Top 5 best special units for war in BNW!

1. Chu Ko Nuh: this pick over Longbowman due to its super fast promotion to +1 range. You can get +1 range for a CKN after just one war. Moreover you dont need canon after upgrading them to gating guns. The logistic and +1 range gating gun is far better than a canon.
2. Keshik: in a straight-up battle a Keshik may beat a Chu Ko Nuh, but less useful than a CKN for 3 reason: a. less effective once upgrading to calvary while CKN still useful in latter eras; b. need horse; c. only effective in large land mass map.
3. Jaguar: better than a Jannisary since it can get promotion from the beginning of the game. If you are a warmonger your Jaguar can easily get 7+ promotion before reaching Renaissance
4. Ship of the line: its strength upgrade is not significantly higher than frigate but due to the tech gap to battleship with its mobility and sight it allows naval domination for a long time.
5. Dromon: get this unit after research sailing, allow upgrade to galeass, frigate line, which arguably better than ship of the line since you can promote them at very early stage by killing barbarian ships. Moreover the tech gap between sailing and compass is significant the Dromon allows you to plan naval domination as early as possible. The reason they are behind SOTL since Byzantium is not designed for domination game.

1). The merchant of Venice. And yes, I did read the thread right.
2). Khan
3). Keshik
4) camel archer
5). Longbowman

This is rather a useless topic because every unit has been mentionned...

Which means different players see value in different units. It would be a bad sign for game balance if one or more UUs were never mentioned by any player.

War Chariot
Horse Archer
Keshik
Camel Archer

All the same. All great. All can win the game.

Anything else is a distant 5th. Indian War Elephant should be in same league, not sure if true b/c of India's UA.

You think war chariots are at the top? Curious, is that your worker steal unit? Is that why?

Browd said:

Which means different players see value in different units. It would be a bad sign for game balance if one or more UUs were never mentioned by any player.

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I'm not criticizing the game balance... only the point of this topic.

tetley said:

You think war chariots are at the top? Curious, is that your worker steal unit? Is that why?

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That was no specific order on those 4. It is known that War Chariots can clear a deity map. Also, speed kills.

Browd said:

Which means different players see value in different units. It would be a bad sign for game balance if one or more UUs were never mentioned by any player.

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Different units have different use but for a human player some units are just simply useless. Like the battering ram for example which some people here have mentioned. Unless we play on the beginner level human player can not have a sufficient army to go attack the AI at early stage of the game when this unit can be utilized

Versaguy said:

Different units have different use but for a human player some units are just simply useless. Like the battering ram for example which some people here have mentioned. Unless we play on the beginner level human player can not have a sufficient army to go attack the AI at early stage of the game when this unit can be utilized

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The Battering Ram is far from useless. An upgrade from a hut can give you a CS puppet before turn 10. But that's not their greatest strength.

First you need to get out 2-3-4 Horse Archers, and start shooting things up. Meanwhile get 2 Rams going, and start taking down the cities on the way to the caps. Build more rams as needed. Enemy caps need about 3 Rams. Open left side Honor. Research some combo of Wheel/BW first.

I just cleared 2 caps out on Deity this weekend and then left the game. All too easy. What I wanted to do was setup a Knight attack, but it seems the game would have been over first.

I didnt put Ram in top 5 because I consider it needs the support from HA.

The highest HOF scores are battering-ram cheese.

Looking at the units people have named you can see certain units that pop up again and again; by majority vote those are the best ones.

Lemme just say though, that BNW Commerce Landsknechts that upgrade into Winged Hussars are absurd just from the sheer number of promotions they have.

budweiser said:

The Battering Ram is far from useless. An upgrade from a hut can give you a CS puppet before turn 10. But that's not their greatest strength.

First you need to get out 2-3-4 Horse Archers, and start shooting things up. Meanwhile get 2 Rams going, and start taking down the cities on the way to the caps. Build more rams as needed. Enemy caps need about 3 Rams. Open left side Honor. Research some combo of Wheel/BW first.

I just cleared 2 caps out on Deity this weekend and then left the game. All too easy. What I wanted to do was setup a Knight attack, but it seems the game would have been over first.

I didnt put Ram in top 5 because I consider it needs the support from HA.

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Assuming no scout, just build worker, barrack, 4 horse archers, 3 battering rams? That needs about at least 80 turns on standard speed. By that time the AI would easily get 4 cities, swordmans and crossbowmans already. You were probably very lucky with your scouting with the warrior. On deity when my scout start going around the AI usually get minimum 3 cities with plenty of units already. Unless you are using some mods to nerf the AI or lucky enough to get Venice opponent I dont think it is viable in most game dude.

Versaguy said:

Assuming no scout, just build worker, barrack, 4 horse archers, 3 battering rams? That needs about at least 80 turns on standard speed. By that time the AI would easily get 4 cities, swordmans and crossbowmans already. You were probably very lucky with your scouting with the warrior. On deity when my scout start going around the AI usually get minimum 3 cities with plenty of units already. Unless you are using some mods to nerf the AI or lucky enough to get Venice opponent I dont think it is viable in most game dude.

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I did have a scout. I seem to remember that. And a worker and my starting warrior. Askia forward settled on me then he got uppity and we shot it out at the Gates of Attila's Court. After his men were dead, I took out his expansion and then puppetted his cap. Meanwhile my scout was scouting. I found Poland and took two of his cities leaving him one left. It was all legit.

budweiser said:

I just cleared 2 caps out on Deity this weekend and then left the game. All too easy. What I wanted to do was setup a Knight attack, but it seems the game would have been over first.

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You should continue that game. Taking down two civs entirely will probably make you hated by every other AI, unless you play with only 4 civs...

Tyrvos said:

Is the kris that good? The chance of a debuff is just too much for me, personally.

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I've said this before, but in an actual Indonesia war campaign, those debuffs matter very, very little compared to the obscene bonuses, because the Kris who get debuffed are just going to be your front-line meatshields and sacrificial city-takers anyway.

Don't be put off. Kris are unbelievably good. The bigger downside, honestly, is just getting enough Iron to keep spamming them, but the UA helps a lot with that.

#1 Horse Archer
#2 War Chariot & Elephant
#3 Camel Archer & Kesheik
#4 Longbow
#5 Chukonu
#6 Ship of the Line
#7 Impi
#8 Berzerker
#9 Companion Cavalry

I put chariot units that don't require horses on top because you are guaranteed to get to them and use them. They can devastate anyone near you without fail. Camels and Keshieks are vastly superior but they are much harder to obtain. It is likely you will get teamed up on or rushed if you are Arabia or Mongolia and never get to them.

Sotl
Camels
Horse archers
Ckn
Caroleans

All UUs have to work in conjunction with the civ's other UU/UA/UB for the war to go well and for the UU to perrform at 100%, but just in terms of sheer power and awesomeness:

1. Keshiks: they make for some of the easiest hit and run tactics in the game, plus the promotions are so fast I kept upgrading them to logistics march GDRs in the end
2. Impis: needed to combo with Ikandas but the Buffalos are strong, plus spamming is so much easier due to the unit upkeep
3. Camel Archers: similar to keshiks but not as great in my opinion, just played against it, haven't used them.
4. Battering ram: apart from the melee thing and the fact that it only attacks cities, it's just awesome, earliest CS conquest ever.
5. Winged Hussar: 5 move plus the ability to push units is quite nifty, and the attack can stand up to cavalry.

Others include chukonu and longbows, but they don't seem as outrageous as the 5 I had.

CraigMak said:

#1 Horse Archer
#2 War Chariot & Elephant
#3 Camel Archer & Kesheik
#4 Longbow
#5 Chukonu
#6 Ship of the Line
#7 Impi
#8 Berzerker
#9 Companion Cavalry

I put chariot units that don't require horses on top because you are guaranteed to get to them and use them. They can devastate anyone near you without fail. Camels and Keshieks are vastly superior but they are much harder to obtain. It is likely you will get teamed up on or rushed if you are Arabia or Mongolia and never get to them.

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Definitive list for MP.
#10 immortal
#11 cossack
#12 hoplite