A comprehensive UU guide

[s.c.dude]

Anyway, for those of you who want to, sure - Impi, Conquistadors or anything. Give me your ideas

mkay
heres the conquisadors
Conquisadors have a 50% bonus against melee i cant stress this enough plus they get a defensive bonus. Many a game ive used them as expensive longbowmen . So they can capture and hold a city until archers or longbowmen arrive to relieve. A couple downsides downside to them i can find is that they cant get the promotion against archers but as city attackers their more than competent, their expenisve, you need horse and iron to make them.
-s.c.dude

 

[notagoodname]

mkay
heres the conquisadors
Conquisadors have a 50% bonus against melee i cant stress this enough plus they get a defensive bonus. Many a game ive used them as expensive longbowmen . So they can capture and hold a city until archers or longbowmen arrive to relieve. A couple downsides downside to them i can find is that they cant get the promotion against archers but as city attackers their more than competent, their expenisve, you need horse and iron to make them.
-s.c.dude

Conquistadors also make great guard units for seige weaponry, especially since you can give catapults/trebuchets triple city attack with spain. Other knights and war elephants have a chance in open ground but that's all until grenadiers/cavalry come along. So stack pikes and seige and get a few conquistadors in there and you have an unstoppable stack of death.

 

[aelf]

Added the entry on Hwacha. Immortals are next, followed by War Chariots and Conquistadors. Still waiting for drkodos' take on Impi

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Conquistadors are kinda brutal frankly, but unfortunately, the tech tree is such that by the time you get knights, they become obselete pretty quickly.

What does interest me is this: how much of an economic advantage does the fast worker give you? Very hard to setup an experiment I understand.

 

[Wodan]

Conquistadors and Castle undercut each other to some extent. I just started a game as Isabella and was figuring out my game plan when I realized I didn't know if I wanted to go for early Trebuchets/Castles or early Conquistadors.

Wodan

 

[johnny_rico]

Conquistadors and Castle undercut each other to some extent. I just started a game as Isabella and was figuring out my game plan when I realized I didn't know if I wanted to go for early Trebuchets/Castles or early Conquistadors.

Wodan

An unfortunate side effect for Isabella with the addition of the treb and her UB. It seems an oversight on the developers parts to have a UU and UB available in the same era on different tech paths. Doubly so, because the window for each is short. Thus, I usually settle on the trebs as they are the bulk of my army.

 

[aelf]

Hmm... I can frequently trade for either Engineering or Guilds in my games. They are not usually big on knights, but I can see the point of getting Conquistadors early (unless your neighbours have elephants). I'd trade for Engineering.

 

[johnny_rico]

Thought I'd add my two cents regarding the carthaginian UU. I'm not certain if there are already any contributions on this thread regarding the unit, I only know Aelf hasn't done an 'official' write up. So........

With the advent of chariots gaining the ablility to crush axemen, it seems the common trend has been to make super axemen. The Numidian cavalry is such a unit. It's too bad the on screen icon has these guys holding spears; they're basically axemen on horseback, gaining a movement of 2 and the same horse archer bonus vs. siege. They enjoy the +50% vs. melee, as all axemen do, however, they cannot acquire the city raider promotion.

While the numidian cavalry is a useful unit, it is not a game breaker. You won't be taking cities with them nor will they make up the bulk up your army. They make excellent stack busters on defense, however, you'll want to attack with these guys when defending your land as they do not receive defensive bonuses. The +50% vs. melee and siege gives them a nice advantage versus any stack invading your lands. They'll still have a tough time with spears, however, with a shock promotion, they are even (+75% melee vs. +100% mounted = +25% mounted; 25% of 4 is 1 totalling 5, the attack value of the Numidian Cavalry).

Other advantages include starting with flanking 1 and as Hannibal is a charismatic leader, promotions now occur at 2, 4, 8, 13, and 20 XPs. Having this UU come out of the gate (no pun intended) with 11 XP is doable, making each unit one victory away from it's 5th promotion. And the flanking promotion will carry over when upgraded to a knight. 5 promotions for a knight is a formidable unit so lots of this UU are a good idea.

I feel like I have one more thing to add but can't seem to recall it.

 

[Thedrin]

Conquistadors are kinda brutal frankly, but unfortunately, the tech tree is such that by the time you get knights, they become obselete pretty quickly.

No, they're not. They don't become obsolete until rifling or military tradition have been researched. It's not at all difficult to beeline to guilds early and even a slight emphasis on the lower branch of the tech tree will - assuming a decent rate of research - give conquistadors a long life time. In that period of time only Janissarys and war elephants have a definite edge over them.

 

[aelf]

Wow, johnny, I'd have to think of some other way to give credit to you in the article, with all those ideas you're posting

 

[johnny_rico]

No Problem Aelf. the UU's are one of my favorite parts of the game so I make lots of them with any civ I play. I give them a variety of promotions and see what works best. I don't require any special thanks though, I've received a lot of good info from the forums so it's only right to contribute where you can.

 

[aelf]

Don't worry. I know what to do

Anyway, sorry for the lack of new entries, guys. I'm mostly busy with work and EMC3 these few days.

 

[aelf]

Added the entry on Immortals. War Chariots and Conquistadors are next in line. What happened to the ideas on Impi?

 

[drkodos]

Added the entry on Immortals. War Chariots and Conquistadors are next in line. What happened to the ideas on Impi?

Oh Snap! When I got banned I forgot about them. I am currently engaged in working out some settler first stuff, but would be willing to get something going later this evening.

 

[drkodos]

Impi Zulu Unique Unit Replaces Spearman.

On the surface, the Impi may not appear to be a stellar unit because it does not come slathered with a bunch of special bonuses. But, let's look a bit closer.

The one it does come with can be decisive: Mobility (-1 movement cost for any space (!) that cost 2+ mps to enter). Because Shaka is Aggressive trait, they also start with Combat 1 promotion. Their primary abilty is to move quickly and efficiently over terrain and catch another nation with an improperly defended city in the early game when borders are not too large. They can sit at an angle two tiles removed from the city square and attack directly into the city on the same turn that war is declared. This makes them brilliant pillagers as well as worker stealers because their combat promo gives them a nice boost for defense.

Of course they come with the Spearman 100% bonus to mounted units and because they are Melee units they can get City Raider promotions as well as Combat all the way up to Commando. This creates a game unit quite similar to its real life counterpart, which were known for their encircling tactic, and this is an effective way of using them in Civ as well.

Naturally, they are great to keep in stacks to defend against mounted units.

Because they are relatively inexpensive (35 hammers), you can use them to create an overwhelming force to bum rush your opponents and make them feel as if they have become Lord Chelmsford as they get overrun (literally) by these fleet footed warriors.

They have tremendous synergy with the Zulu UB, the Ikhanda, which gives +3 experience points to new units as well as acting as a mini courthouse (-20% maintenance cost for the city) so you can really use them to early rush and grab some cities from an unsuspecting opponent. In addition, Shaka builds his UB at double production speed. Thus, you can have them roll out with Combat 2/Mobility or go more flexible with CR1/Combat 1/Mobility or even go straight to SHOCK promo (Combat 1 is a prereq) to take out enemy archers.

This makes them a very powerful early game force for the early game warmongerer who like to claim a bunch of opponent cities before settling in to win a variety of victory types.

Shaka starts with Hunting (which is their required build tech), but they need copper or iron to be built so beeline to BW is sometimes called for if you want to rush with them.



I believe them to be the most powerful early game UU when used properly and potentially game breaking in the right hands.

 

[kniteowl]

I've Only played the Zulu's Once, I generally use the Impi for Fog busting and scouting, especially on larger maps and with very few Civs and Barb Rampant all over Pre-Axes off, of course even with Axes you can alway run away frm them with their 2 movement and Mobility Promotion.

Also Great for pillaging Pre-IW. With the Impi/Chariot Combination, after IW the Impi/Axe Combination will do well also.

Never Done an Impi Rush before, Be similar to a Jag Rush I guess Except you only have 4.5 Str Soilders, They'd be like chariots with Defensive bonus and can move on all terrain.

Note: All impi Units that are upgraded Keep their Mobility promotions, No Mounted Unit is safe (except Conquistador) with mobility Pikes around and if they survive to the industrial Age and upgraded to Rifles and Grandiers, you'll have Quick moving CR units MUAHAHAHAHA.

 

[Meatbuster]

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

@drkodos: Shock doesn't take out archers, unless you're referring to the fact that putting Shock on Impi will mean they face the archers first...

 

[drkodos]

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

@drkodos: Shock doesn't take out archers, unless you're referring to the fact that putting Shock on Impi will mean they face the archers first...

Thank you for the correction.

Yes, mobility can sometimes be tricky to figure out. In essence, it renders all terrain 1 Movement "point" to enter. I did not discuss their upgrade path, and this was one reason why.

 

[kniteowl]

Actually "Mobility" is a rather confusing promotion. It provides terrain movement advantage, not extra moves. So Pikes with mobility don't move 2 steps. They always move 1 tile in enemy territory, so the mobility is useless until the "Impi descendants" finally upgrade to Mech Infantry which have 2 moves.

Yes, mobility can sometimes be tricky to figure out. In essence, it renders all terrain 1 Movement "point" to enter. I did not discuss their upgrade path, and this was one reason why.

Really? I had no idea that the mobility has no effect on Single movement units.

Maybe Firaxis Should consider Decreasing the Impi Movement to One and Giving them "Morale" as a Free promotion in combination with Mobility in the next patch.

Be basically simlar to Jags, Berserkers and Gallic Warriors and keeping Free Promotion from previous UUs except the Impi's will only be allowed to upgrade to Pikes...they won't be dangerous untill the industrial Age... Which is a very long time from the Ancient Age.

I'm not sure if changing the Impi in this way would be overpowerd though.

 

[aelf]

Thanks, drkodos.

I'll be busy with work these few days. I'll make another entry as soon as I can.