Favorite Unique Unit?

What is your favorite UU in the game?

For me it the Chinese Chu Ko Nu and the Aztec Jaguar. It goes without saying how awesome free logistics on a crossbowman is. And for the Jaguar the ability to heal after killing an enemy is really fun and can provide some nice strategy when planning your moves.

For some reason I always love having a couple of Bowmen while playing as Babylon. I usually dont even upgrade them until I have xbows. But they are kind of stylish and very useful early on. If one of my scouts gets upgraded to one I have a very good unit who can keep my territory clear from barbs early on.

Caroleans is another favorite but I actually think I like the Minutemen better.

I'll be a bit controversial and go for a Lancer replacement, the Winged Hussar.

The extra strength + shock I give it over 32 combat strength on open terrain, which is close to Cavalry strength and available earlier in the tech tree. It also has +1 movement, so 5 total, and a +33% vs other mounted units.

Heavy charge took me a while to get under control, since it's easy to zone of control yourself accidentally. It does insane bonus damage though, and the trick of moving a load of Winged Hussars in before actually attacking so that they all attack at once is very effective; blocking off escape routes and inflicting extra damage.

Using Heavy Charge to move a unit off a tile can be good to take out defended settlers/workers, or barb camps without having to kill the unit.

Then there are Landsknecht-upgraded Winged Hussars which don't pay movement points to pillage and get extra gold from city capturing. Being able to theoretically buy any number of such a powerful unit on a single turn also rocks, but it costs a lot of gold. Honour+Commerce is useful here.

They're basically very unique and have so many different facets to them, so I find them very enjoyable to play.

Camel archers and Naresuan's elephants. I guess only because I like animals and horses aren't exotic or exciting enough

The elephants aren't that bad either. They get bonus damage against mounted units so they basically trample over everything except long swords.

And camel archers are the best UU in the game

The Horse Archer and battering ram. The Horse Archer is insanely powerful and shows up nice and early, The battering ram is icing on the cake and fun to use after you have built the road to another's capital. Horse Archer's are by far my favorite though, especially when I fill the map with them and create a good Hunnic Horde prior to turn 50 to wipe the map clean. 7-10 Horse Archers, with Range and/or Logistics, with one horseman, can clear a great plains map completely prior to turn 100 if done right.

Bimblecrumbs said:

I'll be a bit controversial and go for a Lancer replacement, the Winged Hussar.

The extra strength + shock I give it over 32 combat strength on open terrain, which is close to Cavalry strength and available earlier in the tech tree. It also has +1 movement, so 5 total, and a +33% vs other mounted units.

Heavy charge took me a while to get under control, since it's easy to zone of control yourself accidentally. It does insane bonus damage though, and the trick of moving a load of Winged Hussars in before actually attacking so that they all attack at once is very effective; blocking off escape routes and inflicting extra damage.

Using Heavy Charge to move a unit off a tile can be good to take out defended settlers/workers, or barb camps without having to kill the unit.

Then there are Landsknecht-upgraded Winged Hussars which don't pay movement points to pillage and get extra gold from city capturing. Being able to theoretically buy any number of such a powerful unit on a single turn also rocks, but it costs a lot of gold. Honour+Commerce is useful here.

They're basically very unique and have so many different facets to them, so I find them very enjoyable to play.

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Yes, the Hussars can be fun. It's a shame I usually go for peaceful victories with Poland so I don't maximize their use.

Aztec jaguar.
Fast movement in forest and jungle which is a huge bonus and killing units give culture + health.

Definitely the Longbowman, such a good thing to have +1 range on archer type units because of the limited range of gatling gun, etc.

Keshik's +1 movement, extra xp, very versatile.

Jaguar Warriors are the most fun, ranged mounted units are the deadliest

I'm going to say Impis.

Tatran said:

Aztec jaguar.
Fast movement in forest and jungle which is a huge bonus and killing units give culture + health.

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lindsay40k said:

Jaguar Warriors are the most fun

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^^ This. Thirded, most certainly. Carrying the healing promotion all the way makes them absolutely excellent, and Woodsman is a great promotion too.

If I imagine a civ that combined my favourite UA (Sweden) with Jaguars, going full Honor, ooh I'd build nothing but warriors all game long! HaHAHAHA!

consentient said:

^^ This. Thirded, most certainly. Carrying the healing promotion all the way makes them absolutely excellent, and Woodsman is a great promotion too.

If I imagine a civ that combined my favourite UA (Sweden) with Jaguars, going full Honor, ooh I'd build nothing but warriors all game long! HaHAHAHA!

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If you play as Sweden and a military CS has Jaguars you could probably get a couple jags before they became obsolete, they would later on be upgraded to Caroleans.

Pictish Warrior. Free faith? Yes, please.

Personally Slingers can be a very good early unit. My favorite middle unit would be the Hussar and late unit obviously has to be the B17, a very underrated unit until you use a ton of them. They take less damage and deal out more in bombing campaigns.

For my first choice, I'm going to go outside the box a little bit and choose the Pathfinder. While it doesn't actually do much as a unit, it's by far the most interesting feature of the Shoshone civ and adds a lot of interesting decision making to the early game. Rather than walking into ruins and hoping for the best, you get to think about what would actually help your civ most and when different bonuses fit best into your early game (and these decisions come at a time when even small bonuses can have a major impact).

I'm also quite partial to the Kris Swordsman. It's essentially eight unique units in one, and while two of the possibilities are negative (though not crippling, as some would claim) Recruitment, Relentlessness and Invincibility are incredible. Good or bad, these promotions make battles more interesting, encouraging you to adjust your infantry tactics to account for your units strengths and weaknesses in situations where other civs would treat their front line units as essentially interchangeable duplicates.

Finally, Caroleans are both a fun unit in and of themselves and a perfect fit for Sweden (which is my favorite civ overall). Starting with march means that you don't have to worry about building towards this promotion, encouraging you to consider promotions that you might otherwise neglect in favor of leveling up shock and drill. Medic promotions in particular synergize well with march. They also come at just about the perfect time in the game for Sweden to start fighting wars, as you are forced to take sides in ideological conflicts and your city states start paying off enough to offset your lack of early game benefits.

Amrunril said:

For my first choice, I'm going to go outside the box a little bit and choose the Pathfinder.

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Oh yeah! My most popular video so far has been an amazing start I had as the Shoshone: https://youtu.be/Udsy5lU2nnw

Newbstep said:

Personally Slingers can be a very good early unit.

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I don't like them because they're a military unit that cannot be used to protect civilians.

Axe Throwers. Germany's untalked about, un-noted UU.

Bimblecrumbs said:

I'll be a bit controversial and go for a Lancer replacement, the Winged Hussar.

The extra strength + shock I give it over 32 combat strength on open terrain, which is close to Cavalry strength and available earlier in the tech tree. It also has +1 movement, so 5 total, and a +33% vs other mounted units.

Heavy charge took me a while to get under control, since it's easy to zone of control yourself accidentally. It does insane bonus damage though, and the trick of moving a load of Winged Hussars in before actually attacking so that they all attack at once is very effective; blocking off escape routes and inflicting extra damage.

Using Heavy Charge to move a unit off a tile can be good to take out defended settlers/workers, or barb camps without having to kill the unit.

Then there are Landsknecht-upgraded Winged Hussars which don't pay movement points to pillage and get extra gold from city capturing. Being able to theoretically buy any number of such a powerful unit on a single turn also rocks, but it costs a lot of gold. Honour+Commerce is useful here.

They're basically very unique and have so many different facets to them, so I find them very enjoyable to play.

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And they upgrade to the dopest attack helicopters late game. I swarm them around enemy armor units and shred them. So much fun.

Dushku said:

newbstep said:

Personally Slingers can be a very good early unit.

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I don't like them because they're a military unit that cannot be used to protect civilians.

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That is true, but they make a great perimeter unit and barbarian killed, therefore making a clear path for workers.