Favorite Unique Unit?

What's your favorite unique unit and why? Even if you haven't played every faction yet, still feel free to answer. Just what is the best unit in Civ5? In the poll, I didn't have room for dlc or for Songhai. But if you think they're the best, still feel free to say so.

My pick was the Roman Legion-their increased strength helps them gain the upper hand in most battles, plus their ability to build roads and forts is invaluable in the early stages of the game when your workers are already hard pressed building improvements over the empty lands. The other two worthy of mention would be:
1. French Foreign Legion-firstly, their ability to have improved fighting in enemy territory is great. Most unique units improve in friendly territory, and while that's fine, when you're fighting at home, you already have the advantage (city bombardment, etc). Also they're pretty cool and they remind me of those old 1930's movies.

2. Greek Companion cavalry-dominates the battlefields in the ancient era. Plus their increased great general emergence is useful. Especially great when combined with Greece's other UU, the Hoplite.

3. Cho-Ko-Nu-more from experience by the enemy rather than playing it myself. Their second strike ability is devastating in sieges, both defending and attacking.

Best DLC Unit: Have only played as Mongolia and Polynesia so far, so I can't give a fair opinion. The Spanish ones look really good.

Keshiks are pretty amazing and pretty much make the Mongols as a civ, but I do also like B-17s a lot. I've had a couple of games that I might have lost had it not been for B-17s and their ridiculous bombing prowess.

I love the Longbowman. It's pretty much the only good thing about the weak as a kitten English.

This post reminded me that I should go back and try to use the English again. I always thought the Longbowman could be amazing with their extra range if you could get them quickly but I never found a smart way to jump up to them. But that was back when the game was first released. With the patches and extra experience (I only recently started to trade extra resources for extra money...duh) I bet I could develop an army of about 4-5 longbowmen that would be devastating with 2-3 swordsmen (or even pikemen if no iron) and a horseman.

VirginiaRounder said:

I love the Longbowman. It's pretty much the only good thing about the weak as a kitten English.

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I beg your pardon?

VirginiaRounder said:

I love the Longbowman. It's pretty much the only good thing about the weak as a kitten English.

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Longbowman are nice, but they don't last long and you can't upgrade them and use their promotions...

Keishiks are easily the best unit in the game (for their era). While, like longbowman, you can't use their promotions on upgrade, you can pretty much own the map by the time they are oudated.

Also a big fan of the Persian Immortal. Since the unique ability stays with promotions, the extra healing (especially stacked with other healing benifits), is just amazing for protecting your seige units.

went with jannisary, but cho-ku-nu and mandekalu cav are close 2nd and 3rd.

if used properly, an army of jans (or upgrade to rifles and beyond) are nearly unbeatable.

Keshliks are the best !

Janissaries by far. They single-handedly make the Ottomans worth playing.

the best unit is clearly janissary, i went with the title and voted for my favorite instead: aztec jaguar.

the troubles with janissary are two fold: you have to be playing as ottomans, and they're a musket unit so you can't upgrade to them and your time period for building is short.

jaguars with the heal two on a kill are like mini janissary with the huge bonus of being available early and able to turn into longswords.

I love the Hoplitite. When my spearmen are just as strong as swordmen, there is no problem.

vexing said:

the best unit is clearly janissary, i went with the title and voted for my favorite instead: aztec jaguar.

the troubles with janissary are two fold: you have to be playing as ottomans, and they're a musket unit so you can't upgrade to them and your time period for building is short.

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yes, playing as Aztecs is definitely a lot more fun, particularly in the early game.

I'm not familiar enough with all the civs to vote on this, but I can say that I've been very impressed with the Tercio. Way better than muskets (only cost a few [20?] more hammers), way better than longswords (actually take fewer hammers [I think], resourceless), and straight up slaughter anyone who didn't decide not to use mounted units when they saw someone was playing Spain. Unfortunately, they have all the drawbacks of being a musket replacement and the only benefit that carries over to rifles is the extra mounted strength, or they'd probably be in my top 3.

If I had to pick though, I'd say Janissaries, probably followed by Keshiks and Immortals. Come to think of it, between Immortals, Janissaries, and Camel Archers, you've got a really high concentration of bang-up UUs in a relatively small portion of the world. Funny.

I'd say Samurai, rushing them = medieval wall of death. But I also like Longbowmen. Need to try out Jannisaries, they seem to be an excuse to play as the Ottomans.

Well it may not be the best, but the most common pain in my ass on MP games is Narusan's elephant. They're just darn mean. Pikemen are practically useless against them and they are very easy to spam.

But I also agree with the Samurai. Japan is formidable at that stage of the game.

Previously, it was the Samurai, but Denmark's units could quickly take that spot.

Stormbolt said:

Previously, it was the Samurai, but Denmark's units could quickly take that spot.

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Yes, I have been looking forward to berzerkers for a while. Skis were a surprise, I was expecting a boat UU.

I'll give some love to the American Minutemen.

If you want to go domination on a continents map, you can get these right around the time you want to scout the other continent. And these are scouts with guns. Use the +1 for all terrain to quickly scout, then you can put them in place and upgrade to riflemen to start you war there. And it also makes your units a little harder to kill because of the movement, which is always nice because unless you want to actually annex a city, units take some time to get there.

Tavelon said:

My pick was the Roman Legion-their increased strength helps them gain the upper hand in most battles, plus their ability to build roads and forts is invaluable in the early stages of the game when your workers are already hard pressed building improvements over the empty lands..

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I picked Cho-ko-nus. For mp they are quite effective for both defense and offense. They also get promos faster. And they can upgrade to riflemen.