What is the most useless unique unit?

I vote bowman, with jaguar a close second. Playing defensive isn't my style in the early game, and can't see using it. The jaguar is handy capped, preventing it from being affective against time period units. Navy seal and panzer come too late. Like most players i will agree the game should be over or at least decided. I doubt the appearance by them late game would change the game outcome. As for the Khmer ballista elephant, I chose the Khmer mostly when I first started playing bts, but never really used the Khmer UU. I really don't have much of an opinion either way towards the Khmer UU.

TheMulattoMaker said:

I'm of the opinion that Ethiopia's "real" UU is the Drill-2 Rifles that Oromos turn into. Yeah, Oromos kinda suck, but they're one of a very few UUs that start with promotions that are useful down the line.

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I'm of the opinion that Ethiopia's "real" UU is the Drill-4 Rifles that Oromos turn into. Just 5-xp--barracks plus Theocracy.

The Navy SEAL is actually pretty good, March is an awesome promotion. If you get that far.

Tristan_C said:

Second this quandary. With Ballista Elephants in the lead right now I'd like to know why this is the case.

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Because the Ballista is not stronger than a regular WE. As a UU it provides little to no significant bonus over base...really none at all. Furthermore, its "bonus" does not carry forward with upgrade - not that I'd care with that one. Being able to target mounted units in the open field is not a bonus IMO and in some cases a malus. Ballista has for a long time been considered the worst UU by a considerable portion of the community. I'm sorry, but if anyone is trying to sweeten up the Ballista Elephant, you are just talking nonsense. Cataphant warfare is often effective on any level, but that doesn't mean an Elephant UU is good just because it exists when it has no real bonus to speak off. Give it shock promo instead or even just Combat 1 or something and it is a whole different story

In fact, that to me is a significant factor in classifying UUs. Is it a tangible bonus like a physical promotion that carries forward. I factor that and a UU's power in the early game, which is why UUs like Quecha, War Elephants and Praets are rated Top 5.

Conks are rated so high as they receive significant bonus on arguably the top non-UU unit in the game - the Curs - especially on higher levels, including a bonus against its direct counter. Plus it can fortify (defensive bonus).

Although no musket UU would be considered top tier, I like the Oromo the best as, again, it's the only musket that receives actually promos, and good ones at that. Musketeers do have some synergy with Cur warfare, which can be kinda fun, but that is all. Jans can romp on lower levels but their bonus disappears with upgrade. Oromos can actually have value on higher levels. Drill 4 is awesome and not hard to achieve out the gate with Civics or settled GGs. Oromos plus trebs or cannons is an effective combo on higher levels. Then you have Drill 4 + whatever Rifles>Infantry so on.

Tatran said:

In my space games (Hemispheres : 2-6 continents), the most decisive unit is the infantry.

Horse based early UUs have the same problem, either the resource isn't available on your continent or it's too faraway to have an impact on the early game.

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Infantry? C'mon..the key to good space game is grabbing as much land as early as possible. Good early UUs or effective early combat is far far far better than waiting for things like Infantry.

It's very rare not to have access to horse by the time Curs roll around.

Phalanx for me, if you have axes you can have spears too and would be happy seeing chariots "defending" cities.

But..even with them i would still bring at least 1 spear, str. 4 vs. 5 or 2 vs. 4 on defense..well..

I have used Balliista Elephants in a few games. They are okay when used right to counter knight heavy army.

The Landskencht is the worst unit for me. If I want a melee counter, I would build xbow which is earlier. Landskencht needs to be available at Feudalism/Machinery to be effective.

lymond said:

C'mon..the key to good space game is grabbing as much land as early as possible. Good early UUs or effective early combat is far far far better than waiting for things like Infantry.

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On huge maps you don't need a UU to grab as much land as possible.
Having 20-30 cities is enough to win a space victory.
The infantry is there mainly to defend the coastal + border cities and secure victory. Not for an offensive which requires a decent preparation and
a lot of production instead of wealth so the slider can be at 90%-100% science.

TheMulattoMaker said:

I'm of the opinion that Ethiopia's "real" UU is the Drill-2 Rifles that Oromos turn into. Yeah, Oromos kinda suck, but they're one of a very few UUs that start with promotions that are useful down the line.

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But Oromos themselves are still awful, no?

I see I'm still alone in thinking Oromos are the worst (still the only one who voted - I guess I make up 3.57% of the poll)...
And I think it's interesting to see how many people have ranted about the jaguar... yet it has 1 vote.

Boingle said:

omg I can't believe people are voting Navy SEAL for most useless unit.. that thing rocks if you actually get to that point in the game. It's definitely not useless.

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Navy Seal may not be useless. But at the same time the advantage it gives is pretty trivial. And if you are at that point in the game, either you're technically well above everyone, and so it adds nothing, or you're at parity, and it adds so little as to not matter. So the unit isn't weak. But neither does it add anything to your ability to win the game.

AgressiveWimp said:

But Oromos themselves are still awful, no?

I see I'm still alone in thinking Oromos are the worst (still the only one who voted - I guess I make up 3.57% of the poll)...
And I think it's interesting to see how many people have ranted about the jaguar... yet it has 1 vote.

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Because a lot of people know that Oromos aren't "useless" and most certainly know that Jags are not useless. These are by no means close to Top tier units, but they are not bad at all and can be quite effective.

Tatran said:

On huge maps you don't need a UU to grab as much land as possible.
Having 20-30 cities is enough to win a space victory.
The infantry is there mainly to defend the coastal + border cities and secure victory. Not for an offensive which requires a decent preparation and
a lot of production instead of wealth so the slider can be at 90%-100% science.

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Honestly, based on your style of play, I'd say all UUs are pretty much useless to you. They really don't have much bearing on your game. Not that UUs really should matter that much anyway except the real OP ones.

Still, a lot of folks , especially experienced players don't base their assessment on what is "enough" to win. When I play Space, I look to get as close to the Dom limit and fast as possible.

Lennier said:

I'm of the opinion that Ethiopia's "real" UU is the Drill-4 Rifles that Oromos turn into. Just 5-xp--barracks plus Theocracy.

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Yeah, I started out writing "OOTB Drill-2 Rifles" but realized it's not really OOTB if you have to upgrade them. Maybe I should've said "Drill-2 plus whatever other promotions you can give them", or something.

lymond said:

Honestly, based on your style of play, I'd say all UUs are pretty much useless to you. They really don't have much bearing on your game.

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This would be why I didn't answer the poll.

Ballista Elephants are actually over-powered in Always War games. I assumed they were terrible for years, but got a huge surprise when I tried them in AW on a recommendation. No one who has given them a go in AW could ever vote for them in a "worst of" poll!

Panzer's the worst. Not only is it very, very late, but it offers absolutely nothing over the standard tank. Absolutely nothing. There are lots of other semi-useless units (landsknecht, phalanx, carrack, bowman, berserker, navy seal, Numidian cavalry (below deity), etc) but nothing else has an "advantage" which is guaranteed to be entirely useless. I can't see what the panzer would do even in an advanced start.

I still don't understand some arguments... how can Ballista Elephant be useless when War Elephant is actually one of best units in game and BE is sidegrade.

Maybe if the question would be "what is the least upgrade from original unit" then people would be right that Ballista Elephant would be right top there, but that is not the question.

Most useless units are the one that you almost never use or have no influence over game.

if War elephant would be tied to something different then Ivory I am sure we would see them as the FOTM unit over Cuirassiers.

And please... Infantry doesn't even have unique unit so why even talk it here?

btw bowman is more useful on deity then a lot of units being praised here by some.

Landsknechts are only useless if you never tried the funny Engi rush with Charly.
Pikes are good units, and when you get another good bonus on them..how can so many say they are among the worst :b

Well it definitely seems to me now that the Navy SEAL even though I like it, its very much a "cool" unit rather than a "win games" unit. No doubt the early game units including Jaguars are more able to be "win games" units. When I'm at that point in the game with Navy SEALS running around, I get to attack somebody and capture like 15 cities with two megastacks, 70 units each or something. Does it matter whether I would capture cities with 40 Marines 30 Artillery, or with 40 Navy SEAL 30 Artillery for example? Nah doesn't really matter at all.

But I like to play in a thematic way.. and also I hate to lose units. So it does make me feel better when my Navy SEALs are healing with March and when they get 94% odds instead of 90% odds even though it really doesn't make a difference I really wish there were mid to late game units that made more of a difference in the game. There should be some unique Grenadiers or unique Cannon or something. Remember vanilla Redcoats when they were OP? And Cossacks for Russia were OP, I used to think that England or Russia were auto-win because you get to Redcoats and you won't lose many battles with 16 strength Redcoats... snowball out of control, promote City Raider 3 Macemen to Redcoats good game, Redcoats even beat Infantry with Cannon support. I miss being able to cheat with England

lymond said:

Honestly, based on your style of play, I'd say all UUs are pretty much useless to you.

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You're right. Same thing for the UBs. Civ5 did a much better job on the UUs.

Boingle said:

Remember vanilla Redcoats when they were OP? And Cossacks for Russia were OP, I used to think that England or Russia were auto-win because you get to Redcoats and you won't lose many battles with 16 strength Redcoats... snowball out of control, promote City Raider 3 Macemen to Redcoats good game, Redcoats even beat Infantry with Cannon support. I miss being able to cheat with England

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Nerfs often end up over-nerfing things, but I think the Cossack and Redcoat nerfs were well thought out. Grenadiers used to only get the 50% bonus against Riflemen, but that's been fixed as well. You can still "cheat" with Rome, China, Inca, Persia and Egypt, but apart from the first two the rushes fail when the enemy gets metal.

Oromo Warriors are definitely not the worst unique unit. They are actually the best Gunpowder based unique unit. As already mentioned, they are best promoted to Drill IV which is possible with Barracks and Theocracy, Vassalage or Great Military Instructor. They dominate all pre-gunpowder units and are a great complement to Cannon seige units. There is no need to wait for Rifling to upgrade them to Riflemen, although such an upgrade is one of the best.

Jaguars are also not the worst unique unit. They can be promoted to Woodsman II with just a Barracks, which allows them to easily steal Workers via a jungle/forest plot. In sufficient numbers, they can "surprise" attack weakly defended cities jungle/forest plots. Promoted in the field to Woodsman III they provide 15% healing per turn compared to Medic I's 10%. When attached to a Great General (as mentioned earlier in this thread), they can easily be promoted to Woodsman III and Medic III which heals 40% per turn versus Medic III's 25%, assuming Medic I in both cases.

In my opinion, the Panzer is the worst unique unit. The Panzer does have a great bonus of +50% versus Armor, but it will rarely be able to use it. Not only will the game be effectively won before any AI can build significant numbers of Tanks, the Panzer will almost always end up targeting a non-Tank unit like an Infantry rather than a Tank due this combat bonus.

Sun Tzu Wu