CIV 5 Ottoman Empire Jannisaris and Sepahi too strong ?

[Rakshasa72]

Compare the Janissary with the Jaguar. Both are self healing units. Both get a sizable attack bonus. Although the Jags only get it on hills and jungles. The Jags get a movement bonus and you keep both these promotions the entire game. Jags are on the Musketeer upgrade path but, if you hit an early spearman upgrade from a ruins they get on the Lancer upgrade path. So they can compete with Saphi. It's like 2 UUs in one and, you get them from the very beginning of the game. With a great UA and Great UB. So no I don't think Ottomans are OP but, Prize ships is pretty awesome on an island map.

 

[Rakshasa72]

Agree.

you can protect your sea trade routs easily. just recruit one trireme and build a huge navy. also, -66% naval unit maintenance makes them perfect.

They don't need to upgrade to frigates. Just take the other guys frigates or, SotL...

 

[DWilson]

Seriously, weak? The Ottoman UA is my favorite naval of all. It's just so easy to enact a low invasion, building your own navy as you go. I like to fight England. It may take a bit more effort to kill each SotL, but when I succeed, I get them! The UA is the quantity over quality argument, except you can steal quality if it's in game. On water maps, I'd say they are at least competitive with England, if not the best.

 

[georgie]

What's with all this necro?

 

[arand86]

Seriously, weak? The Ottoman UA is my favorite naval of all. It's just so easy to enact a low invasion, building your own navy as you go. I like to fight England. It may take a bit more effort to kill each SotL, but when I succeed, I get them! The UA is the quantity over quality argument, except you can steal quality if it's in game. On water maps, I'd say they are at least competitive with England, if not the best.

Ottoman UA was different before.

Used to be:
50% chance of converting a Barbarian naval unit to your side and earning 25 Gold. Pay only one-third the usual cost for naval unit maintenance.

Basically the old German UA for the sea, which makes it worse.

 

[sendos]

The OP question specifically refers to the Ottoman UU's and not the UA. All this discussion about weak or strong UA is irrelevant.

The Ottoman janissary is very much dependent on finishing off enemies. The healing bonus only applies if they kill something. If they're struggling to kill a unit, then that is the downside of both their attack and healing bonuses. Healing bonus also applies to both attack and defence. Their main benefit is when you upgrade them and, even better, get blitz with them to get the choice to heal up fully with 2 kills in one turn or hit, heal and fall back 1 tile.

The Sipahi isn't really overpowered at all. +1 movement and free pillage. It's mainly designed for harassment (pillaging) and perhaps also spotting for artillery (get the sight promotion or move back and forth).

 

[DWilson]

Ottoman UA was different before.

Used to be:
50% chance of converting a Barbarian naval unit to your side and earning 25 Gold. Pay only one-third the usual cost for naval unit maintenance.

Basically the old German UA for the sea, which makes it worse.

I remember, hadn't realized this was an ancient thread. Thought those were recent complaints. I was like wtf...

 

[holywar]

Hell yeah they are too strong.

 

[holywar]

The Sipahi isn't really overpowered at all. +1 movement and free pillage. It's mainly designed for harassment (pillaging) and perhaps also spotting for artillery (get the sight promotion or move back and forth).

It's not that they're excessively powerful. It's that the AI knows how to use them for maximum devastation AND they are available around the same time as the janissaries. When used in combination, your units do not stand a chance. And in my experience, Suileman is always ahead of me in techs, so my longswordsman are fighting janissaries and sipahis. All you can do is load your cities with crossbowmen and sue for peace.

Sipahis are badass mfers.

 

[Autoclave]

what about Landschnechts? if you upgrade them to lancer, i think the free pillage is also is also trasfered which makes them similar to sipahi.

As for Janissaries, I like the jaguars more.

 

[bbbt]

I remember, hadn't realized this was an ancient thread. Thought those were recent complaints. I was like wtf...

Yeah, I also didn't realize it was a zombie thread, and didn't really think their UA was that 'crappy' (not realizing it was referring to the 3-year old UA)

 

[sendos]

It's not that they're excessively powerful. It's that the AI knows how to use them for maximum devastation AND they are available around the same time as the janissaries. When used in combination, your units do not stand a chance. And in my experience, Suileman is always ahead of me in techs, so my longswordsman are fighting janissaries and sipahis. All you can do is load your cities with crossbowmen and sue for peace.

Sipahis are badass mfers.

Well, if AI does know how to use Sipahis well, that's a good thing. It's good to have some degree of a challenge in this game. It's what good AI means in contrast to fun AI.