Least Useful Early Units

Which early regular units do you feel are least useful in GEM, and tend to avoid? Vote for as many as you wish.

( ignore unique units )

I never build horse archers, but this could just be a psychological blind spot.

I'll build one... once every great while. Like maybe like 3 times since I have owned the game.

I'm glad to see ships are ranking well, especially the Liburna!

I had fun looking up naval history to create that unit. It was the dominant ship of the Roman fleet. As a naval empire, the Roman fleet was dramatically more important than land-based legions, but often forgotten when people talk about the Romans. I suspect their navy was so good it hopelessly outmatched their enemies, so the battles weren't as exciting for historians to write about.

Because coastal waters mean that in the super-early game, you tend to run into 1 barb ship or none, the Liburna is just *better* than the trireme as well as cheaper to build.

If I'm especially hungry to begin sea exploration ASAP, I'll build a Trireme, or if I want to start accumulating XP to have a veteran ranged fleet, I might build more, but in the early game it's not "do I build a Liburna or Trireme" it's "am I building any sea units at all."

Triremes have double the strength of archers for the same maintenance, and cannot be easily counterattacked by land units. I always build at least one. Triremes absolutely dominate coastlines with Liburna to protect them from ships.

If you play Continents-Plus or Pangaea-Plus, get the Honor policy and send a trireme to clear offshore islands of barbarians. It's a ton of culture! Land units can't reach those islands until Optics.

Based on the poll results, triremes seem okay. Chariots look like the main units in need of some love.

Yes, Chariots are real-head scratcher since they don't upgrade into much (except for the few who have ranged horse uu), are very early and are comparable with archers. They're a niche unit.

The ships are good, the main problem however is that I will never build all these units above, there's just not enough time in the ancient and classical eras to use all of them, no matter what...

And btw. I don't feel like barbarian ships are a threat to my trireme in any case, never lost one to them?

Pretty much only build chariots with Huns or Egypt (when it doesn't cost horses). Horsemen are generally better to build to use up horses. Stronger, more mobile (on rough terrain), and by the time you have them, you've probably got a barracks or two up and possibly a stable to make them cheaper.

I suspect the problem with both is that combat is always going to be a little city-centric (otherwise why are you fighting). If it were heavily army centric, both units would be very useful. As it is, they're of more niche uses and the horsemen are better at the niche.