tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
It's the first genuine 'warship' of the game, and has a very high power-to-cost ratio compared to the Galley, which it replaces (if you like, it's kind of the marine equivalent of the MW). According to my C3C cheat-sheet for the Dromon:It's not my style TBH. I read elsewhere that dromons are considered an excellent UU. Why is that?
Cost=30s
A/D/M=2/1/3 (but actually M=4 in-game, since Byzzies are SEA)
transport capacity 2
and if all that wasn't enough, it can bombard both land and sea tiles at B/R/F=2/1/2 (might even have lethal sea-bombard, can't remember for sure -- the attack- and bombard-animations are the same)
It's also very 'durable', since it's buildable from Maps (for which the Byzzies only need Pots and Writing as prereqs) to Astro (which they can obtain when they choose). So you can churn out a lot of them (especially if you also got Philo and built MoM for a single-Wonder GA) before you have to start building Caravels instead, and those you build will continue to be useful as sea-raiders and land-bombers right up until the appearance of Ironclads/Transports.
All in all, it's one of the most cost-effective and longest-lived (naval) units in the game.
And if you copy/paste 'theodoras excellent always war sid adventure' into the search box*, you'll find a very funny story, in which Dromons were used systematically to destroy all the AICivs' coastal infrastructure -- may well have a lot to do with the general regard for the Dromon amongst CFCers...
*(Sorry I couldn't locate the actual link. Either CFC or Safari has been updated in the last couple of weeks or so -- and since then, my search results aren't displaying properly/ at all)