Ratings and Strategy for Unique Units!

[circuitloss]

Hey all, I was inspired by the UU longevity thread (which is becoming off-topic) to ask about strategy, tactics and favorite unique units.

Some Civs obviously have a UU that contributes to their strengths (Roman Praetorians or the Aztec Jaguar) Others have units with more flexible roles.

So far, here are some likes and dislikes.

Like:
(China) Cho-Ko-Nu - 2 first strikes AND colateral damage! Heck yeah!
(Russia) Cossack - Better than cav and puts the Keshik to shame
(Japan) Samurai - A nice general purpose unit.
(Germany) Panzer - Well, it's a tank that's better at fighting other tanks. Not a whole lot of longevity here, because modern armor comes along pretty fast, but this unit could be an excelletn choice for inudstrial age warfare.

Dislike:
(America) Navy SEALS - What's the point? This unit is cool, but too late game to do any good and who uses Marines anyway when you have armor?
(France) Musketeer - Essentially worthless. It's barely any better than the musketeer and I usually wait for rifleing anyway.

Ok, that's it for now, go ahead and post your thoughts or strategies for UU use.
Please refer to the Units List if you need to reference a unit's stats.

 

[petey]

The Quecha is good (Inca). In my current game, I made a couple and had them pillage around Kyoto and then fortify on a hill next to it. The Japanese kept wasting units attacking them and then when I had five there, they decided to try a different strategy and sent a couple of units out towards my capital. This left only three defenders and I took the city easily and had a nicely located city to help expand my empire.

The early Quecha rush is great.

The Aztec's one is a waste. It comes too late for the early rush and isn't powerful enough to make much of a difference. It would be good if you find yourself without Iron, but that's a pretty common resource, so it's not a big worry.

 

[minger]

The musketeer is not useless. It can keep pace with attacking knights, and on defense, if you can't afford to upgrade everyone, it can make it in time to stop an unexpected attack in one part of your territory that was undefended.

 

[madmaven]

I'm glad my post inspired someone. I try to evaluate UUs by 1) how helpful are they when you get them / and for how long. 2) how long can you upgrade them? 3) How are they vs the unit they replace.

Good UUs
Pretorian. Owns about 1000 years of game time. +2 pwr in replacelement. Creates an incredible city raider with promotions. Long upgrade path is nice.

Phalanx. I like it, OK?! Uh, +1 pwr over the unit it replaces. +100% v mounted will stop horse archers, elephants, and give knights a run. Long upgrade path.

Redcoat. +2 pwr in replacement. +25 vs mounted is very nice against calvary. +25 vs gunpowder is very nice vs one of the best defensive techs in the game.

Cossack. +2 pwr takes an already good unit for its time (calvary) and makes it even better. +50% vs mounted is something special vs calvary.

Cho-Ko-Nu. Comes fairly early. 2 first strikes. +50% turns it to a +9 and will counter well against most early offensive units except the horse archer and, eventually, the knight.


Fair UUs
Camel Archer - good vs archery which is nice v longbowmen. Might be "good" but I haven't used it much.

Quechua. I'd put it under "good" but I think it shines only in limited scenarios like when civs are close together and you can overrun one or two really early. +100 v archery is nice. Long upgrade path.

Keishik - 1 first strike is nice. Ignores terrain bonus is nice. Not game changing.

Immortal - +50% v archery is nice. Swordsmen are right around the corner though.

Samurai / Conquestador. Some people swear by them because of 2 first strikes. +50% v melee is useful v macemen but they are not as widely seen as longbowmen or knights.

Skirmisher. +1 pwr in replacement. Helps in early game. Long upgrade. Not game changing though.

War Chariot. Immune to first strikes is nice v city defending archers. +1 pwr. Long upgrade. Not as strong as other units that quickly show up (swordsmen which can be city raiders. I don't think chariots can).


Bad UUs
Panzer. Late.

Navy Seal. Late.

Jaguar. I get that it's resourceless but it's actually less powerful than the swordsman it replaces? +25 jungle defense? no, thanks.

Musketeer. extra movement, wow.

 

[vyapti]

I'm playing the Incas now, and the Quechua is surprisingly useful. They start out with Combat I, which makes roaming barbarians a non-threat. Furthermore, after an initial rush, I still had a few around, I gave some of them Medic and the rest City Raider I & II. In my next war, I sent them with my Axemen and Swordsmen. The medics helped heal my stacks faster and, even though my opponents defended with axemen, they still had some archers defending cities. My new units took no axemen and I finished off the archers with Quechua.

Even into the rennaissance, my medic units can travel with my macemen.

Not bad for 15 hammers!

 

[Xarathas]

Sweet, and I thought I was the only one that has Quechua medics that never really gets upgraded

Phalanxes are awesome. They WILL beat knights if you put them in a city or on a hill. if they have combat 1/2 & formation (which is extremely easy to get since you already start with combat 1), they can even run out of the city and take out those pillaging knights unless they have shock. 1 Phalanx + 1 War Elephant with shock = very good pillaging/resource protecting tagteam.

Quechuas are just wrong on those small maps.

For all-purpose type games, I'd probably rank the top 5 UU ->

Praetorian
Cho-Ko-Nu
Fast Workers
Cossacks
... I can't really decide on #5. The only ones I can't make a case for here are Marines & Jaguars... and probably Panzers.

 

[The Last Conformist]

The Praetorians seem overpowered.

I like the Fast Worker. Helps you during the entire game.

 

[Luhh]

The problem and what I feel they did a bit wrong here is that they don't separate eras too clearly. Because they tried to keep the transitions smoother, combat gets a bit odd at times, and also tend to make some UUs essentially worthless.

Not the route I would have gone. I'd have based it around trooptype, armament, and strength increases and unit name changes accordingly with technological advances. Oh well.

The least they should have done is increase the power of UUs more the later the come, or the shorter they span.

 

[lastchance]

I don't believe Muskeeteer is completely useless. A very prevalent Writing/CS beeline will allow for a very quick Muskeeteer (before anything comparable starts showing up), and you can bring the speed of the Musketeer to bear and allow it to roll. Napoleon can play this beeline very well.

Aztec UU allows Montezuma to get out a very quick, effective rush.

Gandhi and his Fast Workers + Industrious are extremely powerful.

Chariots are just excellent all the way through, and any upgrade of that particular unit allows you to roll.

Prats are insanely good.

Samurai are pretty damn strong.

Navy Seals are too late, and Modern Armor is just around the corner. Rifleman are about the same.

Generally, the earlier a UU is, the stronger it is. The later ones just suck (except for Panzer), because infantry generally becomes very useless late game, and horses don't have power anymore.

 

[ccubed]

Jaguar. I get that it's resourceless but it's actually less powerful than the swordsman it replaces? +25 jungle defense? no, thanks.

While Jags may not be all that powerful, they aren't less powerful than Swordsman. They have all the same stats as a Swordsman (Str 5, Move 1, +10% City Attack) but are resourceless and have the relatively useless +25 Jungle Defense. I think they only seem terrible because you are pretty much forced to compare them to the overpowered Praetorian which is also a Swordsman replacement.

 

[Softnum]

I think Panzers are a bit underrated. In Noble or above, when you don't get a large advantage, vs. Armored units is tech.

They have all the same stats as a Swordsman (Str 5, Move 1, +10% City Attack)

Swordsmans (Swordsmen?) are 6 str, not 5. So you loose 1 Str for + jungle def. (Who in the world defends JUNGLE?) ANd no resource, which I guess is good.

 

[Khaim]

Immortal - +50% v archery is nice. Swordsmen are right around the corner though.

War Chariot. Immune to first strikes is nice v city defending archers. +1 pwr. Long upgrade. Not as strong as other units that quickly show up (swordsmen which can be city raiders. I don't think chariots can).

The main power of these is their cheapness. Either one can pull a very nice early game rush by making hordes of 25p units and swarming. Since the main defender of the time is the archer, Immortals are just fine at this.

 

[ccubed]

I think Panzers are a bit underrated. In Noble or above, when you don't get a large advantage, vs. Armored units is tech.



Swordsmans (Swordsmen?) are 6 str, not 5. So you loose 1 Str for + jungle def. (Who in the world defends JUNGLE?) ANd no resource, which I guess is good.

Doh, I just used the World Builder to give me a Swordsman, a Jaguar and a Praetorian and your're right.

And I was just starting to enjoy the Aztec trait combo.

 

[circuitloss]

The musketeer is not useless. It can keep pace with attacking knights, and on defense, if you can't afford to upgrade everyone, it can make it in time to stop an unexpected attack in one part of your territory that was undefended.

Maybe useless is too strong a word. Let me put it this way. The musketeer does not substantially improve its replacement unit in tha same way that say...Pratorians improve swordmen. They're a little faster...whup de doo. That's what I have mounted units for.

Maybe if Napolean bee-lines for Musketeers he can have a slight military advantage in that age. (Although, speed doesn't really matter much in terms of conquest, when you have to group with your artillery anyway...) But this means that he's FORCED to follow that path if he wants to make the most of his UU advantages.

No one else needs to go through tech-tree heroics just to make the most of their UU.

Also, IMHO the Navy Seals should be much more powerful to make up for their late game entrance. Maybe a bunch of first strikes and collateral damage (C4 booby traps!)

 

[R3dKnight]

Samurais shd be up there IMO. But Chinese Chu Ko Nus counters Praetorians and samurais pretty neatly I must say, that , and their collateral shots.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

I really like to playing as Roosevelt (Organized and Industrial), but I hate the fact that they have such a late and useless UU (Navy Seals) I really think they should have used the "Minute Man" to complement the English Redcoats, or a "American G.I" unit to replace the Infantry.

The Greeks have my favorite UU "Phalanx" these guys rock, you can build then really early, there strong all the way up to Knights and are especially good and defending your promenader from invaders just fortify them on hills around you're kingdom and watch the enemy die one by one.

 

[Heroes]

The main power of these is their cheapness. Either one can pull a very nice early game rush by making hordes of 25p units and swarming. Since the main defender of the time is the archer, Immortals are just fine at this.

An important point for immortal is that it CAN receive defensive bonus! Most mounted units can't, except two: immortal and conquistador.

 

[lastchance]

No, the main benefit of Immortals is that you can rush and demolish anyone close to you who doesn't have copper in the first 30 or 40 turns.

 

[Joh]

Navy Seals aren't that bad on island chain maps. Quite good in fact where the speed of modern armour is pretty much wasted, as you can only go as fast as your fleet. The end game is also more important o nthese maps, as you can't really early rush anyone. You also should make heavy use of stealth bombers and gunships so the marines are only an occupying force really. If you've done that, then ther extra first strikes and whatot will acutally be useful, as you won't be trying to pound away at cities with armour.

I figured out today why musketeers can be good. The speed of cavalry is awesome, but it takes so long to get the required techs, having to go at opposite ends of the tech tree. Musketeers are pretty good against most medieval units if you give them the shock promotion which can be gained from the napolean agressive trait and a barracks (I think). This gives them a strength of about 12, which is decent for a cheap unit. They also heal much faster than cavalry. My cavalry always seem to spend decades just lying around trying to regain their strength, but musketeers are hit one turn then healed the next.

As I said in other thread, redcoats are good for freeing you of the need to get artillery and infantry for an advantage. You can easily conquer riflemen with just cannons and redcoats, and so can spend time researching your economy whilst still having a strong military.

 

[Xarathas]

I think I would've rather them given Americans super spies (CIA)

Just a spy with the same abilities but at a higher success rate... I'd much rather have that over an upgraded Marine.