.p. (in the pre-patch version you can use a prophet generated by the Oracle to lightbulb CoL/CS by not researching Masonry). In the meantime, build several galleys to prepare for your sea adventures. You'll get a Great Engineer as your 1st or 2nd Great Person from the forge city. Use him to lightbulb Machinery and start building Berserks. You could also put your research slider at 0% for a few turns and upgrade some axes to Berserks (being Financial helps with accumulating money for that). If you catch your opponents without longbows yet, you've done really well.

There are limitations to your Berserks' ability to raid cities from the sea, though. If a city is defended by longbows, on a hill, has high cultural defense and/or walls, it could be difficult to take and might render an attempt not worth the cost. To attack such a city, you probably need to bring siege units along as galleys/triremes are not able to even bombard the city's defenses. Having to land siege units to bombard/deal collateral damage nullifies the Berserks' amphibious advantage. As such, you would need to look for softer targets to strike at. You don't have to keep the city. Find a weak spot (a lightly defended coastal city), raid, raze and pop back into the galleys before the enemy can counterattack. Landing a spear with the Berserker that has to land on that turn would help the latter survive a counterattack by mounted units (the most likely reaction you'll get from an AI). But becareful not to attack too close to an AI capital. AIs tend to stack more units in their capitals and can easily counterattack with a stronger force from there. Humans in MP will be wary of a sea attack, so watch out for axes/xbows in or within reach of coastal cities.

Even if you're not playing on a water map, Berserks present some interesting options. With them, you have the advantage when laying siege to a city across a river if the enemy doesn't have Engineering. His non-mounted units cannot counter attack from the city without suffering a 20% penalty for attacking across the river. With their free Amphibious promotion, Berserks get no such penalty attacking the city. The only downside is your siege units do suffer from the penalty if you want to cause some collateral damage first. Conversely, this idea works in defense as well. When enemy units are across a river beside one of your cities, you can attack them with your Berserks with no penalty while they would suffer it when they attack. At the very least, Berserks always get their 10% bonus when attacking cities.

Perhaps the most valuable thing about the Berserk is the fact that he keeps the Amphibious promotion when upgraded. This allows a Viking player to build Berserks (especially City Raider ones) and upgrade them later on to grenadiers or riflemen with free Amphibious. Frigates are able to bombard city defenses, so you can get yourself an elite amphibious attack force long before marines make their appearance. The free Amphibious also works the opposite way, allowing your older units to benefit from it when upgraded to Berserks. Hence, it makes sense to do so with all of your more experienced axemen or swordsmen. It would almost certainly be worth the money.


Looking forward to getting your ideas to add to this list :king: Thanks to Robo Kai, kniteowl, Cabert, Wodan, johnny_rico, gusi, UncleJJ, Bjorn190 and dime for your contributions and Thedrin for your correction.

An additional point about Musketmen-based UU's:
Many people are of the impression that Musketmen (and thus Musketeers and Janissaries) obsolete quickly, what with Chemistry being only "one tech away from Gunpowder". It is, but only if you took a detour to Engineering. What if you went all the way to Civil Service and Education... then Gunpowder... without having to go through the expensive Metal Casting route, you will now have Musketmen earlier than you should, creating the "invincible Janissaries".

A way to do this would be to do the standard CS slingshot (including Mathematics after the patch) then use a Great Scientist to lightbulb Education (don't forget Math) and head straight to Gunpowder.

An additional point about Musketmen-based UU's:
Many people are of the impression that Musketmen (and thus Musketeers and Janissaries) obsolete quickly, what with Chemistry being only "one tech away from Gunpowder". It is, but only if you took a detour to Engineering. What if you went all the way to Civil Service and Education... then Gunpowder... without having to go through the expensive Metal Casting route, you will now have Musketmen earlier than you should, creating the "invincible Janissaries".

Noted. Thanks :)

Besides this rather unorthodox use, the Phalanx also boasts a very long lifespan of more than two eras. When elephants appear, spearmen have something to worry about, and the advent of knights would render them impotent. Phalangites, however, are able to counter elephants effectively and hold their own against knights. If they are defending on hills, no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions. Their hill defense bonus also means they are good at defending on hills against everything except anti-melee units. A solid package for a UU.


no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions. EXCEPT Conquistadors LOL Love those Units Especially When I'm up against Toku in the Middle Ages I don't have to Fear those Sumarais.


I'm going to begin with a few that I'm more familiar with. If you have something in mind, please feel free to contribute. I definitely need some ideas on the Jaguar Warrior and Camel Archer.


Jaguars? Well with the new warlords patch they get 2 FREE promotions, Woodsman 1 and Combat 1, Since you start off with Myst as a tech with the Aztecs, use the Oracle Slingshot to Theology, for the the Theocracy Civic, Which Means Early level 3 Units, Promote The Jaguar with Woodmans 2 and Whatever you see fit for the 2nd Promotion (Can be CR1, Shock, Cover, Medic etc)

And now you can Fast track to the AI cities Via Jungle and Forest and capture them quickly with A SOD of Jags. It'd be like using an Early Cheap Chariot Rush except they come with Iron Working, get a defensive bonus and you don't need a resource to build them.

What about Axemen? Well as long as your in the forest you get 110% Defence (50% from forest + 50% from Woodsman 1&2 + 10% Combat1) You can also add Shock because you've got an extra promotion form theocracy

So the Axe Are no Problem Str 7.5 v 10.5

Beelining for Iron working as the Aztecs is a Must.

Camel Archer?

well their not bad, their exactly like normal Knights except they have a higher withdrawal chance (25%) and you don't need Horses to build them. Just use them like normal Knights

Here's an Idea, Attach a Warlord Unit to a Camel Archer, and give it tactics promotion (Withdrawal 30%) and Give it Flanking 1&2 that's another 30% and you have an ALMOST Invincible Attacker

25%+ 30% + 30% = 85% Chance of Withdrawal.

You could use them to knock down the strenght of a strong defender Eg- CG3 Longbow. Why not? there's a good chance of it surviving and then you can use your CR Maces to Finish them off.

Now if The Arabs had a Imperalistic Leader then it'd be a Very Viable Tactic.

no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions. EXCEPT Conquistadors LOL Love those Units Especially When I'm up against Toku in the Middle Ages I don't have to Fear those Sumarais.

Lol. Noted. Thanks :)

I'll incorporate your ideas on Jaguar and Camel Archer soon.

Added the entry on the Jaguar. Seems rather brief. I'll try to elaborate on it when I have more time.

Looking forward to more input from the public :)

Nitpick: Woodsman I gives 20% defence on forest and jungles tiles, not 25%.

Added the entry on the Jaguar. Seems rather brief. I'll try to elaborate on it when I have more time.

Looking forward to more input from the public :)

the strong thing about jaguars is you don't need iron or copper.
Meaning that going for IW is not a gamble, it's a sure rushing option.

So you can plant your second city in the best production spot on the way to your target without waiting for copper and iron to be revealed. You build a granary and barracks, and start whipping. It's the most straightforward rushing unit I know (except elephants and catapults, but those come somewhat later).

Thanks, guys. Changes and additions made to the entry on Jaguars.

If you get your Gaellic warriors to Guerilla III (+25% hills attack, new promotion in Warlords), that's not too shabby for offense! You can have them moving at double speed along ridge lines and destroying everything in their path :).

good point jray, that guerilla 3 is like a city raider 1 + 5%. Combined with medic spears/pikes, they'll be able to wreak havoc in enemy territory before the seige shows up.

Beserkers - You can now use the rivers surrounding an enemy city to your advantage. Bombard the cities defense to zero with your siege and have your CR II and III berserkers storm across the river and take down the cities defenders.

You can also take down new AI coastal cities with two of these guys in a galley.

They also make great defenders in your own cities with lots of rivers should the AI decide to invade you. A little combat II plus shock or formation and you can hit the invaders before they can hit you.

Given that the vikings are a financial civ, a metal casting slingshot via the oracle is possible. Get CS and machinery online asap and you can have early beserkers (200 A.D. - maybe sooner). They will be viable up to the mid 1600's on normal speed/monarch difficulty. That's a lot of bang for the buck for a single unit, board dominance for several centuries of game turns.

This combos very nice with their UB as well. New naval units at the trading post have navigation 1. Load 'em up on galley's and/or galleons and get them to the front via sea travel very fast. Plus they can attack, without penalty from the boats.

Hmm... I'm not sure if many people would take to the idea of giving Gaellic Warriors Guerilla II or III. They would mostly choose CR I and II instead, since swordsmen are mainly used offensively to attack cities. Guerilla III would only give them the bonus when you're attacking hill cities, in which case +45% from CR I and II would still be better.

Thanks for your ideas on the Berserk, johnny. I'll be adding them to the article.

Aelf, you might want to talk about efficiencies of drafting musketeers a bit.

Wodan

Aelf, you might want to talk about efficiencies of drafting musketeers a bit.

Sorry, what do you mean?

i.e. something along the lines of musketeers being the draft unit under Nationhood and that it gives you very good 2 movement pillagers.

i.e. something along the lines of musketeers being the draft unit under Nationhood and that it gives you very good 2 movement pillagers.

I did mention that musketmen and Musketeers can be drafted. I don't want to be extolling the virtues of drafting in an article that is not meant for that, so an idea must have something to do with the synergy between effective use of Musketeers and drafting, beyond what I've already written.

Hmm... I'm not sure if many people would take to the idea of giving Gaellic Warriors Guerilla II or III. They would mostly choose CR I and II instead, since swordsmen are mainly used offensively to attack cities. Guerilla III would only give them the bonus when you're attacking hill cities, in which case +45% from CR I and II would still be better.

Thanks for your ideas on the Berserk, johnny. I'll be adding them to the article.

Haven't played as brennus yet. But when I do, I'll goof around with the idea of multiple guerilla promotions just to see what I think.

y/w regarding the beserker. I just mopped up a continents map with them. Cyrus and Asoka's territory happened to be loaded with meandering rivers. It was fun. I cannot stress enough how valuable it was to send CR2 beserker reinforcements up the coast (the naviagation 1 promotion from the trading post sped those galleys along). I never had to stop and heal before moving on in my military campaigns. Plus he's agg/fin; it seems most of the new leaders are very powerful. Wang Kon was also great; I'll write up a piece regarding the Hwacha, also a fine UU.

Added the entry on Camel Archer. I'll add one on Berserks tomorrow.

I did mention that musketmen and Musketeers can be drafted. I don't want to be extolling the virtues of drafting in an article that is not meant for that, so an idea must have something to do with the synergy between effective use of Musketeers and drafting, beyond what I've already written.
IMO what makes drafting and musketmen particularly attractive is the following:
-- Nationhood is placed conveniently to required techs for Gunpowder that it is 'fairly' easy to obtain by research or possibly lightbulbing, especially if that is part of your plan going into the game.
-- Musketmen already have a slight handicap by having a short "lifespan" (debated ad nauseam in other threads) so rushing them is a good idea, to maximize their benefit. This is especially true in light of a UU such as Musketmen (or Janissaries), where the UU benefit goes away.
-- Nothing upgrades to musketeers (musketmen). Let me say that again. Nothing upgrades to them. All units have to be built on the spot. The obvious solution is drafting.

Wodan

camel archer: sounds good. Except, I think they get defensive bonuses, right? Well worth mentioning.

Wodan

BTW gj on this whole idea, aelf.

-- Nationhood is placed conveniently to required techs for Gunpowder that it is 'fairly' easy to obtain by research or possibly lightbulbing, especially if that is part of your plan going into the game.

Hmm... How is this so? I only know it's convenient because you can simply get Nationalism as your free tech from Liberalism. I'm not sure on how to get it through lightbulbing (besides lightbulbing your way to Liberalism).

-- Musketmen already have a slight handicap by having a short "lifespan" (debated ad nauseam in other threads) so rushing them is a good idea, to maximize their benefit. This is especially true in light of a UU such as Musketmen (or Janissaries), where the UU benefit goes away.

I did write on this:

"A major gripe that people have about Musketeers is the fact that they obsolete too quickly since Chemistry is only 'a few techs away'. Their two moves actually help with this, since you can get them to the frontline to be used a lot more quickly compared to normal musketmen. Also, switching to Nationhood and drafting some can help you get enough of them out in time to be used effectively. "

-- Nothing upgrades to musketeers (musketmen). Let me say that again. Nothing upgrades to them. All units have to be built on the spot. The obvious solution is drafting.

Thanks. This is worth mentioning.

Oh, Camel Archers don't get defensive bonuses. Unless they changed it in some patch. Haven't played Arabia in a long time.

Hmm... How is this so? I only know it's convenient because you can simply get Nationalism as your free tech from Liberalism. I'm not sure on how to get it through lightbulbing (besides lightbulbing your way to Liberalism).
Yes, or lightbulbing other pre-reqs for Nationhood if you choose another path to gunpowder. e.g., lightbulbing Divine Right and going to Gunpowder through Guilds.

Oh, Camel Archers don't get defensive bonuses. Unless they changed it in some patch. Haven't played Arabia in a long time.
Wasn't sure. Anyway, I just checked, they don't.

Wodan

-- Musketmen already have a slight handicap by having a short "lifespan" (debated ad nauseam in other threads) so rushing them is a good idea, to maximize their benefit. This is especially true in light of a UU such as Musketmen (or Janissaries), where the UU benefit goes away.


I always thought they had a short lifespan too, and usually don't even build them. However, in my current game I just stumbled on gunpowder pretty early through the "liberalism slingshot." That is, I got liberalism first, and gunpowder was the most expensive tech available. So this might be a good strategy for people with gunpowder-based UUs - getting all the other prerequisites for gunpowder, and then going for liberalism. I wasn't even trying for it - I was basicly researching things I needed for wonders or free techs/GPs. I was the Chinese, and I still had not even gotten to the techs needed for the cho-no-ka's.

Muskets only have a short lifespan if you research the required tech for Chemistry which is engineering.

Here's an example of a person beelining to gunpowder ignoring engineering.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185748

He goes through CS -> Paper -> Education Route and by the time he has his ottomen UU musket which is around 700AD with the new Warlords patch but he doesn't even have Maces yet LOL nothing can stop that UU FOR A LONG LONG TIME

His economy is fine, he's got Currency, Codes of Law and CS because he went through the educatyion route

Although your if you go through the guilds route you'd be militarily better off but economy wise not so much.

camel archer: sounds good. Except, I think they get defensive bonuses, right? Well worth mentioning.

Wodan

BTW gj on this whole idea, aelf.

Camel Archers have denfensive Bonus??? ...*Checks Warlords Civpedia*

http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/7339/camelarcherpu1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

...Nope The only Mounted unit that get a defesive bonus are Immortals and Conquistadors

My 2 favourite UUs are Keshik and Beserker. Not so much because they are extra good but because they allow for quite a different game than the standard conquest game.

The Keshik comes in on its own on the great plains map. Ressearch towards monotheism. build the Oracle for a free theology and in the meantime research horseback riding instead of iron working. But know you should have 3 or 4 cities building gers. Switch to theocracy and start pumping out Keshiks with _three_ promotions. Make sure very 5th or so Keshik has medic upgrades. Keshiks are not as good swordsman against cities but if they fail an attack they will often withdraw, hence the medics. You should have quite a few by 500BC.

While you start to ravage your neighbours you'll need to research towards currency and construction. If you want to keep the cities you conquer you'll need currency and switch your home cities to produce money. Alternatively raze far away cities and the catapults will come in handy to capture the last cities as the defenders may have better fortifications by the time you get them.

Once your opponents gets longbows your keshiks have reached the end of their usefulness. Either raze the world or have limited conquests that won't ruin your economy and make a beeline for knights and cavalry.

Genghis is imperialistic as well so you should have plenty of great generals along the way.

I find this a nice change from the stacks of mostly swordsman/catapults roaming the fields.


My other favourite is the beserker. Again it has a nice synergy with the trading post. This works well on an archipelago map. pump out an extra workboat and see if you can get the circumnavigation bonus. You may need open borders to get there. Together with a trading post galleys will now move 4. Together with a trading post and feudalism/theocracy galleys will move 5. This will allow you to out manouver any fleet.

Build up a modest empire of 5 or so cities. Make sure you have access to Iron. Build up a modest fleet to start with. Then when you can start pumping out beserkers. Include a few catapults for heavily defended cities and longbows to defend your conquest. Research towards astronomy while you start your conquests. Caravels come in handy to defend you galleys or hunt opponents triremes. If you get galleons the biggest map will turn into a Viking lake.

These strategies work on prince level and are a refreshing change from the swordsman and catapults conquest game.

Gus

Camel Archers have denfensive Bonus??? Nope The only Mounted unit that get a defesive bonus are Immortals and Conquistadors
Nice screenshot but next time read the whole thread before posting. :D

Wodan

I've played a couple of games with Wang Kon as well, and like the Hwacha as much as the beserker.

The Hwacha is definitely one of the most interesting UU's in the game. Combined with Wang Kon's protective trait (yes, I know the Hwacha is not an archery nor a gunpowder unit), I found myself utilizing military in ways I hadn't before, with much success.

Analyzing the Hwacha for what it is, we see it's a catapult with a +50% bonus to melee units for a cost of 40 hammers. Or an axeman with collateral damage, bombard, and possible withdrawl for five hammers more. Now the Hwacha doesn't receive defensive bonuses like an axeman but hey, who wants to defend with an axeman? There's a reason a few of them can fix any map problem. So, we're going to want to utilize our Hwacha's as offensively as possible.

Via beelining to construction or trading for it (the AI really goes for construction), which I think is preferable, it is possible to be making Hwacha's fairly early in the game. Only the tech is required, the unit is not resource dependant. Early stacks of Hwachas, chariots, and spearman have answers for anything thrown at them. And you can defend your turf with the same combo. This puts a weird flexibility I've not experienced before in the game.

In most games, I like to war (as do most of us). As such, I'm usually looking to acquire my four accuracy catapults, CR axes and swords, an archer per city, and some spears and chariots/HA's thrown in I hope are close to where I need them when I need them. In addition to this variety of units, things can get stingy if you get low on catapults, slow if you had a particularly rough time taking a city and now your axes/swords need time to heal, and/or unbalanced if you lose a few of 'something' in a hurry.

With Korea, your Hwachas become your swords and axes. I wouldn't bother with the melee line until macemen become availalble (exception is before construction). Producing Hwacha's en masse, you'll have all the CR's and accuracy units you'll need, plus collateral damage and possible retreat. Not to mention if things get thin on the front line, you've already built the same troops to protect your backside so the reinforcements are immediately available. And to reiterate, Hwachas are cheap so losing them is no big deal. You should expect to, just make sure that every one you lose is attacking vs. defending.

Some final notes: Once you can add X-bows and pikes to these stacks, they can really take care of themselves. As offensive as one ought to be when playing Korea, X-bows with free drill and CG1 make great additions to your stacks as well as city defenders. It's also nice to upgrade your CR Hwachas to Trebuchets, especially now that they cost more with the 2.08 warlords patch. You should have so many of these things on the maps, you won't have to build many trebs, just upgrade, remember Wang Kon is financial so you'll have gold to burn.

Thanks for the info on the Hwacha, johnny. That would also be useful for the next Emperor Challenge, where we might be playing as Wang Kon. I want to write an entry on Berserks incorporating your ideas, but I have to run now so I'll do that tonight or tomorrow.

Yes, or lightbulbing other pre-reqs for Nationhood if you choose another path to gunpowder. e.g., lightbulbing Divine Right and going to Gunpowder through Guilds.

Hmm... interesting. Can you describe a strategy to put this into practice (i.e. when to lightbulb Divine Right, whether you pursue purely the alternative path to Gunpowder until you get it, etc)?

gusi, thanks for your ideas on the Keshik. They have joined the queue (after johnny's Berserk suggestions).

Added the entry on Berserks.

Added the entry on Berserks.
Heh heh. I'll go look right away. :mwaha:

Wodan

ps I'll do what I can on that strat you asked for.

Greece: Phalanx (Spearman)
When elephants appear, spearmen have something to worry about, and the advent of knights would render them impotent. Phalangites, however, are able to counter elephants effectively and hold their own against knights.
Those 2 sentences seem to contradict each other. I think the word "impotent" up there is a bit misplaced. The advent of knights renders their advantage impotent, perhaps.

On to the Berserks --
Hate them or love them
Ha. You put that in there just for me, didn't you? Gives me the warm and fuzzies all over. :viking:

Berserks are a popular UU. Although, not as powerful as their Civ3 incarnation, these guys can really be useful. Their 10% bonus vs. cities is certainly nice. However, for many people the problem is finding a good use for their free Amphibious promotion.

The Vikings have a higher potential to rule on water maps than any other civ. Ragnar is Financial, which means coastal tiles produce 3 commerce instead of 2, and his UB allows his ships to move further earlier in the game by giving free Navigation promotion. Combined with the Berserk's ability to attack amphibiously with no penalty and its city attack bonus, a Viking player on a water map can fast tech to Civil Service and Machinery and raid enemy cities with Berserks on fast galleys. One method to do this early is building the Oracle and grabbing Metal Casting as the free tech (which, by the way, gives access to Colossus for a further boost to those coastal tiles). Then build/whip a forge and run an engineer in a city without the Oracle. Research your way to Code of Laws and Civil Service a.s.a.p. (in the pre-patch version you can use a prophet generated by the Oracle to lightbulb CoL/CS by not researching Masonry). You'll get a Great Engineer as your 1st or 2nd Great Person. Use him to lightbulb Machinery. If you catch your opponents without longbows yet, you've done really well.
Well summarized.

There are limitations to your Berserks' ability to raid cities from the sea, though. If a city is defended by longbows, on a hill, has high cultural defense and/or walls, it could be difficult to take and might render an attempt not worth the cost. To attack such a city, you probably need to bring siege units along as galleys/triremes are not able to even bombard the city's defenses. Having to land siege units to bombard/deal collateral damage nullifies the Berserks' amphibious advantage. As such, you would need to look for softer targets to strike at. You don't have to keep the city. Find a weak spot (a lightly defended coastal city), raid, raze and
...hope to...

pop back into the galleys before the enemy can counterattack. Landing a spear with the Berserker that has to land on that turn would help the latter survive against a counterattack by mounted units (the most likely reaction you'll get).
Be careful of being too close to the capitol if fighting AI. AIs tend to overstack the capitol and will have a number of units for counterattack from there.

Humans in MP will be wary of a sea attack, so watch for that, too. They'll overload on Axes in all coastal cities.

Other comments/suggestions:
Pre-build lots (possibly as many as 7-8 or more) galleys so that your city/military production is ready to build Berserks when they become available. Early Axes with CR1-2 can be (fairly) easily upgraded, also, since Ragnar is Financial and thus a few turns running at low research slider (after achieving the techs for the Berserk of course) should provide the necessary cash to achieve a pretty huge army of Berserks in short order.

Wodan

Those 2 sentences seem to contradict each other. I think the word "impotent" up there is a bit misplaced. The advent of knights renders their advantage impotent, perhaps.

Why? The first is referring to spearmen and the second is referring to the Phalanx. Spearmen can't really fight knights while Phalangites can, that's my point. But I'll change the word "impotent".

Ha. You put that in there just for me, didn't you? Gives me the warm and fuzzies all over. :viking:

Lol. You're the archetype of the Berserk hater, certainly ;)

Be careful of being too close to the capitol if fighting AI. AIs tend to overstack the capitol and will have a number of units for counterattack from there.

Humans in MP will be wary of a sea attack, so watch for that, too. They'll overload on Axes in all coastal cities.

Other comments/suggestions:
Pre-build lots (possibly as many as 7-8 or more) galleys so that your city/military production is ready to build Berserks when they become available. Early Axes with CR1-2 can be (fairly) easily upgraded, also, since Ragnar is Financial and thus a few turns running at low research slider (after achieving the techs for the Berserk of course) should provide the necessary cash to achieve a pretty huge army of Berserks in short order.

I'll add those into the already long entry on Berserks :crazyeye: Thanks.

EDIT: I don't have enough time now so I'll add them later. Changed the bit on the Phalanx, though.

Added Wodan's suggestions to the Berserk entry. gusi's ideas on the Keshik will be entered next.

Added the entry on Keshiks. I also edited the entry on Jaguars to make a distinction between the current Warlords patch and vanilla. I will add the entry on Hwacha next. I think some ideas on how to use Praetorians, Redcoats, Cossacks and Chukonus most effectively (both on vanilla and Warlords) would be good. I don't usually play as the civs with these UUs, so I might not be as familiar with them as some of you.

Flanking 2 will also give Keshiks immunity to first strike, which will help against the drill promoted archers and longbows.

I haven't used a Mongol civ yet, but it seems to me that Keskiks should only be part of an invasion force. They can form part of a mobile wing of the army while a more normal force of axemen, swordsmen and catapults is also used. I would suggest that not more than 50% of the attacking force should be Keshiks unless the enemy is unprepared.

A mobile force moving 2 tiles in enemy culture and regardless of terrain can be formed. To defend the keshiks against spearmen I would give one of my axemen woodsman I and II promotions to allow 2 tile movement through jungles and woods. At that time it is likely there are many woods and jungles around to speed the axeman's movement most times. The keshiks can "hide" under the axeman's skirts if a spearman is around, and the axeman can go spearman hunting.

Here is a novel use for a much ignored unit that pairs up well with the keshik. A purely defensive mobile unit can be made with an explorer (strength 4, ignores terrain costs) who gets a free Guerilla I and Woodsman I and can be promoted another one or two levels. By sending one or two of these explorers with the mobile keshiks, spearmen can be beaten easily as long as the mobile force ends on hills or woods. Think of the explorer as sort of mobile fort and the defensive half or the force while the kesiks are the attacking half. Together they are formidable, and explorers are only 40 hammers. Explorers can't attack but they can get experience and help get a great general. Woe betide anything that tries to dislodge a Woodsman II, Guerilla II explorer sitting on a wooded hill :lol:

Strategically the effect of the keshik is to force the enemy to build spearmen as an effective counter. But Mongolia is an agressive civ and so axemen are a cheap and useful counter to spearmen. Spearmen cost more than archers and axemen kill them easier. So a combined force of keshiks and axemen is useful early on and against weak cities. Catapults and swordsmen allow tougher targets such as enemy capitals to be taken at reasonable costs.

Another viable pillaging strategy with keshiks and explorers is to move fast deep in the enemy territory and take out key resources such as copper, iron and horses. By pillaging roads they can break up the enemy communications and the flow of reinforcements. Overall it allows a very differnt form of warfare in this period.

Flanking 2 will also give Keshiks immunity to first strike, which will help against the drill promoted archers and longbows.

Wow. Totally forgot about that. Thanks.

A mobile force moving 2 tiles in enemy culture and regardless of terrain can be formed. To defend the keshiks against spearmen I would give one of my axemen woodsman I and II promotions to allow 2 tile movement through jungles and woods. At that time it is likely there are many woods and jungles around to speed the axeman's movement most times. The keshiks can "hide" under the axeman's skirts if a spearman is around, and the axeman can go spearman hunting...

Strategically the effect of the keshik is to force the enemy to build spearmen as an effective counter. But Mongolia is an agressive civ and so axemen are a cheap and useful counter to spearmen. Spearmen cost more than archers and axemen kill them easier. So a combined force of keshiks and axemen is useful early on and against weak cities. Catapults and swordsmen allow tougher targets such as enemy capitals to be taken at reasonable costs.

Combining horse archers with axes isn't a strategy that is unique to Mongolia. While giving your axes Woodsman I and II to keep in step with Keshiks when moving through forests/jungles is a novel idea, I doubt it's actually useful since it only applies to a particular type of terrain. Keshiks have freedom of movement. Curtailing that advantage in any way seems to defeat their purpose to me. I still stand by the idea that surprise and speed are your best assets, maybe supplemented with withdrawal chances and numbers.

Here is a novel use for a much ignored unit that pairs up well with the keshik. A purely defensive mobile unit can be made with an explorer (strength 4, ignores terrain costs) who gets a free Guerilla I and Woodsman I and can be promoted another one or two levels. By sending one or two of these explorers with the mobile keshiks, spearmen can be beaten easily as long as the mobile force ends on hills or woods. Think of the explorer as sort of mobile fort and the defensive half or the force while the kesiks are the attacking half. Together they are formidable, and explorers are only 40 hammers. Explorers can't attack but they can get experience and help get a great general. Woe betide anything that tries to dislodge a Woodsman II, Guerilla II explorer sitting on a wooded hill

This is a good idea. Thanks. Alas, explorers might come a bit too late. Nevertheless, I shall add this to the entry.

Anything that could be said about Skirmishers (Mali Archers - strength 4 instead of 3, extra first strike chance)? Archery is often considered a backup plan only for cases when no copper nor horses are available, but would the Skirmishers have a useful lifespan, promoting research of Archery when playing Mali?

Yes, but since I almost only play multiplayer, this is how mali can be played!

Beeline to archery, through hunting. Build barraks, possibly a 2nd city, depending on the game.

Then u send them out in groups of 2-3, and then u rush the enemy capitol. If he has 1 archer u won. If he has 1 archer and 1 warrior u won. If he has 2 archers, well, its gonna be hard.

The archer is a great unit, so the skirmisher also makes your towns very much harder to take. you can also deny the opponent resrouces, but putting skirmishers on his hills and forests..

Since mansa is also financial and spiritual, hes a good guy. But sadly, he doesnt start with mysticism which kinda negates the advantage from the UU, because his spi trait doesnt get to shine.

I'll come to Skirmishers soon. I have quite a recent experience using them in the first Emperor Challenge so I can certainly relate to them.

skirmishers don't require ressources, so it's in some way possible to rush an opponent with them "aztec style".
The bad thing about them is they are somewhat weak (strength 4 is not a lot) and if you pop rush them, you have to be careful of the overflow (i don't like whipping 1 pop because of happiness issues!).
So if you want to do a skirmisher rush, you go straight to a big food and hill zone and tech to archery asap. You need the hammers, because you will be slow building them mostly.
It's a bit theoric, since i never did.

My other favourite is the beserker. Again it has a nice synergy with the trading post. This works well on an archipelago map. pump out an extra workboat and see if you can get the circumnavigation bonus.

Gus

What is this circumnavigation bonus? Do you get anything but glory for this?

What is this circumnavigation bonus? Do you get anything but glory for this?

you get 1 bonus movement point for every naval unit (including existing ones) if you're the first civilization to have a map showing at least one tile of every "column" on horizontally wrapping maps.
This is called circumnavigation bonus because it's doable by moving one ship around the globe.
This is actually very powerful! It's like almost as powerful as a leader trait.

Note that on toroidal maps (wrapping EW and wrapping NS) you must circumnavigate on both axes AFAIK. And on non wrapping maps, I think the bonus doesn't apply.

We're a long way off topic now, sorry Aelf.

you get 1 bonus movement point for every naval unit (including existing ones) if you're the first civilization to have a map showing at least one tile of every "column" on horizontally wrapping maps.
This is called circumnavigation bonus because it's doable by moving one ship around the globe.
This is actually very powerful! It's like almost as powerful as a leader trait.

Note that on toroidal maps (wrapping EW and wrapping NS) you must circumnavigate on both axes AFAIK. And on non wrapping maps, I think the bonus doesn't apply.

We're a long way off topic now, sorry Aelf.

Thanks cabert!
I'v been playing Innland Sea, so....

And yes, sorry for the off topic moment, Aelf! :sad:

Two UUs I've become very fond of are Immortal and War Chariot... both are pretty cheap and only require horses, which most of the time you have relatively close by...

The Immortal is simply a beast in every conceivable setup and is useful for all tasks up until the advent of longbows... it works a charm at barb busting with bonuses against both archers and axemen and is surprisingly effective at attacking cities - with barracks (even before stables), as long as you have some fog of war around you get these guys to Flanking II in no time, you now have 60% withdrawal chance and bonuses against everything EXCEPT spears... tack-on a mobility promotion and you have a much more powerful variant of the mongol Keshiks (w/o the city attack penalty, with the bonuses vs. Archers and Axes). Immortals can be used very well to rush any civ that lacks early bronze or iron... and even if they have this, they're an excellent unit to pillage these resources (especially with the mobility promotion) since the AI seldomly defends resources with spears... also, as the AI prefers defending with archers, rather than spears, bringing along a couple of axes will negate alot of the advantage the spears have... with the 60% withdrawal chance, your Immortals can actually attack spears in cities and still have a reasonable survival chance.

With the War Chariot, while it isn't quite as powerful, it makes a similarly excellent job as barb-busters - BUT, in the early game it may also be used very well on the rush and as pillaging unit. One positive thing with it is the low price, coupled with the extremely solid 5 STR which this early in the game is significant. Also - it looks COOL :p. I am really fond of playing with Ramsess - he has an excellet chance of a pre-patch COL/CS slingshot due to the priests enabled by a monument... also, he is pretty easy to play both defensively and offensively with in the early game - especially on defense, since the AI very seldomly brings spearmen on the attack... attacking forces of axes will be utterly mauled.

/Andreas

Ever wondered how to leverage the UU of a particular civ you're playing? Do you find half the UUs lacklustre? Do you find yourself not using a particular civ's UU at all? I think you could use some suggestions.

While the War Academy has civ-specific guides involving extensive use of UUs for the Incas and the Romans, there isn't a guide to the various UUs to explain their uses. Everybody knows how to use strong ones like the Praetorians, but many are not exposed to the possibilities that the more subtle ones present. What spurred me to start this guide are the fairly common disparaging comments about some UUs, comments that are often simply wrong.

If you have something in mind, please feel free to contribute. You can add to the entries already written.


Arabia: Camel Archer (Knight)

Camel Archers are knights that have a higher withdrawal chance (25%) and don't require horses or iron. You could simply use them like normal knights, but the thing about them is Flanking promotions make them very good at surviving failed attacks (+55% withdrawal chance with Flanking II). This means you don't have to balk so much at attacking a city or a stack that has a defending pike, making them more reliable as an attack unit. Of course, if you end up with no horses or iron, they give you the option of building knights in the first place.

If you're playing on Warlords, you can improve their ability even further by attaching Great Generals to them as warlords. Give them the Tactics promotion (+30% withdrawal chance) and they would have 85% chance of retreating from a failed attack. Of course, you might get unlucky and lose your warlord unit if you often use it to attack at low odds. You should consider that 85% is far from 100%.

Aztecs: Jaguar Warrior (Swordsman)

Traditional whipping boys, these guys get 2 free promotions in Warlords now, Woodsman I as well as the Aggressive trait's Combat I. If you've built those cheap barracks, giving them Woodsman II immediately would allow you to rush a relatively cheap stack of them to enemy cities through forests and jungles. Of course, this comes at the price of not being able to give them the City Raider promotion first, but depending on how strong the target cities are, this may not be such a problem (they do get the inherent 10% bonus when attacking cities).

On a more conventional level, the benefit of the Jaguar is probably similar to that of the Gallic Warrior - better stack protection when standing on a particular terrain. Jaguars can even defend against counterattacks by axemen when positioned in forests and jungles as they get +70% terrain defense bonus there (+50% from the terrain and +20% from Woodsman I), making them good all-round defenders in this situation. Give them Woodsman II or Shock (both available immediately with barracks) and they would have no need to be afraid of axemen. Hence, if the land has plenty of foliage, you may want to bring a few of them along in any case. Note that this advantage applies only in jungles in Civ4 vanilla, where Jaguar gets +75% (+50% from the terrain and +25% jungle defense bonus). Remember, they don't require iron so you can start building them before hooking up the resource. The value of this UU greatly increases when you find yourself without copper and iron.

More on this last point, Jaguars are a sure way to rush a neighbour early in the game. You can plant your second city on the best production site in the direction of your target without waiting for copper or iron to be revealed. Then you build barracks and granary, research IW and start whipping Jaguars out without even having to bother with any resources. Get a stack of them and attack Aztec-style.

Celtia: Gallic Warrior (Swordsman)

Warlords only. The Gallic Warrior is a much-maligned UU. Most people wonder why an offensive unit is given a promotion for hill defense. How on earth is that going to help him attack cities, which is what it does best? Well, for me the answer jumped out immediately.

Attacking a city is the culmination of an offensive movement, which begins with your entering enemy territory. If you're careful, you would want to move your stack along the safest route to the target city as far as possible, which often means favouring forests and hills over flatlands. This is where the Gallic Warrior's free Guerilla I can help. While spearmen protect your stack against mounted units and axemen/xbows protect it from melee units, the Gallic Warrior is the best defender against other type of counterattacking units (eg. catapults) when your stack is on a hill. If your spearman is badly injured, the Gallic Warrior can even take over the job of defending against chariots or horse archers on a hill. Normal swordsmen may be badly injured before even attacking in these circumstances, while Gallic Warriors would probably be in a better shape.

Another neat thing about this UU is you can upgrade it to a maceman without losing the free Guerilla I, so the effect can last for some time. Also consider the fact that forests can be chopped but hills are permanent.

France: Musketeer (Musketman)

Although they are 1 strength point weaker than knights, muskets have no hard counter in their time, which is the whole point of this unit. Also, knights don't get defensive bonuses. So, assuming production and tech are not problems, when you need a unit to protect your stack at this stage of the game, which one would you pick? You probably want pikes to defend against mounted units, but against all the others? And when you defend a threatened city, would you want to do it with only longbows and pikes? Wouldn't it be good to have some versatile units that can both defend and counterattack?

Admittedly, these situations don't always come up, and the few times they do in a game might not be worth investing in enough musketmen to prepare for (but do take note that muskets can be drafted). However, Musketeers have 2 moves. That means they can reinforce any threatened city quickly, which makes them potentially better defenders than longbows. And when you need stack protection during a campaign, Musketeers, besides being an insurance that covers you against almost everything except knights (against whom you can simply bring pikes), are also able to pillage along the way. Not just that, their 2 moves mean you can have reserves catching up with your stack to take over the role of their wounded comrades should your stack come under attack. Musketeers can also do clean-up work when all your siege weapons and CR units have spent their turn, since they have 9 base strength and aren't afraid of pikes that may still be defending the city. Of course, Musketeers are great for a pillaging campaign, if you go for that kind of thing. Mix them with pikes in small stacks and they can move and pillage within a single turn and with near impunity. Musketeers are thus very versatile units.

A major gripe that people have about Musketeers is the fact that they obsolete too quickly since Chemistry is only 'a few techs away'. Their two moves actually help with this, since you can get them to the frontline to be used a lot more quickly compared to normal musketmen. Also, switching to Nationhood and drafting some can help you get enough of them out in time to be used effectively, especially since nothing upgrades to muskets and you have to build them from scratch otherwise. Of course, whether or not it's worth switching civics for this depends on the situation, but keep the option in mind. You can stay in Nationhood and research towards Rifling next so that you can soon start drafting riflemen.

On this note, there's another interesting use for Musketeers. Have you ever tried postponing Chemistry and beelining to Military Tradition for early cavalry? With Musketeers, this strategy is even better. Research techs along the Education route, be the first to get Liberalism, grab Nationalism as the free tech, research Gunpowder (which is also needed for cavalry), start drafting/building Musketeers (and use them first if you want), research Military Tradition, start building cavalry, escort your cavalry with Musketeers and launch a lightning campaign or pillage with impunity. Only Musketeers can keep up with your cavalry and protect them against costly counterattacks by enemy pikes. And Flanking cavalry are only afraid of the toughest longbow-defended cities, so there is often no need to bring slow moving siege weapons along. If you do this right, you can finish off one or two neighbours just like that before riflemen start appearing.

Greece: Phalanx (Spearman)

I think the Phalanx is in fact one of the stronger UUs in the game. With 5 strength and +25% hill defense bonus (not to be confused with free Guerilla promotion) it has enough going for it to be a league above its ordinary counterparts. Don't forget that they also get free Combat I.

The Phalanx is essentially a super spearman, but if you build them early enough in single player, chances are the AI might not have anything except archers. Thus, they would do just as well as axemen when used as a rush unit, except that they aren't afraid of chariots in Warlords (which gets +100% attack vs. axemen).

Besides this rather unorthodox use, the Phalanx also boasts a very long lifespan of more than two eras. Elephants give normal spearmen cause to worry and knights are too strong be really countered by normal spears. Phalangites, however, are able to counter elephants effectively and hold their own against knights. If they are defending on hills, no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions (with the exception of Conquistadors). Their hill defense bonus also means they are good at defending on hills against everything except anti-melee units. A solid package for a UU.

Mongolia: Keshik (Horse Archer)

Keshiks are horse archers that ignore terrain movement cost and get 1 first strike, but aren't immune to first strikes. Hence, they are extremely adept at raiding and pillaging, but aren't as good at attacking archers/longbows with Drill promotions. This has a few implications on a Mongolian player.

Surprise is the best asset of the Keshiks. Ignoring terrain movement cost means they can traverse forests/jungles and hills as easily as flatlands. Thus, it is easy for a Mongolian player to strike across difficult terrain at the unlikeliest of places, grabbing unguarded workers and lightly-defended cities or pillaging improvements (especially on strategic resources). However, this advantage relies on the enemy's inability to counterattack immediately with spearmen or a superior force, so good intelligence would be needed to know where exactly the enemy places his spears and the bulk of his units. If you do not have this luxury, you could always send more Keshiks in case you meet spears, but be prepared to lose quite a few of them. In addition, you could pillage enemy roads to eventually cripple his ability to counterattack. However, at the end of the day, the strategic advantage you gain from your harassment must outweigh the lost hammers you spent on the dead Keshiks

The Keshiks' first strike, meanwhile, makes them better than normal horse archers at picking off non-spear units in your territory or in the enemy's. Combined with their terrain movement advantage, this makes them good empire defenders and hit-and-run units. Unfortunately, the enemy can easily counter them by having spearmen guard his units, so this might only work effectively against the AI. There's also a limitation on how good Keshiks are in fighting non-spear units compared to normal horse archers. The immunity to first strikes that normal horse archers get makes them better at fighting archery units with Drill promotions or units with Drill III/IV. The Keshiks' own first strike can only negate one of the enemy units' first strikes. To remedy this, you have to give your Keshiks Flanking II so that they get immunity to first strikes as well.

This, in turn, highlights the Keshik's relative weakness (compared to normal horse archers) in attacking cities defended by Drill-promoted archery units. In Warlords, this means Protective civs are better covered against attempts to take cities with Keshiks. The 10% city attack penalty that the horse archer unit-type gets in Warlords makes them even less desirable as city raiders. Thus, the only hope a Warlords Mongolian player might have in using Keshiks to conquer is to rely on speed, Flanking promotions and numbers (also applies to vanilla, but not to such a large extent).

With barracks and Ger in the city, a Keshik gets 7 exp upon being built. Unfortunately, none of the Mongolian leaders are Charismatic, so that will only allow for 2 initial promotions, just like if you have a normal stable instead of the Mongolian UB (of course, Gers mean they could be promoted to the next level sooner, though). But, at any rate, 2 initial promotions are good enough. Give most of the Keshiks Flanking I and II to give them 50% withdrawal chance each (including the natural 20%) and immunity to first strikes. Give Combat I and Medic I or Combat I and Shock (for defending against spearmen) to the rest. Have at least one Medic I Keshik and one Shock Keshik in each stack. If you get Compass early enough, you can use explorers (strength 4, ignores terrain movement cost and starts with free Guerilla I and Woodsman I) to help protect your stacks when they stop on hills or forests/jungles. 3 or 4 cities with Gers pumping out Keshiks would usually be good enough to amass a sizeable army in reasonable time.

As your Keshiks attack enemy cities, some will die, some will withdraw and some will win. The medics will ensure that the withdrawing and winning Keshiks heal up more quickly. If you manage to overwhelm a prepared enemy with numbers, your speed advantage (from ignoring terrain movement cost and faster healing) will make sure the enemy will not be able to fight back or resist as well, hastening his destruction. If the enemy is unprepared in the first place, your speed advantage will ensure his quick defeat. Note that this strategy can only work if the enemy doesn't have longbows yet.

You should be prepared to build courthouses and marketplaces to help you keep your winnings. But even if you're not, you can just resort to razing and pillaging for some barbaric fun. Long live the Golden Horde!

Vikings: Berserk (Maceman)

Warlords only. Hate them or love them, Berserks are a popular UU. Although, not as powerful as their Civ3 incarnation, these guys can really be useful. Their 10% bonus vs. cities is certainly nice. However, for many people the problem is finding a good use for their free Amphibious promotion.

The Vikings have a higher potential to rule on water maps than any other civ. Ragnar is Financial, which means coastal tiles produce 3 commerce instead of 2, and his UB allows his ships to move further earlier in the game by giving free Navigation promotion. Combined with the Berserk's ability to attack amphibiously with no penalty and its city attack bonus, a Viking player on a water map can fast tech to Civil Service and Machinery and have fun raiding enemy coastal cities with Berserks on fast galleys. One method to do this early is building the Oracle and grabbing Metal Casting as the free tech (which, by the way, gives access to Colossus for a further boost to those coastal tiles). Then build/whip a forge and run an engineer in a city without the Oracle. Research your way to Code of Laws and Civil Service a.s.a.p. (in the pre-patch version you can use a prophet generated by the Oracle to lightbulb CoL/CS by not researching Masonry). In the meantime, build several galleys to prepare for your sea adventures. You'll get a Great Engineer as your 1st or 2nd Great Person from the forge city. Use him to lightbulb Machinery and start building Berserks. You could also put your research slider at 0% for a few turns and upgrade some axes to Berserks (being Financial helps with accumulating money for that). If you catch your opponents without longbows yet, you've done really well.

There are limitations to your Berserks' ability to raid cities from the sea, though. If a city is defended by longbows, on a hill, has high cultural defense and/or walls, it could be difficult to take and might render an attempt not worth the cost. To attack such a city, you probably need to bring siege units along as galleys/triremes are not able to even bombard the city's defenses. Having to land siege units to bombard/deal collateral damage nullifies the Berserks' amphibious advantage. As such, you would need to look for softer targets to strike at. You don't have to keep the city. Find a weak spot (a lightly defended coastal city), raid, raze and pop back into the galleys before the enemy can counterattack. Landing a spear with the Berserker that has to land on that turn would help the latter survive a counterattack by mounted units (the most likely reaction you'll get from an AI). But becareful not to attack too close to an AI capital. AIs tend to stack more units in their capitals and can easily counterattack with a stronger force from there. Humans in MP will be wary of a sea attack, so watch out for axes/xbows in or within reach of coastal cities.

Even if you're not playing on a water map, Berserks present some interesting options. With them, you have the advantage when laying siege to a city across a river if the enemy doesn't have Engineering. His non-mounted units cannot counter attack from the city without suffering a 20% penalty for attacking across the river. With their free Amphibious promotion, Berserks get no such penalty attacking the city. The only downside is your siege units do suffer from the penalty if you want to cause some collateral damage first. Conversely, this idea works in defense as well. When enemy units are across a river beside one of your cities, you can attack them with your Berserks with no penalty while they would suffer it when they attack. At the very least, Berserks always get their 10% bonus when attacking cities.

Perhaps the most valuable thing about the Berserk is the fact that he keeps the Amphibious promotion when upgraded. This allows a Viking player to build City Raider Berserks and upgrade them later on to CR grenadiers or riflemen with free Amphibious. Frigates are able to bombard city defenses, so you can get yourself an ultimate amphibious gunpowder army long before marines make their appearance.


Looking forward to getting your ideas to add to this list :king: Thanks to Robo Kai, kniteowl, Cabert, Wodan, johnny_rico, gusi and UncleJJ for your contributions and Thedrin for your correction.




This is all extremely enlightening and correct, it will be of much help to me when I play those Civilizations! :goodjob:

no mounted unit before cavalry can beat them without luck or promotions.

Your wrong.

A Phalanx gets a 100% bonus against mounted units, and it has a base strength of five, that means if its not fortified and its not on a hill or in a forest it has a strength of ten, the same as a Knight (as long a neither of them have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

Thus, a Knight could quite possibly beat a Phalanx as long as those conditions are met, and even if there not the Knight still has a small chance to beat the Phalanx, and if the Phalanx attacks the Knight then the Knight there is always a 50% chance of victory as long as the Phalanx and the Knight both do not have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

Your wrong.

A Phalanx gets a 100% bonus against mounted units, and it has a base strength of five, that means if its not fortified and its not on a hill or in a forest it has a strength of ten, the same as a Knight (as long a neither of them have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

Thus, a Knight could quite possibly beat a Phalanx as long as those conditions are met, and even if there not the Knight still has a small chance to beat the Phalanx, and if the Phalanx attacks the Knight then the Knight there is always a 50% chance of victory as long as the Phalanx and the Knight both do not have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

worse, the knight's combat promotions are worth 1 strength each, while the phalanx's combat promotion is worth 0,5 strength (10% of base strength!).
Still, a hill fortified phalanx or a city fortified phalanx has nothing to fear from a knight.

With the War Chariot, while it isn't quite as powerful

I beg to differ. Immortals are slightly better against archers, have higher withdrawal chance and get defensive bonuses. But War Chariots are 2-move axemen who are weaker vs spearmen. And WCs will certainly die much less horribly against spears compared to Immortals. Fear the Egyptian player with mass War Chariots!

But thanks for your ideas. I will incorporate them into the respective entries. The order will be Hwacha, Skirmisher, Immortal and then War Chariot. Did I miss anything out?

Your wrong.

A Phalanx gets a 100% bonus against mounted units, and it has a base strength of five, that means if its not fortified and its not on a hill or in a forest it has a strength of ten, the same as a Knight (as long a neither of them have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

Thus, a Knight could quite possibly beat a Phalanx as long as those conditions are met, and even if there not the Knight still has a small chance to beat the Phalanx, and if the Phalanx attacks the Knight then the Knight there is always a 50% chance of victory as long as the Phalanx and the Knight both do not have any combat strenght increasing promotions).

I think I was the one who said that.

And, as Cabert mentioned, I was referring to a Phalanx defending on a hill. But, anyway, thanks for your appreciation. I do hope this guide provides some genuine help to players out there.

One more thing w/r to Jaguars... I haven't really played Aztecs alot but was really impressed by how well these guys performed on the early rush... now, one thing - while CoL comes much later than the initial rush, an Aztec player could conceivably get CoL relatively fast through Lightbulbing it with a GP and the combination of easy whipping with the Courthouses further re-inforces the potential to overwhelm the opponent early

Just one thought - this article is excellent, shouldn't it really be in the strategy article forum, as opposed to strategy tips?

:goodjob:

/Andreas

The order will be Hwacha, Skirmisher, Immortal and then War Chariot. Did I miss anything out?

Well... assuming you're including Vanilla units as well (and Jaguars hint at it), I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts on e.g. Cho-ko-nu [especially with protective trait synergies], Impi, Numidian Cavalry, Redcoat, Quecha, Cossacks, Marines, Panzer etc. as well - or maybe you feel these are already thoroughly discussed?

:mischief: :)

/Andreas

Just one thought - this article is excellent, shouldn't it really be in the strategy article forum, as opposed to strategy tips?

:goodjob:

I second this (when you're done of course!)

There's a lot more work to be done before this article can go to the strategy articles forum. I shudder a little at the thought :eek:

Well... assuming you're including Vanilla units as well (and Jaguars hint at it), I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts on e.g. Cho-ko-nu [especially with protective trait synergies], Impi, Numidian Cavalry, Redcoat, Quecha, Cossacks, Marines, Panzer etc. as well - or maybe you feel these are already thoroughly discussed?

I did try to cover both vanilla and Warlords, including making a distinction between the two versions (where applicable) for UUs that have been there since vanilla.

Now, the real challenge is to write about those UUs that are undoubtedly strong. Where do I begin and end for each one of them? :p What makes it even harder is my tendency not to play civs with these UUs. And I have to cover them as well, or else this guide would not be complete.

I think I'll have to rely mostly on public input for them.

I did try to cover both vanilla and Warlords, including making a distinction between the two versions (where applicable) for UUs that have been there since vanilla.

Don't bother with vanilla.
It would make the redcoats and cossacks lines very confusing.

One more thing w/r to Jaguars... I haven't really played Aztecs alot but was really impressed by how well these guys performed on the early rush... now, one thing - while CoL comes much later than the initial rush, an Aztec player could conceivably get CoL relatively fast through Lightbulbing it with a GP and the combination of easy whipping with the Courthouses further re-inforces the potential to overwhelm the opponent early

The synergy between early warmongering and the Aztec UB is undoubtedly strong. However, I won't go there because, strictly speaking, that goes beyond the scope of the UU itself.

Anyway, do you play Rise of Nations? The Aztecs there are even better at rushing.

Don't bother with vanilla.
It would make the redcoats and cossacks lines very confusing.

I did that with the Jaguar.

I think it's possible for the entries on these UUs if we divide them into two parts each and cover both versions separately.

with the new patch some more things change, like the Jaguar is even better now :)

with the new patch some more things change, like the Jaguar is even better now

Yeah, didn't I mention it?

Added an entry on Skirmishers. Hwacha needs more time to write about and I don't have enough time now. Will add the entry on that next.

Added the role of stables to the Camel Archer entry and cleaned up the Skirmisher entry.

This is a good idea. Thanks. Alas, explorers might come a bit too late. Nevertheless, I shall add this to the entry.
This is Re: Keshiks with Explorers

A better idea might be to spend your first general on an Axe and get him to Mobility and/or Commando. You're started on the way with the free Combat 1.

This is all extremely enlightening and correct, it will be of much help to me when I play those Civilizations! :goodjob:
I'm sure Aelf appreciates the thought but you get the "bad poster" award for quoting 3 screens of text along with a 1 line reply. :nuke:

Wodan

ps Sorry I'm sarky today

Some really good stuff in this thread. I am both happy and impressed to see someone tackling this monster of a job.





Of course, I say that only because you say nice things about the Beserkers. ;)


I am looking forward to the Impi and hope you do not mind that I may even chime in?

can i do the entry on conqiustadors:)

A tip for the Hwacha is to check out the Warlords game of the month 2 reports. Eg someone reported doing an invasion with Hwachas supported by Longbows.

Wodan, the Commando/Mobility axe idea is a bit esoteric, don't you think? I wouldn't do that. Except maybe when I'm extremely bored :p

Anyway, for those of you who want to, sure - Impi, Conquistadors or anything. Give me your ideas :)

A tip for the Hwacha is to check out the Warlords game of the month 2 reports. Eg someone reported doing an invasion with Hwachas supported by Longbows.

I'll check it out when I'm writing the entry on Hwacha. But I have a feeling the basic idea behind it is the fact that Hwachas are axemen with collateral damage, right?

I'm not sure I got any particular basic idea. I remembered that one idea and I think there might be others. They do have a bit of a synergy stacked with Protective archery units.

Played extensively with the Aztecs yesterday... I know the limitations of the Jags have been covered in different forums, but I think three points are worth highlighting especially:

- If you happen to find copper near the starting location, the Jaguar is more or less worthless... researching IW to get the extra 10% CR and Woodsman I promotion (while forgoing 50% bonus vs. Melee) is simply not worth it, especially since IW takes a long while to research and postpones the rush

- An axeman rush is likley to be more successful than a Jag rush anyways - by the time you have CRI axemen up and running most opponents have unpromoted archers. By the time Jags come around, they often have promoted archers, chariots/horses or axemen

- If up against a protective AI - forget it. Even with barracks (Power I, Woodsman I, CRI or Cover) Jaguars simply don't stand a chance against fortified archers with CD2, Drill 1...

So - I had high hopes for trying Jags on the rush in warlords... ended up on a continent with 3 opponents - the closest two were China and Arabia... to be blunt - there was simply no way to take anything with the Jags without strong cat support...

/Andreas

A tip for the Hwacha is to check out the Warlords game of the month 2 reports. Eg someone reported doing an invasion with Hwachas supported by Longbows.

A Hwacha/spearman army would be much more effective. Mounted units are designed as the in-the-field counters to both siege and archery units. A hwacha is good against just about everything except mounted units.

Played extensively with the Aztecs yesterday... I know the limitations of the Jags have been covered in different forums, but I think three points are worth highlighting especially:

- If you happen to find copper near the starting location, the Jaguar is more or less worthless... researching IW to get the extra 10% CR and Woodsman I promotion (while forgoing 50% bonus vs. Melee) is simply not worth it, especially since IW takes a long while to research and postpones the rush

- An axeman rush is likley to be more successful than a Jag rush anyways - by the time you have CRI axemen up and running most opponents have unpromoted archers. By the time Jags come around, they often have promoted archers, chariots/horses or axemen

- If up against a protective AI - forget it. Even with barracks (Power I, Woodsman I, CRI or Cover) Jaguars simply don't stand a chance against fortified archers with CD2, Drill 1...

So - I had high hopes for trying Jags on the rush in warlords... ended up on a continent with 3 opponents - the closest two were China and Arabia... to be blunt - there was simply no way to take anything with the Jags without strong cat support...

/Andreas

Iron Working too far away? Use an EARLY Oracle Slingshot to pickup IW and build a temple and asisgn a Priest to Pop a GP to lightbulb Theology for early lvl 3 units (5XP)

Early Oracle Slingshot meaning lots of Food and Hills being worked, no chopping because you don't have BW yet

The point of the early Jag rush is SPEED, imagine a chariot rush on steriods, they have 5.5 str and no one can touch them when defending in forest.

If you want Str, Go play rome and their Prats.

Basically the Jags 1st Promotion (note this is after the 2.08 Patch) is Woodsman 2. If you start off near the Equator where there's lots of Jungle with an AI close by they have no chance of countering. You'd capture the 1st City within 1-2 turns, a capital within 3 turns Assuming you stacked your army outside their cultural broaders.

Once you have Theology, switch to theocracy and attack another AI with lvl 3 Jags usually they have (W1&2 + CR1) and rush the 2nd AI untill I capture their Capital or untill my economy Stars suffering.

Prot AIs or Cities on a hill? Means you need more numbers, 3 Jags for every archer. Prot AND on a hill? 4 Jags for every Archer(but you might get lucky and A lot fo Jags will Survive)

Jags are cheap anywayz it's not very Hard to rush them and unlike Axes where you have to hookup A resource eg- Copper, Jags are resource-less you you can use those few Turns to rush them faster and attack the AI earlier.

I sometimes divert my research to AH for Chariots to Counter Axes when I know my Jags have no Forest Defence near a City and they have copper/iron hooked up.

Kniteowl,

all good points... I guess I need to make sure I have more numbers... I am very comfortable winning at Prince on the moment and looking to move up to Monarch, however I usually win relying more on building than warring (often through Diplomatic or Space wins) and thus am looking to succeed with a more war-based approach... hence, I've tried playing Egypt (with great success), Japan (with no success - three games in a row with isolated start on continents... sure, could chose Pangea, but prefer continents) and now dabbling with Aztecs... I guess, I am used to warring from a point of massive tech advantage, which inevitably leads to wars with limited losses... hence, the idea of overwhelming numbers and "acceptable" large losses is somewhat unusual to me - though a good point.

Thanks for the idea of the early slingshot btw... I'd perviously foregone the religious track to b-line for Iron - however, it'd obviously be faster (since also missing mining) to get to priesthood and build the oracle and if lucky there'd be a good chance at picking up a religion on the way... so really like the approach.

/Andreas

Kniteowl,

all good points... I guess I need to make sure I have more numbers... I am very comfortable winning at Prince on the moment and looking to move up to Monarch, however I usually win relying more on building than warring (often through Diplomatic or Space wins) and thus am looking to succeed with a more war-based approach... hence, I've tried playing Egypt (with great success), Japan (with no success - three games in a row with isolated start on continents... sure, could chose Pangea, but prefer continents) and now dabbling with Aztecs... I guess, I am used to warring from a point of massive tech advantage, which inevitably leads to wars with limited losses... hence, the idea of overwhelming numbers and "acceptable" large losses is somewhat unusual to me - though a good point.

Thanks for the idea of the early slingshot btw... I'd perviously foregone the religious track to b-line for Iron - however, it'd obviously be faster (since also missing mining) to get to priesthood and build the oracle and if lucky there'd be a good chance at picking up a religion on the way... so really like the approach.

/Andreas

No Problem BTW the Early Oracle City with lots of Hills and Food will be able to Mass Produced Jags Quite Easily right after you complete the Oracle. If you complete BW earlier then the Oracle 1 or 2 chops should be enough.
So number's isn't much of a problem it really depends on enviroment, location, timing and you could be near the poles and be effective against the AI using this Tactic as long as you use the Forest Effectively to move your Jags quickly. As long as your not near a huge Patch of Deserts, the Jag Rush should be Quite effective. I try to time my war with the completion of Alphabet So after I capture the AI Capital I'll negociate for Peace and Extort a Few techs from the AI.

About the knight vs phalanx, the phalanx is from an AGG civ, so it starts with combat 1 before any promotions. Thus, unpromoted, a phalanx always beats a knight, without luck. (5.5 vs 10/(1+1) = 5) because 5.5 > 5 and luck is not an option.

About the knight vs phalanx, the phalanx is from an AGG civ, so it starts with combat 1 before any promotions. Thus, unpromoted, a phalanx always beats a knight, without luck. (5.5 vs 10/(1+1) = 5) because 5.5 > 5 and luck is not an option.

I've suffered enough bad luck in Civ4 to know that luck is a big factor and you can't always trust the combat odds. But, in theory, you're right.

Regarding Jaguars, do you guys think there's anything I need to add to the entry?

I've suffered enough bad luck in Civ4 to know that luck is a big factor and you can't always trust the combat odds. But, in theory, you're right.

Regarding Jaguars, do you guys think there's anything I need to add to the entry?

I don't think so. kniteowl's strat is good and strong, but it relies on the oracle, which we don't really need for a jaguar rush. It may be a good option, but not in every situation. The whole point of jaguar rush is to not rely on any gamble. + it's very clear right now and although it is true that with copper around you won't need the jaguars a lot, it's also true that building a strong production second city without checking for copper is a solid rushing key. Building barracks takes a while, growing to be able to pop rush takes a while too. Researching IW in this time is certainly not delaying much.

I don't think so. kniteowl's strat is good and strong, but it relies on the oracle, which we don't really need for a jaguar rush. It may be a good option, but not in every situation. The whole point of jaguar rush is to not rely on any gamble. + it's very clear right now and although it is true that with copper around you won't need the jaguars a lot, it's also true that building a strong production second city without checking for copper is a solid rushing key. Building barracks takes a while, growing to be able to pop rush takes a while too. Researching IW in this time is certainly not delaying much.

Personally, I wouldn't build the Oracle just for IW anyway. Seems like a waste of not just the wonder, but also hammers that could be better spent building a settler and maybe another worker. More cities and more farms = better pop rushing prospects.

Personally, I wouldn't build the Oracle just for IW anyway. Seems like a waste of not just the wonder, but also hammers that could be better spent building a settler and maybe another worker. More cities and more farms = better pop rushing prospects.

If It Means Sacrificing the Oracle to capture an AI Capital I'm all for it. A captured Capital is worth more then a settler or a worker in my books. Researching to IW takes too long I'd Rather Research Worker tech or Alphabet instead.

Whether it's a Gamble... I don't know Your going for a VERY EARLY ORACLE RUSH I generally get it before writing and pottery so no COL or MC Slingshot. Plus Having Myst as a Starting Tech mean your ahead of most AI in getting the Oracle.

The only excpetion where I wouldn't go for the Jag Rush is where There's very Few Forest and Jungle between me and my AI Prey, at that situation I'd normally go for an AXE RUSH IF I have Copper.

Anyway, for those of you who want to, sure - Impi, Conquistadors or anything. Give me your ideas :)mkay
heres the conquisadors
Conquisadors have a 50% bonus against melee i cant stress this enough plus they get a defensive bonus. Many a game ive used them as expensive longbowmen:mischief: . So they can capture and hold a city until archers or longbowmen arrive to relieve. A couple downsides downside to them i can find is that they cant get the promotion against archers but as city attackers their more than competent, their expenisve, you need horse and iron to make them.
-s.c.dude

mkay
heres the conquisadors
Conquisadors have a 50% bonus against melee i cant stress this enough plus they get a defensive bonus. Many a game ive used them as expensive longbowmen:mischief: . So they can capture and hold a city until archers or longbowmen arrive to relieve. A couple downsides downside to them i can find is that they cant get the promotion against archers but as city attackers their more than competent, their expenisve, you need horse and iron to make them.
-s.c.dude

Conquistadors also make great guard units for seige weaponry, especially since you can give catapults/trebuchets triple city attack with spain. Other knights and war elephants have a chance in open ground but that's all until grenadiers/cavalry come along. So stack pikes and seige and get a few conquistadors in there and you have an unstoppable stack of death.

Added the entry on Hwacha. Immortals are next, followed by War Chariots and Conquistadors. Still waiting for drkodos' take on Impi :)

Conquistadors are kinda brutal frankly, but unfortunately, the tech tree is such that by the time you get knights, they become obselete pretty quickly.

What does interest me is this: how much of an economic advantage does the fast worker give you? Very hard to setup an experiment I understand.

Conquistadors and Castle undercut each other to some extent. I just started a game as Isabella and was figuring out my game plan when I realized I didn't know if I wanted to go for early Trebuchets/Castles or early Conquistadors.

Wodan

Conquistadors and Castle undercut each other to some extent. I just started a game as Isabella and was figuring out my game plan when I realized I didn't know if I wanted to go for early Trebuchets/Castles or early Conquistadors.

Wodan

An unfortunate side effect for Isabella with the addition of the treb and her UB. It seems an oversight on the developers parts to have a UU and UB available in the same era on different tech paths. Doubly so, because the window for each is short. Thus, I usually settle on the trebs as they are the bulk of my army.

Hmm... I can frequently trade for either Engineering or Guilds in my games. They are not usually big on knights, but I can see the point of getting Conquistadors early (unless your neighbours have elephants). I'd trade for Engineering.

Thought I'd add my two cents regarding the carthaginian UU. I'm not certain if there are already any contributions on this thread regarding the unit, I only know Aelf hasn't done an 'official' write up. So........

With the advent of chariots gaining the ablility to crush axemen, it seems the common trend has been to make super axemen. The Numidian cavalry is such a unit. It's too bad the on screen icon has these guys holding spears; they're basically axemen on horseback, gaining a movement of 2 and the same horse archer bonus vs. siege. They enjoy the +50% vs. melee, as all axemen do, however, they cannot acquire the city raider promotion.

While the numidian cavalry is a useful unit, it is not a game breaker. You won't be taking cities with them nor will they make up the bulk up your army. They make excellent stack busters on defense, however, you'll want to attack with these guys when defending your land as they do not receive defensive bonuses. The +50% vs. melee and siege gives them a nice advantage versus any stack invading your lands. They'll still have a tough time with spears, however, with a shock promotion, they are even (+75% melee vs. +100% mounted = +25% mounted; 25% of 4 is 1 totalling 5, the attack value of the Numidian Cavalry).

Other advantages include starting with flanking 1 and as Hannibal is a charismatic leader, promotions now occur at 2, 4, 8, 13, and 20 XPs. Having this UU come out of the gate (no pun intended) with 11 XP is doable, making each unit one victory away from it's 5th promotion. And the flanking promotion will carry over when upgraded to a knight. 5 promotions for a knight is a formidable unit so lots of this UU are a good idea.

I feel like I have one more thing to add but can't seem to recall it.

Conquistadors are kinda brutal frankly, but unfortunately, the tech tree is such that by the time you get knights, they become obselete pretty quickly.

No, they're not. They don't become obsolete until rifling or military tradition have been researched. It's not at all difficult to beeline to guilds early and even a slight emphasis on the lower branch of the tech tree will - assuming a decent rate of research - give conquistadors a long life time. In that period of time only Janissarys and war elephants have a definite edge over them.

Wow, johnny, I'd have to think of some other way to give credit to you in the article, with all those ideas you're posting :)

No Problem Aelf. the UU's are one of my favorite parts of the game so I make lots of them with any civ I play. I give them a variety of promotions and see what works best. I don't require any special thanks though, I've received a lot of good info from the forums so it's only right to contribute where you can.

Don't worry. I know what to do ;)

Anyway, sorry for the lack of new entries, guys. I'm mostly busy with work and EMC3 these few days.

Added the entry on Immortals. War Chariots and Conquistadors are next in line. What happened to the ideas on Impi?

Added the entry on Immortals. War Chariots and Conquistadors are next in line. What happened to the ideas on Impi?


Oh Snap! When I got banned I forgot about them. :lol: I am currently engaged in working out some settler first stuff, but would be willing to get something going later this evening.

Impi Zulu Unique Unit Replaces Spearman.

On the surface, the Impi may not appear to be a stellar unit because it does not come slathered with a bunch of special bonuses. But, let's look a bit closer.

The one it does come with can be decisive: Mobility (-1 movement cost for any space (!) that cost 2+ mps to enter). Because Shaka is Aggressive trait, they also start with Combat 1 promotion. Their primary abilty is to move quickly and efficiently over terrain and catch another nation with an improperly defended city in the early game when borders are not too large. They can sit at an angle two tiles removed from the city square and attack directly into the city on the same turn that war is declared. This makes them brilliant pillagers as well as worker stealers because their combat promo gives them a nice boost for defense.

Of course they come with the Spearman 100% bonus to mounted units and because they are Melee units they can get City Raider promotions as well as Combat all the way up to Commando. This creates a game unit quite similar to its real life counterpart, which were known for their encircling tactic, and this is an effective way of using them in Civ as well.

Naturally, they are great to keep in stacks to defend against mounted units.

Because they are relatively inexpensive (35 hammers), you can use them to create an overwhelming force to bum rush your opponents and make them feel as if they have become Lord Chelmsford as they get overrun (literally) by these fleet footed warriors.

They have tremendous synergy with the Zulu UB, the Ikhanda, which gives +3 experience points to new units as well as acting as a mini courthouse (-20% maintenance cost for the city) so you can really use them to early rush and grab some cities from an unsuspecting opponent. In addition, Shaka builds his UB at double production speed. Thus, you can have them roll out with Combat 2/Mobility or go more flexible with CR1/Combat 1/Mobility or even go straight to SHOCK promo (Combat 1 is a prereq) to take out enemy archers.

This makes them a very powerful early game force for the early game warmongerer who like to claim a bunch of opponent cities before settling in to win a variety of victory types.

Shaka starts with Hunting (which is their required build tech), but they need copper or iron to be built so beeline to BW is sometimes called for if you want to rush with them.



I believe them to be the most powerful early game UU when used properly and potentially game breaking in the right hands.

I've Only played the Zulu's Once, I generally use the Impi for Fog busting and scouting, especially on larger maps and with very few Civs and Barb Rampant all over Pre-Axes off, of course even with Axes you can alway run away frm them with their 2 movement and Mobility Promotion.

Also Great for pillaging Pre-IW. With the Impi/Chariot Combination, after IW the Impi/Axe Combination will do well also.

Never Done an Impi Rush before, Be similar to a Jag Rush I guess Except you only have 4.5 Str Soilders, They'd be like chariots with Defensive bonus and can move on all terrain.

Note: All impi Units that are upgraded Keep their Mobility promotions, No Mounted Unit is safe (except Conquistador) with mobility Pikes around and if they survive to the industrial Age and upgraded to Rifles and Grandiers, you'll have Quick moving CR units MUAHAHAHAHA.

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

@drkodos: Shock doesn't take out archers, unless you're referring to the fact that putting Shock on Impi will mean they face the archers first...

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

@drkodos: Shock doesn't take out archers, unless you're referring to the fact that putting Shock on Impi will mean they face the archers first...

Thank you for the correction. :hatsoff:

Yes, mobility can sometimes be tricky to figure out. In essence, it renders all terrain 1 Movement "point" to enter. I did not discuss their upgrade path, and this was one reason why.

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

Yes, mobility can sometimes be tricky to figure out. In essence, it renders all terrain 1 Movement "point" to enter. I did not discuss their upgrade path, and this was one reason why.

Really? I had no idea that the mobility has no effect on Single movement units.

Maybe Firaxis Should consider Decreasing the Impi Movement to One and Giving them "Morale" as a Free promotion in combination with Mobility in the next patch.

Be basically simlar to Jags, Berserkers and Gallic Warriors and keeping Free Promotion from previous UUs except the Impi's will only be allowed to upgrade to Pikes...they won't be dangerous untill the industrial Age... Which is a very long time from the Ancient Age.

I'm not sure if changing the Impi in this way would be overpowerd though.

Thanks, drkodos.

I'll be busy with work these few days. I'll make another entry as soon as I can.

Added the entry on War Chariots. Conquistadors and Impi are next.

If at any point I miss out on somebody in the credits, please let me know. You can pm me.

Added the entry on War Chariots. Conquistadors and Impi are next.

If at any point I miss out on somebody in the credits, please let me know. You can pm me.


I am not looking for credit so much as I subscibe to the Reaganesqe notion that there is no limit to what a person can acheive if they have no concern for who gets the credit. I'm just excited to see a nice complete work that will stand for some time and hopefully help some other players find a nice source of reference and give some pointers.

So to that, I say all real credit belongs to you, since you created and breathed the life into the thread! I hope it eventually can get added to the War Academy. That would be nice.

Added the entry on War Chariots. Conquistadors and Impi are next.

If at any point I miss out on somebody in the credits, please let me know. You can pm me.

You were very kind to give me credit, and I appreciate it.
I'm humble enough to say it isn't deserved, although I like it enough to not ask you to remove it :lol: .

One more thing.
When you'll go for redcoat entry, you really need to say how powerful a full load of those draftees is.
It's totally overpowered in vanilla, and still a really big advantage in warlords.
Even more so if you play churchill (protective!).
But I understand it's not yet the moment.

Egypt: War Chariot (Chariot)

The Egyptian War Chariot is an axeman on wheels with no City Raider promotions but has withdrawal chance.

<snip>

That said, I have found Flanking promotions a generally better choice when up against spears. Even with Shock, War Chariots have lower odds of winning, so you might as well increase their survival rate (which can be done better in vanilla due to the extra withdrawal chance). Flanking II also negates archers' first strikes, although Combat promotions generally help War Chariots more in dealing with archers.


War Chariots already have a basic immunity to first strike which is another reason why they are so overwhelming. That makes what you've written about flanking 2 superfluous :eek: The only reason I'd give a WC flanking is to get the sentry promotion, so only one or 2 ever get that. Also the knight which the WC upgrades to already has imunity to FS so that is not a good reason to go with flanking 1 and 2.

A WC is a good unit to give combat and medic to be the basic stack healer, which is another favourite use for me for one or two of them. Also an ideal unit to join your first GG to.

I think you should mention the importance of researching Horseback Riding for the stables which nicely gives them the important 2 promotions in combination with the barracks. So WCs with shock can be built. An important thing to notice is that the WC is a much better unit for most purposes that the HA despite costing only 25 hammers instead of the 60 the HA costs.

In its struggle against the spearman the low production cost of the WC with shock makes it a cost effective weapon for a war of attrition. If it takes 2 WC with shock to destroy one spearman, the first to die gallantly (small chance to win and 10% chance to withdraw) but seriously wound the spearman, and the second to win most often then we have spent 50 hammers to defeat 35 and still have 25 left. That is a good hammer trade in the early game.

I did a simple test of WC versus spear using the world builder and came up with the following results:
A WC with shock versus spear with combat 1 (in open and not fortified) has 21% chance of winning and 7% of withdraw. The second WC (assuming first lost or withdrew) has something like a 99% chance of winning and takes little or no damage. Obviously if the spearman was in terrain or fortified the chances would drop appreciably. However, in the open that is a clear 25 hammers (7% withdraw) for 35 hammers and means that enemy stacks defended by spearmen are very vulnerable.

The WC is such a good value unit that it can be used much later in the game than the normal chariot. Supported by catapults and trebuchets and other troops they can finish off damaged troops in the middle ages. Against longbows and crossbows that are damaged they are immune to FS and have a withdraw chance and are better value than HA since they don't get the -10% versus a city. Overall an incredible unit.

Good points for everything except this...

I did a simple test of WC versus spear using the world builder and came up with the following results:
A WC with shock versus spear with combat 1 (in open and not fortified) has 21% chance of winning and 7% of withdraw. The second WC (assuming first lost or withdrew) has something like a 99% chance of winning and takes little or no damage.
The second WC will depend upon how much damage the spear took from the first one. I believe this is random. So, claims of 99% aren't valid. Correct?

Wodan

Good points for everything except this...


The second WC will depend upon how much damage the spear took from the first one. I believe this is random. So, claims of 99% aren't valid. Correct?

Wodan
I only did 4 tests and they all gave me 99% for the second WC. The second WC always killed the spearman. I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect not. Feel free to try it yourself.

The point about WC is that they are cheaper than spears and faster and basically we can trade 1 WC for each spearman. For every spearman that gets lucky and kills 2 WC (possible but unlikely) we will get a few WCs that withdraw. I estimate that on average 1 WC with shock can be traded for 1 spearman as long as we have at least twice as many WCs

Also note that my exact words were "something like a 99% chance" and not a bald 99% claim. I consider that covers the variability you allude to.

Thanks for the pointers. I'll make amendments as soon as possible. Right now I have to go get some sleep soon.

Seeing as how I have recently decided (on a whim) to play a couple more games as Vikings, here are some assorted comments in the way of fine tuning. Edit, ignore, and/or integrate as you see fit, aelf. I'll probably be rambling.

Vikings: Berserk (Maceman)

Founding cities on the coast (or islands) obviously will make the most of your strengths. Most comments pertain to this case. If landlocked, then obviously the only real idiosyncratic benefits of the Vikings are the UU 10% vs cities and Amphib used for river assaults.

Obviously the UB is a priority for all coastal cities. Next, it is good to go for Masonry and then Metal Casting. Pick a good city with high production (such as your capitol) to build first the UB, then the Greal Lighthouse, and then the Colossus. It shouldn't be difficult to get these even on high skill level.

These wonders grant coast tiles with 2 food and 4 commerce. This is huge. You can quickly found cities, whip the UB, and totally ignore land tiles (and workers) for most of the game. These cities will quickly pay for themselves as well as the rest of your empire. Don't whip there until they start to reach health/happy limits, when you can selectively whip assorted buildings such as Library and Market. Meanwhile, your core cities will work the land tiles and are needed to churn out galleys, melee units for garrisons, and -- when available -- Berserks.

A good route to Berserks is through first Metal Casting (as described) and then Math, Currency, and Code of Laws. Many civs prioritize the religion path, but the alternative has some pretty attractive features such as better cash flow, easy access to Catapults, etc. Besides, an opportunistic Viking player can often get a shrine later because religions are usually founded in border, weak cities.

Before the Berserk becomes obsolete, be sure and mass upgrade all melee units to Berserks. The GL and Colossus easily give the funds to do this and it's fairly inexpensive in any case. Make sure it is done as you want as many units with the free Amphibious as possible. It's well worth the expense. Later on, you may or may not upgrade them -- to Grenadiers, Rifles, or Infantry -- but if you need them they are there.

When Berserks first become available, you should already have a number of galleys. Either quickly build or upgrade a number of Berserks, and choose your target. The neighbor who is lowest on score probably has lagged behind in research. Behind on research means weak defending units and easy pickings on those coastal cities. Get these cities while you can, as all too soon there will be fortified Longbows there, which will be tough if not impossible to take from the sea.

Early on, it might be a very good option to refuse Open Borders. Keeping the AIs isolated and unable to tech trade will give you a good target selection by the time you get Berserks. The slight negative to relations isn't a problem. You plan on warring most of the game anyway. All you really want is to keep your enemies properly "queued up", so that they don't gang up and fight you all together. In addition, your tech research path should give some really good opportunities to tech trade. Just don't trade critical techs away for techs which aren't necessary (such as most of those on the religious path).

Berserks can be upgraded down the Combat promotions, giving strong defensive units. These can be landed anywhere and probably can wander around as single units, pillaging at will. The AI doesn't compute very well the tactic of attacking with stronger unit purely to die and wound the defender, followed by a second unit to kill it. So, the AI will leave your single CIII Berserks alone despite that they're pillaging at will.

City Raider Berserks, however, are needed to take cities, especially those defended by Longbows. Build up their experience taking weak cities, then go for the tough nuts, but expect to take losses. Alternately, leave the tough cities for later when you have Amphibious Grenadiers and Rifles. There's nothing wrong with taking the weak cities now, and pillaging left and right. This will hamstring the AI and boost your empire at the same time. However, know when to stop and declare peace. It's important to preserve your Berserks and leave them alive to be upgraded.

Wodan

I only did 4 tests and they all gave me 99% for the second WC. The second WC always killed the spearman. I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect not. Feel free to try it yourself.

The point about WC is that they are cheaper than spears and faster and basically we can trade 1 WC for each spearman. For every spearman that gets lucky and kills 2 WC (possible but unlikely) we will get a few WCs that withdraw. I estimate that on average 1 WC with shock can be traded for 1 spearman as long as we have at least twice as many WCs

Also note that my exact words were "something like a 99% chance" and not a bald 99% claim. I consider that covers the variability you allude to.
No worries.

Wodan

Thanks for the pointers. I'll make amendments as soon as possible. Right now I have to go get some sleep soon.
Isn't it something like 2am there? Go to bed! :)

Wodan

Isn't it something like 2am there? Go to bed! :)

Wodan


It's just about 4:20 where I am.

Are my eyes decieving me or did you just put up a nicely detailed post on the Beserks?

My whole world is so upside down, now. :crazyeye:

It's just about 4:20 where I am.

Are my eyes decieving me or did you just put up a nicely detailed post on the Beserks?

My whole world is so upside down, now. :crazyeye:
I shaved my goatee off.

Wodan

ps now we get to see who "gets" the obscure Star Trek / Southpark reference. :)

ps now we get to see who "gets" the obscure Star Trek / Southpark reference. :)


The Halkans should be happy. Just don't use that little button behind the panel on me. But, if ever you need someone to help satisfy the needs of the Captain's woman, I am here for you.

DrKodos, just as I am getting used to your avatar, you change it again!

Aelf, great guide, some of it is fairly in depth, it is about time the forum get a guide like this! Keep up the good work. I look forward to the Impi entry!:D

DrKodos, just as I am getting used to your avatar, you change it again!

Aelf, great guide, some of it is fairly in depth, it is about time the forum get a guide like this! Keep up the good work. I look forward to the Impi entry!:D


As soon as I sense someone is getting comfortable with it, I change it. Last thing I need is for people to actually understand me. :lol:

And, this one is an homage to Wodan's postings.

Wodan, what a reversal from your previous attitude! :lol: Maybe you should drop your sig.

There's suddenly a lot of information to process, so forgive me if I misunderstand what you guys said. I'm definitely removing the bit about Flanking II giving WCs immunity to first strikes. However, from my own experience, Flanking II chariots are better off against entrenched spears. Even with a lot of Combat promotions on your WCs, once cities' defensive ratings have hit 40% and above, a fortified spear can cost quite a few of your nicely promoted WCs. Two dead is bad enough. I'd rather throw a few fresh Flanking WCs at it, with a chance that one or two may survive, before attacking with the Combat WCs. In the second Emperor Challenge, I've seen the odds a Combat V WC has against an entrenched Combat I spear and IIRC it was not good at all.

I'll hold off changing the bit about Flanking WCs (besides the immunity to first strikes statement) for now. I want to hear what you guys have to say about what I just said first.

About the Berserks, I'll take the bit about upgrading as many melee units to Berserks as possible. This definitely makes sense. I'm not sure about the Currency research path, though. Do you have time to build marketplaces? This sounds like the normal path to a peaceful medieval age, which is not what we want here. I'll also take the Rambo pillaging bit. The other bits are either already mentioned or are pretty general advice on playing Ragnar and not specific to the Berserk, so I don't think I'll include them.

Thanks for the pointers again, guys!

EDIT: Hmm... On second thoughts, what makes Combat Berserks better at pillaging than normal Combat macemen?

Nice "info guide" Aelf :)

Wodan, what a reversal from your previous attitude! :lol: Maybe you should drop your sig.
Nah. I still think that Berserks could have been better implemented.

I'm not sure about the Currency research path, though. Do you have time to build marketplaces? This sounds like the normal path to a peaceful medieval age, which is not what we want here.
Markets give happiness in all those coast cities which are fueling your entire empire. The 25% gold is a cherry.

I'll also take the Rambo pillaging bit. The other bits are either already mentioned or are pretty general advice on playing Ragnar and not specific to the Berserk, so I don't think I'll include them.
good point

EDIT: Hmm... On second thoughts, what makes Combat Berserks better at pillaging than normal Combat macemen?

Hmm. Nothing. Again, good point.

I do, however, still think it important to point out that you do rarely if ever want to throw your Berserks at cities with cultural/hills/walls defenses and Longbows. Take what cities you can (or raze them) with your CR Berserks, and then send them home, use as garrisons, or declare war on a 2nd AI and go have fun over there.

Wodan

I do, however, still think it important to point out that you do rarely if ever want to throw your Berserks at cities with cultural/hills/walls defenses and Longbows.

Already done that :)