Best Unique Units, a discussion and Poll

best UUs in the game? (vote for up to 10)

  • Eagle Warrior (Aztecs)

    Votes: 53 41.4%
  • War-Cart (Sumeria)

    Votes: 77 60.2%
  • Hoplite (Greece)

    Votes: 5 3.9%
  • Maryannu Chariot Archer (Egypt)

    Votes: 4 3.1%
  • Viking Longship (Norway)

    Votes: 11 8.6%
  • Legion (Rome)

    Votes: 39 30.5%
  • Ngao Mbeba (Kongo)

    Votes: 6 4.7%
  • Saka Horse Archer (Scythia)

    Votes: 22 17.2%
  • Varu (India)

    Votes: 25 19.5%
  • Berserker (Hardrada)

    Votes: 3 2.3%
  • Crouching Tiger (China)

    Votes: 2 1.6%
  • Mamluk (Arabia)

    Votes: 47 36.7%
  • Samurai (Japan)

    Votes: 10 7.8%
  • Winged Hussar (Poland)

    Votes: 18 14.1%
  • Conquistador (Spain)

    Votes: 7 5.5%
  • Sea Dog (England)

    Votes: 5 3.9%
  • Redcoat (Victoria)

    Votes: 27 21.1%
  • Garde Imperiale (France)

    Votes: 5 3.9%
  • Cossack (Russia)

    Votes: 23 18.0%
  • Rough Rider (Roosevelt)

    Votes: 6 4.7%
  • Minas Geraes (Brazil)

    Votes: 18 14.1%
  • U-Boat (Germany)

    Votes: 5 3.9%
  • Digger (Australia)

    Votes: 13 10.2%
  • P-51 Mustang (America)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Immortal (Persia)

    Votes: 13 10.2%
  • Hypaspist (Macedomn)

    Votes: 9 7.0%
  • Hetairoi (Alexander)

    Votes: 12 9.4%

  • Total voters
    128
  • Poll closed .
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A self-explanatory poll about the best UUs in the game, you can vote for up to 10. Obviously discuss your votes in the thread below, I'll put up my top 10 a little later in the thread. As earlier Uniques tend to be better Uniques, I've arbitrarily listed the options by the era they unlock.
 
Mamluks are the only ones I can vouch for based on my own experience. They are truly monsters. The free health regen can turn into something absurd given the the right promotions, and I've used the unit to wipe out entire continents before. I went into my Arabia file expecting to play religion, came out with conquest on the brain.
 
Mamluks are the only ones I can vouch for based on my own experience. They are truly monsters. The free health regen can turn into something absurd given the the right promotions, and I've used the unit to wipe out entire continents before. I went into my Arabia file expecting to play religion, came out with conquest on the brain.
try attaching an apostle with the Chaplain promotion to one of them. Not only do Apostles have the speed to keep up, the extra healing makes them damn near invincible. I've wiped my entire continent with basically 1 or 2 Chaplain/Mamluk combos. And this is against human players.
 
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I like the Aussie Diggers. Because if you are fighting in neutral or enemy territory AND on a costal tile. They can go toe to toe with Mech Infantry. No other UU in game when utilizing their abilities can match End Game units like they can. and considering Mech Infantry is meant to be the Diggers Upgrade I often put of the tech research for as long as possible if I am not going for a Science victory.

Though I have really given Arabia a proper play though yet!
 
You should have restricted to around 5 options. I had to actually choose an UU that I'd never choose (Redcoat, and just because Victoria gets them for free when settling cities).

Are we talking strictly about UUs or UUs synergizing with other abilities (double Saka Horse Archers, free Redcoats, buffed Rough Riders etc)?
 
You should have restricted to around 5 options. I had to actually choose an UU that I'd never choose (Redcoat, and just because Victoria gets them for free when settling cities).

Are we talking strictly about UUs or UUs synergizing with other abilities (double Saka Horse Archers, free Redcoats, buffed Rough Riders etc)?
if you only feel strongly about a few UUs, just vote for those. More of a crowdsourcing thing to see what the collective mind thought about UUs. I had trouble voting for the Saka Horse Archer, for example, as in and of itself it's not a great unit. But as far as how the game implements them in a practical sense, and how Tomyris can overwhelm you quite early with them and normal horsemen, I decided to include them as my #10.
 
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I had to go with eagle warriors. First, because of the current game mechanics, you want to go to war early and then never again, so ancient era UUs are the best, classical a distant second, and medieval or later don't even register in comparison. Second, they are a full 35% stronger than the unit they replace which is a massive difference, though their highly increased cost does offset this bonus a bit and does make Aztec build order a bit of a challenge. Third, there is great compatibility between their significant increase in strength and the Aztec bonus to strength in regards to luxuries, which means that you simply ignore iron working to increase the window of the eagle warrior and the bonus to combat strength makes it quite conceivable for them to be stronger than their upgrade unit by other civilizations. Fourth, the worker-steal bonus is incredible simply for tile improvements, but again has incredible compatibility with the Aztec unique ability to rush districts. All in all, this UU, which is available before any technology is discovered, gives the Aztecs (who also have other bonuses that can give them a general advantage over opponents) the ability to start a game at such a decisive advantage that others will never catch up to you.
 
Only went with a few - eagle warrior, war cart, legion and varu. Eagle warriors and war carts are fairly situational but they are just unreal overpowered in the right situation. Legions and varus outclass everything from their era (assuming they update the legion's strength to be stronger than a swordsman, haven't checked).

Other units are very good situationally, but are weak outside that situation. E.g. saka horse archers and redcoats, neither is that strong of a unit but they are both kind of overpowered just due to how many of them you can spam. A few like conquistadors, samurai and mamluks are quite strong but come so late in the game they just don't make that big of a difference. I haven't played with Australia yet (or Poland).

Then there are some like Longships, Berserkers and U-boats that are just weak.
 
Eagles as long as there is a close neighbour. It's true they are expensive, but just build two and then immediately attack a city state close to you to grab a worker and use it to improve three tiles to trigger the eureka, and you will get that 50% unit production bonus quite soon, which means more Eagles, which means more workers and more districts built. Districts are so expensive in this game but I once have so many workers to the point I have to put them all to sleep to wait for the population to grow to the point I can build more districts.

I also vote warcarts and Mamluks.

Oh, how I miss the Chu-Ko-Nu in Civ4 and 5 (see my signature)! Why they replace them with the fxxking useless Crouching Tiger?
 
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War-Carts are the best UU, they have 30 combat strength and don't need a tech to get them. The early game is also the most important part of the game so any early bonus is better.
 
if you only feel strongly about a few UUs, just vote for those. More of a crowdsourcing thing to see what the collective mind thought about UUs. I had trouble voting for the Saka Horse Archer, for example, as in and of itself it's not a great unit. But as far as how the game implements them in a practical sense, and how Tomyris can overwhelm you quite early with them and normal horsemen, I decided to include them as my #10.
Interestingly enough, I went with them as #9 due to that. Which other ones did you choose? Mine were:
  • Eagle Warriors, War-Cart, Legion, Varu: I think everyone agrees to them
  • Mamluk: A Medieval one means they might not be as good as the other ones. Still, you can only say they're weak if you haven't used them. You need only half the amount of Mamluks to conquer enemy cities due to their healing, and coupling them with Chaplain Apostles (Arabia is guaranteed a religion anyway) can be borderline cheating.
  • Winged Hussar: Simply the most powerful unit of its time, and capable to stand up to Cavalry. They may be expensive, fairly late in the civic tree and can't be pre-built, but you only need a handful of them anyway. They really shine with Theocracy, since they get quite cheap to faith-buy (even more with Poland's increased Holy Site adjacency).
  • Cossack: Really, really late, but they make up for it by being one of the best UUs in the game. More strength and able to retreat after attack means you'll almost never lose one of them. Theocracy can also help getting the handful you'll ever need.
  • Minas Geraes: Do you like Battleships? If so, Minas Geraes are more powerful and usually come earlier (since Brazil usually has a good cultural game). Get a few of them and your enemies may as well say goodbye to their coastal cities.
 
I think the only variation on our list, I did not pick the Varu due to not having used them. I have played against India plenty, though; and they are a strong (but slow) unit. In lieu of the Varu, I nominated the Digger. Yes, it's an infantry which is ridiculously late, but with their coastal bonuses, and as AUS you will be probably playing some kind of coastal map or strategy, are really freaking amazing if you need some kind of late game campaign. You can spam out quite a few them with Australia's DOW production bonus, they are amazingly good. Kind of a niche "shiny toy" though because assumedly your game is well down the path to being decided by the time they come into play. The Winged Hussars are amazing for their era, I'm not sure how the extra damage works exactly, if you can't knockback an enemy as far as how it's calculated, but they seem to do HUGE damage in that case (the knockback thing, tactically is pretty situationally useful as well, you can pretty much throw a frontline of an invasion into disarray quite easily. You can knockback the frontline melee units, and send a GG back to the closest city which is pretty much going to ruin whatever invasion plans they had lol). The Minas, while a ship is devastating for coastal maps and how early Pedro can get it. Cossacks are probably much better than they seem on paper... cycle a few of them in and out of the frontlines, and just being cav units in general (albeit somewhat late) make them great. And the Mamluk has been well spoken for already by several posters. I almost feel like I don't have to say much about warcarts, Legions, or Eagles.
 
I think the two best unique units are the Mamluk and the Cossacks. Eagles and Warcarts are mainly good because they come so early imho. + Warcarts having no direct counter unit. +Eagles stay valid for a longer time due to the luxury bonus
After those four I have the Varu and the Minas Gerais before the big mass of units are ranked. Maryannu Chariot Archers would also be better than average if they weren't so expensive.
At the bottom of my list, I have the Sea Dog (not working properly), the U-Boat (no need for that unit, might be good though), the P-51 Mustang (same thing) and the hoplite (spearmen are generally weak and the hoplite's bonus is even weaker because of that imho).
 
I had to actually choose an UU that I'd never choose (Redcoat,

The fact that it comes for free is one part. The fact it is strong to start with and also gets +10 off continent makes it a fine unit. I chose it because it marries in well with the other civ bonuses and also marries in with Victorias Mid game surge. Sure Saka and horse carts or OP starts... They just are like game over before it begins while redcoats are come-back kids

NOTE: Best does not mean strongest, it means most fun to me.
 
which means more workers and more districts built. Districts are so expensive in this game but I once have so many workers to the point I have to put them all to sleep to wait for the population to grow to the point I can build more districts.
Yes! With the ridiculous and illogical way that districts go up in price, it may be overlooked by some how incredibly important it is that the Aztec unique worker bonus gives you a percentage boost towards district cost rather than a flat number of hammers per charge.
 
But workers go up in value with cards as does chopping so its not so bad
Good point in regards to worker efficiency in general, but I was referring to the Aztec worker-steal bonus. If you enslave a worker and set it to build district at turn 50, it will give you about 20 hammers (whatever 20% of the district cost is.) If you enslave a worker and set it to build district at turn 150, it will give you about 40 hammers (whatever 20% of the cost is.) Because it's a percentage rather than a flat X hammers, they scale with the escalating costs.
 
The fact that it comes for free is one part. The fact it is strong to start with and also gets +10 off continent makes it a fine unit. I chose it because it marries in well with the other civ bonuses and also marries in with Victorias Mid game surge. Sure Saka and horse carts or OP starts... They just are like game over before it begins while redcoats are come-back kids

NOTE: Best does not mean strongest, it means most fun to me.

That's why I questioned if we're strictly talking about UUs or their synergies. Redcoats came in #10 due to the same reasons Sakas came in #9: the previous ones are strong on their own, while Redcoats need some of Vicky's abilities to truly shine (namely, the free unit when settling/conquering a city in another continent). They come quite late, can't be pre-built and aren't very mobile. But still, they aren't that unreasonably late, and they're very strong, especially outside your territory, which synergizes well with the foreign continent focus.

Diggers didn't make it because they come much later. Rough Riders, while a little bit stronger with all bonuses and more mobile, have no special way to be built, like Redcoats. Also, their rival Cavalry comes earlier, can be pre-built and costs less to produce. The Rough Rider bonuses, in my opinion, can't overcome the fact they need to be hard-built or expensively bought.
 
Other than being fantastic barb-busters that synergize well with Sumeria's UA, I'm not sure I understand the War Cart hype. Against AIs on King and above its very difficult to build enough of them fast enough to overrun a civ before they fall behind on the power curve, at which point you've neglected other important areas of your economy. I can see using them to take periphrial cities or CSs, but not for getting the knockout punch that chariot or axe rushes in civ 4 could pull off. Maybe someone will fill me in here.
 
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