Unique Unit Breakdown and Thoughts.

[Edgler Vess]

Going to try to make a thread here so people can post thier thoughts and or strategies for any race's UU, good or Bad. This list is VERY Far from complete as I only know a few UU well enough to post my feelings on them.

Incan Empire - Quechua - Replaces: Warrior - Used in an ancient age rush, these little guys are cheap to pump out and are an absolute terror, with thier bonus against archers. You can rush at least an AI captial right out of the gate and have a very good chance of taking the city assuming your on a reasonable difficulty level.

French Empire - Musketeer - Replaces: Musketman - A musketman with an extra movement point. Im not real fond of this unit as I would rather just use Cavalary when I want to move quickly, I suppose they are cheaper and could be good used as cannon fodder. But the extra movement point just doesn't seem to be good enough for me.

English Empire - Redcoat - Replaces: Rifleman. Excellent unit with 2 extra Strength points (16). Probably the best unit to use if you have "flipped the cultural switch" and may be facing tanks before you get your win, well fortified they can hold their own against tanks to give you the last couple of turns of holdout time to get your cultural win.

Persian Empire - Immortal - Replaces:Chariot. Easy to pump out early (4str2move) and if you don't feel like up grading them later (can be expensive to upgrade) you can use them for disposable raiders.

Roman Empire - Praetorian - Replaces: Swordsman. Cheap effective early city raiders, slow moving but combined with some Catapults can easly sack a city with Longbowmen or even with some Cats to soften, win against Musketmen.

Thats all my thoughts for now, feel free to flame, or better yet add your own thoughts!

 

[raxid]

eh musketeers are a perfect compliment for knights, they provide attackers to counter spearmen, and fast city taking is possible cuz they both ahve 2 movement...

 

[Meatlord]

My favourite UU's are as follows:

1. Russian Cossack (Cavalry)- Unbeatable in the mid game, the time when I usually mobilize for war. Str 18.

2. Chinese Cho Ko Nu (Crossbowman)- Crossbow with collateral damage capability, a stack of these can win your war for you even in the face of knights, war elephants and catapults.

3. Roman Praetorian (Swordsman) - Unbeatable in early game for conquest, land and resource grab. Str 8.

 

[R3dKnight]

my top 3 UU Still remains :
1. Praetorian , 8 STR in 2 tech ups is just amazing. The closest counter to this is only Axeman which can be neutralized with decent success with City Raider promotions.

2. Samurais , 2 First Strikes amazes me. These guys chop anything up, and if he fails, he still badly hurt them. Makes nice promotion prep for grenadiers.

3. Chu Ko Nu , they replace swordman for those city killing feats for me. The fact they do collateral dmg means I don't need to sacrifice catapults.

 

[Edgler Vess]

The Germans UU (Panzers) still haven't impressed me as much as I thought they should. Maybe im playing with them wrong but they seem so similar to a normal tank that it doesn't make enough difference.

 

[jafink]

My top three UU's:

1) Praetorian, unbeatable in the ancient age.

2) War chariot, Cheap and fast, great for an early war.

3) Navy SEAL, Great for naval warfare in the modern age.

 

[R3dKnight]

The Germans UU (Panzers) still haven't impressed me as much as I thought they should. Maybe im playing with them wrong but they seem so similar to a normal tank that it doesn't make enough difference.

if i'm not wrong they get 50% bonus when destroying other tanks.

so...it's really awesome in that respect. you don't have to worry about building gun ships anymore.

 

[BlowPhish]

#1 Cossack - I like the cossack because its usefull for a long period of time and is +3 str compared to cavalry.
#2 Samuri - First strike nuff said
#3 Cho-Ko-Nu - cause of their collateral dmg

I'd put the redcoat in here but in my games even on epic it seems the transition from rifleman to infantry is short.

 

[cleverhandle]

Someone please tell me what I'm missing about the Cho-Ko-Nu. From another thread on the topic...

I think the Cho (and the Crossbow, for that matter) is really a niche unit and not terribly useful for typical military situations of the era. With the collateral, it's obviously a offensive unit, so what is it going to be attacking?

1) Cities: not very good. No City Raider promo, and during this time period an AI is going to be tilted heavily towards longbows, nullifying the melee bonus. If I'm going to throw units at a longbow for the sake of collateral, I'd much rather do it with a cheaper and barrage-promotable catapult. Perhaps against a human in multiplayer there would be more of a use here.

2) Single units (pillagers, perhaps): Possibly OK, but most pillagers are mounted units if they're available. Cho's wouldn't be better than any other unit here.

3) Invading stacks: This is clearly where it's at, if anywhere. The AI doesn't always cover stacks with bows, so a couple of Cho's could take out one or two units and soften up the rest nicely.

So Cho's look pretty good for #3, but really how often is that an issue? I could maybe see building a few of these to station along a border that I feel has a strong probability of an invasion, perhaps because I'm planning an offensive there myself and expect a counterattack. But by the time the first stack or two of invaders have been repelled, mounted units will be just as effective and more mobile to boot. So I can't really see how Cho's fit into my mainstream military plans.

 

[rabottens]

My preferences are:
Redcoat
Cossaks
Navy seals

 

[Astax]

War chariot: AWSOME unit, can really steam roll Ancient. Only downside is that it doesnt get terrain bonus, so you only got offensive capability, but the bonus to melee units helps a lot.

Immortal: Another good unit. It's good too on a heavy jungle map, but otherwise war chariot is better IMO.

Phalanxes: Very good unit. My Greek rush involves 50% Phalanx 50% Axeman all with Cover. The stack is very balanced and can counter anything. You can toss few shock Axemen in the mix if you are facing lot of melee. The stack will have great defense on hills thanks to Phalax bonus.

 

[Draax]

I tend to abstract the UUs into different types (typing this off the top of my head so I may be leaving a couple out):
Infantry UUs: Quecha, praetorian, redcoat, navy seal, samurai.
Cavalry UUs: War chariot, immortal, cossack, conquistador, panzer, camel.
Defense UUs: Phalanx, jaguar, skirmisher, cho.
Misc UUs: Musketeer, fast worker.

I use UUs according to category. The way I play, the UUs can all accomplish the same thing as others in their category. They just have different timing or something.

My infantry UUs are for invading. 2 or 3 in a combined stack maximum. I spread them out in a line of battle and march them forward until I hit water. When possible I get these from upgrading units with city raider.

Cavalry UUs are my favorite. God I love them. I use them with the worst intentions possible. Usually I use them in singletons, but occasionally in stacks of 2 against financial civs. I use them to "prep" a civ for invasion by killing his towns, farms, and roads. Road razing is vital prior to invasion. Favorite promotion is march, although I got a tank with commando one time and it had to be seen to be believed. Another thing I like cavalry UUs for is cockblocking a civ that's beating me. That financial civ that's an era ahead of you is just BEGGING you to flood him with cavalry. 2 cavalry units kill a full-grown town in 1 turn. Suicide cavalry pays for itself with town razing, easily.

Defensive UUs really aren't my cup of tea. Only way I use them so far is to skimp on defensive units to boost tech or offense or whatever. Advice would be welcome.

Misc UUs are kinda self-explanatory. They don't really have a slot to fill. Fast workers deserve a thread all by themselves and musketeers can act as infantry or cavalry (although they're pretty damn crappy at either IMO).

end transmission.

 

[Skutai]

The Cho Ko Nu is very useful if you plan on going to war by rushing to Guilds. They are simply sacrificial units to throw against a city prior to your Knight or Maceman attack. The first Cho normally dies horribly, and often the second, but the collateral damage really adds up. The end result is a few dead Cho and many fresh Knights. I find this allows me to move on from my first conquest quickly.

I'm undecided over whether increasing their combat strength is superior to increased number of First Strikes for this tactic.

 

[minger]

Musketeers are also really good for defending your towns -- if you have a few, and you don't have money to upgrade all of your old ancient units, and you are invaded, you can move these guys around quickly to defend your empire -- i've had to use this strategy the one time I played French.

 

[Vindicator7]

I agree that the musketeers are not as useful as they should be. Especially when playing on smaller maps. I can see how using them to roam from city to city when under attack could be useful, but I don't find using them as an offensive weapon as more useful then regular units. The 2 movements is nice, but by that stage in the game, I usually use catapults to soften up cities, so I have to wait for the catapults to catch up anyway.

They would make pretty good raiders, but I usually don't raid a whole lot, since I plan on conquering those cities pretty soon.

Also, the Cossacks are my favorite unit so far. +3 power is dominating. They take out other cavalry easily and dominate the mid game.

My other two favorites are the Redcoats then the Navy Seals. People who dislike the Seals are probably not using them correctly. If you attack from the sea with them after your bombers have brought down the city defenses, they can be very useful.

 

[Illegal_E]

noone's mentioned the Fast workers yet? relevant to all ages, great for an earlier start, and even when they have nothing to improve they can still outrun a tank.

 

[Vindicator7]

I used fast workers once, I was really disappointed because I thought they actually worked faster. While this is the case in some instances, the bonus is usually like a 1-2 turn head start on a 5+ turn improvement. Meaning they work about 20% faster. While that is useful, it does not make up for the fact that the Indians have no militaristic unique unit.

 

[Xarathas]

I'll just comment on the ones that I have a decent amount of experience with.

Musketeers are a very interesting unit. The obvious use for them is mobile defense. Think of them as your primitive mechanized infantry If you only play small/standard maps, they're probably not as useful. If you play large/huge maps, then that extra movement is a godsend.

Like someone else said, they also make great raiding party components along with your knights. To take down major cities, you'll still be waiting on your catapults, but a stack of musketeers and knights could totally blitz those smaller cities.

They also make great pillagers


The Cho-ku-nus are awesome... There's really not a whole lot a stack of these (+ a few mace, and maybe 1~2 accuracy upgraded catapults) cannot take down. It's basically a crossbowmen with 2 first strikes that deals collateral damage.. what is there not to like about this unit??

Quechuas are an awesome unit. Not just for rushing early on.. but if you ever play on a high difficulty game with raging barbarians, they make defending your cities a lot easier (until the axemen come, anyway).

Phalanxes are also very helpful. You can actually attack those pillaging war elephants with a very good chance to succeed. They can also fend off knights pretty easily if you don't have the money to upgrade them to pikes.

Cossacks I've only used once personally but one of my teammates usually use them. As someone said earlier, these things flat out rule during their epoch. They're just -SO- much better than the unit they replace, it's almost unfair.

Fast Workers are also pretty nice. Remember that you don't only save time for working tiles, you also save time for moving from tile to tile.

I think the only UU that I really don't like is the Jaguars.. then again I've never actually used them. Maybe using them will change my mind, but they really aren't very tempting on paper. Sure.. they don't need Iron, but Axemen aren't really that much worse than Jaguars. It's pretty rare that you don't get neither iron nor copper.

 

[tandar]

noone's mentioned the Fast workers yet? relevant to all ages, great for an earlier start, and even when they have nothing to improve they can still outrun a tank.

I have to agree, i have played one game as Ghandi, and i was very impressed with the fast workers. Sure you don't get a military UU , but so far i've found that most of them become obsolete so fast that it dosn't matter to much. Meanwhile , the extra few turns you save really add up, especially since you keep saving them throughout the entire game.

 

[Khyth]

I think the only UU that I really don't like is the Jaguars.. then again I've never actually used them. Maybe using them will change my mind, but they really aren't very tempting on paper. Sure.. they don't need Iron, but Axemen aren't really that much worse than Jaguars. It's pretty rare that you don't get neither iron nor copper.

I really liked Jaguars, despite their silly twirling attack. I've only used them once but they seemed to really get the job done. After a few city attack upgrades, they were really cooking the other civs in the early game. Clearly, their advantage doesn't last long but if you can take out 1 other civ early on, you could really push yourself ahead.