Best Unique Unit?

[_alphaBeta_]

The redcoat!

They dominate the early gunpowder age. I consider them better than cossacks since the redcoats are at 16 strength + 25% vs. mounted units = 20 vs 18.

Again, it depends on play style. I don't usually resort to war until later on. Right when I'm ready to take over someone, redcoats come on the scene. For you early warmongers, it's not the best choice.

Even so, I still consider the redcoat as the most advanced unit for its time, and has no real counter unit.

 

[zeeter]

Praes are head and tales above everything else. They can set the whole rest of your game up. The only thing that can challenge them early on is Axemen. They don't require you to bring along catapults until Longbowmen come around, and even then you can get by without them.

 

[Older than Dirt]

Fast Workers are fast and stay fast for 6500 years, right? They never get obsolete, right? When you capture a worker he is transformed into a Fast Worker, right? They can move into a forest and start to build or chop on the same turn, right? I realize that each of these traits is minor, but taken together they are powerful. Fortunately the AI is not able to take full advantage of this unit's traits.

 

[diablodelmar]

I wouldn't say there is a best UU, but there are some that stand out and some that really suck.

The good

Redcoat. Comes at a relavent time to be useful, gets a base strength bonus and an extra 25% vs other gunpowder units in adition to the 25% against mounted.

Cossack. Is useful for a very long period.

Conquistador. Has Numerous bonuses including 50% against melee, 2 first strikes and has defensive bonuses (unlike all other cavalry).

Samurai. Comes at a convenient time and dominates.

Praetorian. The most dominant unit early on.

The bad

Quecha. Good at taking cities full of archers but they aren't useful exept in the opening turns of a game, when you should be expanding instead of attacking.

Camel Archer. The only advantage over the knight is that they have a 25% chance of withdrawing. Look at the conquistador for a better option.

War chariots. I just don't like 'em.

 

[Gherald]

Cossack best, Praetorian second, Redcoat third, Conquistador fourth.

I never select Russia or Rome because they are overpowered and hence boring to play.

Samuri are nice vs. AI but completely useless against a human who knows how to build crossbows. So I think they are a very weak UU in multiplayer.

 

[jar2574]

Prats or Indian workers.

 

[Col.D]

Cossack....Early expansion, sit nice and peacefully, lots of archers, then whenever you have cossacks pure all out production of cossack, ravange the enemy, or on islands on multiplayer just isolate yourself then invade other islands with them.


On 3 player sorts of maps use skirmishers as a way to slow a civ down or a first wave to slow the enemy down, I do that alot.

 

[Bushface]

Going for a Cultural victory ? Use Gandhi for cheap wonders and temples (you'll need lots) and the undying Fast Worker for speed of development.
Going for Conquest ? I suppose any 'aggressive' leader, but my choice is Napoleon (cheap wonders) and Musketeers, whose speed and very useful promotions make them splendid mid-game units.
Praetorians ?? Never yet played as Rome, and never yet met a Praetorian. Caesar was in my last two games, but the poor soul had no iron in either. Could have had some, last game, but expanded the wrong way and Washington beat him to it.

 

[madviking]

Praet is just a beast when you have iron and some close AIs...
Quecha is good for rushes...
Cossack (yeah Russia! ) just abuses longbows...
Fast worker...

Bad ones...
Skirmisher?
Camel Archer

 

[jimbob27]

I'm a bit fan of the quechua. I always play marathon, and against the ai using the quechua pretty much always guarantees me the oppertunity to take over another civ.

Their window is very short lived, but they can be very powerful for that time. They've already got a 10% bonus from the agressive trait, and when you're using them you're gonna have a barracks, so they all start with either shock or city raider. They've got 100% against archers, and 25% city defense, so as long as you can deprive your enemy of any resources (which is easily done with a chariot or two, when they've got so few cities) they beat every unit your enemys got. Even if their capital is on a hill, you can easily take it down by doubling their numbers. If they've got 6 archers, then suicide 3 quechuas, and have 3 to mop up.

The main advantage of them is the fact they appear so early. If you attack your neighbour with the best land, you end up with double the room for expansion compared to any of your rivals. You may slow your initial development, but with all that land and the financial trait, you'll catch up and overtake in no time.

 

[Chamaedrys]

I vote for the Quequa. With him your land is safe and you can concentrate on expanding and getting resources.

I'm unhappy with the Panzer, he comes very late and has no advantage against infantry and artillery.

 

[diablodelmar]

Going for a Cultural victory ? Use Gandhi for cheap wonders and temples (you'll need lots) and the undying Fast Worker for speed of development.
Going for Conquest ? I suppose any 'aggressive' leader, but my choice is Napoleon (cheap wonders) and Musketeers, whose speed and very useful promotions make them splendid mid-game units.
Praetorians ?? Never yet played as Rome, and never yet met a Praetorian. Caesar was in my last two games, but the poor soul had no iron in either. Could have had some, last game, but expanded the wrong way and Washington beat him to it.

Cheaper wonders? how?????

 

[Watiggi]

I have played the Keshik, Conquisador, Fast worker, Praetorian and the Cho Ku Nu.

I like the keshiks ability to get around easily, great for pillaging or taking down barbarians. I really find myself reluctant to upgrade these units to Knights. I tend to keep quite a few, to scout out and destroy barbarians.

The fast worker was a recent one. I quite liked the ability to get onto a forest tile and start chopping in one turn. Pretty handy. Lives up to it's name.

The Praetorians strength in my opinion isn't how powerful it is, it's the fact that you can bee-line it to Iron Working and mass produce them when the other civs are still just setting themselves up. IOW, getting a maceman very close to the begining of the game is what gives it it's "overpowered" strength. If it took a little while longer, or was a little harder to bee-line it to Iron Working, then it wouldn't be so overpowered when you get them. But wow! They are effective.

The Cho Ku Nu was interesting. I wasn't really skilled with using seige back when I was using the Cho Ku Nu so I lost a lot of them and didn't know how to really promote them properly. I did like them though. I imagine it would be a great defensive unit against large stacks as it should get access to the city garrison promotion and can also attack the stack to deliver the collateral damage.

The Conquisador I found really interesting. It is essentially a Knight that is immune to the bonus that a pikeman has towards mouted units (in other words, it goes one to one with pikeman) and other mele units like maceman. Pretty cool. Pretty useful.

EDIT: I have also had the Panzer, but I didn't get the chance to use it.

Watiggi

 

[BadHorsie]

I've never played a full game with Panzers - aren't they awesome with a few promotions? Do they beat Modern Armor well?

 

[BadHorsie]

The Indian Fast Worker is pretty useless too I think. A normal Worker has movement 2 and a Fast Worker has movement 3. Doesn't make much of a difference at all. OK, it's around all the time, and it's the only UU that is useful for a completely peaceful civ, but I'd still say it's pretty useless. If the normal Worker had movement 1 and the fast worker had movement 2, it would have been a lot more useful.

Totally disagree. The fast worker is excellent, it just depends what kind of game style you play. Obviously you may not want it for aggressive, but if you want to expand fast and go for tech, etc, they're awesome.

 

[Watiggi]

Totally disagree. The fast worker is excellent, it just depends what kind of game style you play. Obviously you may not want it for aggressive, but if you want to expand fast and go for tech, etc, they're awesome.

If you think about it, they would be great for an aggressive civ. They can go to a forest and starting chopping in one turn. That would be rather handy for a warmonger

Cheaper wonders? how?????

The Industrious trait essentially makes Wonders 'cheaper'. It actually lets the city build them quicker, but it has the same net effect.

Watiggi

 

[Chamaedrys]

I've never played a full game with Panzers - aren't they awesome with a few promotions? Do they beat Modern Armor well?

The mordern armor has free first strike, but

28 + 50% = 42

42 > 40 so they should have a change.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

The Cho Ku Nu was interesting. I wasn't really skilled with using seige back when I was using the Cho Ku Nu so I lost a lot of them and didn't know how to really promote them properly. I did like them though. I imagine it would be a great defensive unit against large stacks as it should get access to the city garrison promotion and can also attack the stack to deliver the collateral damage.

EDIT: I have also had the Panzer, but I didn't get the chance to use it.

Watiggi

Just so you don't waste promtions on the Cho Ku Nu - you can't make use of the city garrison promtion and collateral damage. Collateral damage is only applied when you attack. When attacking, the city garrison promotion has no effect since the unit moves out of the city to attack.

The Panzer holds its own against armor, even modern armor as stated. By this point in the game though, no one is going to come at you without gunships in the stack. I don't see too many tank on tank battles taking place so late in the game.

 

[Watiggi]

Just so you don't waste promtions on the Cho Ku Nu - you can't make use of the city garrison promtion and collateral damage. Collateral damage is only applied when you attack. When attacking, the city garrison promotion has no effect since the unit moves out of the city to attack.

Yeah, I was aware of that, but thanks anyway

All though I haven't used the Cho Ku Nu this way, I would have thought that maybe giving it city garrison promos and then keeping it in the city for city defense would make it a standard crossbowman, but it would also give you the option to use it as a sacrificial stack killer on the offensive if your city is attacked by a big stack. The problem is that it wouldn't deal that much damage to stacks considering it isn't a true stack killer (the seige units base strength when calculating the collateral damage is based on the strength of the seige unit. The other units like the Cho Ku Nu and tanks start from a base of 0 strength I believe).

Watiggi

 

[dimaliok]

I like NavySeals + +tank=easy wars