Dutch East Indiaman: best UU?

[KMadCandy]

Originally Posted by TheLastOne36

Astronomy obseletes so much things that i don't think much people would want to beeline to Astronomy.

first to astro tho can skyrocket your economy. my latest game i got there first by quite a while. i lost stonehenge and colossus and that hurt some. however, i was the only one to benefit from overseas trade routes for a long time, and that made up for it on that map, given the cities i was now trading with and how many harbors i'd already built. big cities jumped from 1-2c per trade route up to 4c in most cases. i also got to build observatories, they're cool. it was a headstart in being first to privateers, which provide terrific fun earning GG points while at peace!

astro was actually a hut pop so i had no choice *giggle*.

[Antilogic]

Those barbarians and their advanced ways...I popped Iron Working two turns after I beelined for Bronze Working at the beginning of the game from a barbarian hut.

However, I'm not one to rush for astronomy. The UU looks half-decent, but I'm going to give the "Best UU" award to one of the following: the Praetorian (obvious), the Redcoat (it still is a beast in its time, good against both cannons and gunpowder units), the Immortal (also obvious--strong early unit if you have horses, can beat up all the AI archers and axes), or the Numidian Cavalry (can kill its counter, multi-purpose unit).

There are more good ones that I think are in the running--that's just a list of contenders off the top of my head.

[Phoenician]

Crap. Surveyman dude enters another war with me as if the previous 1,000 year war that he declared wasn't enough for him. I kick his ass again but Ragnar AND Alexander declare war and try to do amphibious assaults on me! I lose Rotterdam to the vikings and their Navy got away!!! I got it back though. But Alexander was only able to drop off a fraction of his force as I TOTALLY OWN HIS NAVY. This is on Noble with aggressive AI-I'm going for a cultural victory.

[Bast]

Originally Posted by TheLastOne36

Key word there. Astronomy obseletes so much things that i don't think much people would want to beeline to Astronomy.

Let's see if you're Willem why would you build Stonehenge? Waste of hammers. Colossus? Probably nice but I don't mind the Colossus going obsolete by then anyway since my economy is back up.

[Goodgimp]

I play a lot of Terra maps, and while I do feel it's a very good UU, I think the portuguese Carrack is even better. Being able to have military ocean-going transports at the earlier stage is a huge leg up.

[Spearthrower]

For Terra, Big and Small, Portuguese carracks are huge.... for things resembling archipelagos where there is proportionately more sea to land, I prefer the Dutch Indiaman.