Best UU overall

[Hoplite191]

I recently played as Mongolia and just realised how powerful the Keshik actually is. It can rip up other Civs with no problem. So I was just wondering if there are any other Civs in your views who have powerful units which when reached in tech can win the game?

 

[Grendeldef]

I've always preferred Camel Archers over Keshiks and considered it generally as the best UU - the life span is longer as it can take much more dmg without having to withdraw. Might also just be a question of playstyle preference.

 

[layelaye]

Camel archers. nothing can stand up to them when they show up, pikes dont get a bonus vs them (so its 16 vs the camels 17, and the camel can shoot with 21 ranged strength)

they have almost the damage of frigates but can move after an attack and they just tear everything to shreds with their broken powerfull ranged attack.

i just had the misfortune to play an arabia player online and he spammed them - his incompetence was the only thing that saved me from being overrun in 10 turns.

 

[Maradoc]

On water-heavy maps, up against A.I. players, the English SOTL can just rip your opponents apart!

 

[Bad Wolf]

A lot of civs actually have some really devastating UUs. That's one of the things I like about Civ V as compared to previous iterations, most of the UUs really do feel unique and special.

As already mentioned Keshiks and Camel Archers are crazy-powerful early-mid game units, but I'd have to give the edge to Camel Archers owing to their lack of weakness to pikes.

The Huns' Battering Rams and Horse Archers are deadly early on - a roving band of them can wipe out a clutch of ancient-era opponents before they even get off the ground. Their real downside is that they go obsolete very quickly.

Also Cho-Ko-Nu and Impi - any unit that can attack twice in one turn has a huge advantage in this game given 1UPT. I'd give the edge to Cho-Ko-Nu here, because if you get them out early enough, a group of them can reduce a city to 0 HP in a couple of turns. Impi are deadly, esp. with unique promotions, but they do need to take damage when they attack.

Also Assyrian Siege Towers are quite powerful.

As for naval units, Ship of the Line for offence, and Turtle Ships for defence - seriously, those things are TANKY, and AI Korea loves to spam them. I find AI England isn't as fond of spamming SOTLs.

 

[Hoplite191]

Never really used Arabia when playing so I haven't experienced the power of the Camel Archer. But the fact that the pikeman have no bonus against them is pretty cool.

 

[DWilson]

I just prefer the mobility of the Keshik to the camel archer. For that reason alone, I don't care that they are weak against pikes. Pikes can't even get in range. The Keshik moves in, through any terrain, kills, moves completely out of range. It's a beautiful thing.

 

[CaptainPatch]

I really, really liked Keshiks when a CS started gifting them to me. Stronger melee than the Camel Archer, but weaker ranged attack. The real decider though is that the Keshik has 5 MPs to the Camel Archer's 4. Having more MPs means that the Keshik can perform a caracol(e), a maneuver popular in the 30 Years War (I seem to recall): A mounted unit rides up towards an enemy formation and fires a ranged weapon at the target then quickly circles back, reloading as they retire. Then the circular motion continues with continuous looping, firing at range but constantly avoiding melee. Short of running out of ammo, the only things that forces the mounted missile unit to break off are other mounted units that can melee, or concentrated missile fire from the targeted enemy unit. Five MPs means that the Keshik can caracol better than the four MPs of the Camel Archer.

HOWEVER, both the Keshik and Camel Archers don't appear until the Medieval Era. As nice as they are, for the two earlier eras, those units don't do diddly for me. For a VERY strong, useful fast missile unit, it's hard to beat the Egyptian War Chariot. Compared to the Keshik and Camel Archer, it's combat values are rather weak. (Ranged 10, melee 6) But during the Ancient and Classical eras, a 10 ranged shot can be quite damaging to most enemy units in that era. With 5 MPs, it makes for a decent "fire brigade" traversing a lot of ground to meet threats or exploit opportunities. Unfortunately, it's only really effective in clear terrain, and once it shoots, if the target survives, it's in range of making a melee counterattack . (Which can be offset by pairing the War Chariot up with any melee unit to stand in between the chariot and the target.)

So overall, I'll go with the War Chariot because I get a LOT of utility out of it when I need that advantage, in the early game when my empire is just forming up.

 

[Vitruvius]

If we dont take upgrades into consideration and only match up the unit with other units in the same era, then most uus are pretty damn good. E.g. legions are +3 over swords and can build roads when your workers do other stuff. Dromons absolutely dominate any ships of the era and can bombard land like a composite bow. My favourite is the conquistador, its a scout with 4 movements and knight strength. Just to name a few.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Xiao Xiong]

There is a lot to be said about the ability of your meat shields to build roads as they siege a city. For that reason, I think a lot of people underestimate the legion. Building forts when they are on border defense is also great.

For anyone who doesn't get it -- building a road through the forests around the city that you are besieging allows your units to rotate out quickly as they get damaged, and to do it with the benefit of a forest or mountain tile where they are better protected. Ranged units can then move into a forest tile and fire in the same turn, while the damaged unit previously in that spot moves back efficiently out of range along the road.

When not playing rome I send a worker with any invasion force, where a city is surrounded by mountains or forests, but it takes a long time for one worker to get the job done. A couple of legion units can build all the road you need quickly while soaking up damage.

 

[ArguCa]

Probably Camel Archer and Keshik.

 

[Troll4Hire]

A bit different topic, but if you're looking for kickass UUs you should take a quick look at these guys, since it's a very interesting and versatile unit, even tho' it's a warrior replacement (but it only gets obsolete with metal casting). You probably won't attack head-on capitals as soon as you get the unit (turn 1 lol), but you will use them in large numbers in the early part of the game.
i made this little article a while ago about jaguars for the civ overall elimination thread, but moderators put in into a separate one. I think you might be interested in trying out these guys if you like to "rip up other civs" as you said earlier.
Probably the combination of these guys and the UA itself what makes the Aztecs so unique but challenging at the same time. you have to think outside the box a little, that's all.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=514256

Other than that, people often forget about Denmark. It was... maybe it's still i a fairly weak civ in some ways, but players almost never take in count that at some point they've been buffed - so now their UU the Berserker (Longsword replacement) can be built at metal casting, and not steel - basically right after you get swords. Since G&K pillaging gives you a small HP buff, and since now all of Denmark's melee units get the no movement cost when pillaging buff, and they can move right after landing, they are able to create a little chaos near coastal citiy in no time.

In short: In BNW Denmark's Berserker might look just like a standard longsword replacement unit, but do not forget that these guys usually fight normal swordsmen or pikes during their first raids. They move 3 tiles instead of two, and that means they can pillage (and HEAL) two times before hitting an enemy unit. Also they are suitable for surprise attacks.

 

[cpm4001]

Winged Hussars or Camel Archers are probably the best. Both have crappy upgrade paths but they're useful for quite some time and very fun units to boot (though Keshiks are very good, too.)

 

[Hoplite191]

Troll4Hire, I've been using the Aztecs a lot before Mongolia came around. It is true their Jaguars are exceptional but the only problem is that every civ begins to hate you from the start. Don't know why but I've always had 3 or 4 civs declare war on me within the first 70 turns.

 

[Navelgazer]

Biased because I'm experiencing them currently, but I'm a total convert to the power of the Kris Swordsman. Cheap to pump out, you can throw wave after wave of them at your enemies and slice through cities, and then only keep the best of them to upgrade into potentially the most elite army in the game. Like all things to do with Indonesia, there are trade-offs and the benefits take some jiggering to extract, but it's worth it. These guys are fantastic.

Also, I don't know if this is Keshik/Camel Archer level, but the Dromon is definitely the best thing about Byzantium, and having the only ranged naval units for ~100 turns or more can be exploited like crazy (and make taking the Honor opener very worthwhile.)

 

[Troll4Hire]

Troll4Hire, I've been using the Aztecs a lot before Mongolia came around. It is true their Jaguars are exceptional but the only problem is that every civ begins to hate you from the start. Don't know why but I've always had 3 or 4 civs declare war on me within the first 70 turns.

According to my experiences, no matter how "friendly" you playstyle is, sometimes AI players decide that you're in their way. And when they do that, they tend to bring some friends as well.
I played a game recently with England where I tried to stay passive as long as possible, and only attacked my neighbor (Sweden), when another AI player (USA) asked me to join his assault on Sweden. I did, but the States tricked me there: Washington chickened out, and denounced me a few turns later for going to war vs Sweden. After capturing several Swedish cities I was up against the US, Babylon and a few remaining Swedish cities. But what I'm trying to point out that I got a big red "Backstabbed You!" text next to both Washington and Nebuchadnezzar. So I just wanted to stress out the AI itself can be kind of a jerk sometimes too, not just humans.

Not sure if this can help, but here are some general ideas as well, for example:
In the early stages when you're running circles with jaguars, you probably encounter a few City-states as well.
- If you're going to war versus several city-states your influence-resting point will drop at several other CS-s too, because you're pushing around the weak and defenseless. I assume AI players you've met will not tolerate this behavior either in general.
- If you're attacking just one specific CS, but it has a protector civ (an AI player pledged protection), that specific player will probably hate you for doing it, and he might tell the others on the map that you were messing with his CS-s. So keep an eye on which CS is protected by whom when you're demanding tributes.
- If you're in a multiplayer game with both AI and human players on the same map (we do that from time to time), you have to accept the fact that you cannot trust anyone. The AI players will throw away hundreds of years of cooperation, declaration of friendship, even active trades for around a 500-1000g cash and/or resources. (but the fact that you cannot trust these guys goes both ways - he will declare war that instant, but sometimes he just sends 1 or 2 unit to patrol your borders, and that's it. He took the other player's cash, and waging war against you... on paper. )

You can get a few hints why the is AI hating your guts (contested borders, he wanted to expand but you put cities there, you build Wonders he wanted, he got informed that you had spies in his cities, etc). This is all there in the diplomacy panel, check it from time to time - you won't find answers for every question or event happening on the map, but it's enough so you could start guessing.

Sry if this was too "generalized", but I don't really know anything about your experiences with civ5. These are some really basic examples of playing with AI players, but other than that i find it challenging to give tips, since i don't have a clue what is happening under 70 turns in your games.

 

[MKDELTA3]

Caroleans.

 

[Reus]

When I go to war, I usually emphasize on speed, mobility, and superior firepower that can cause swift destruction to the enemy's main forces in less than 3 turns. For this, I would need units from later eras and wait until the World's road infrastructure is developed enough to ensure my force's movement.

Because of this strategy, I rarely conduct warfare before I have at least Cannons and Cavalries. But when I use the Huns, its Horse Archers enable me to quickly overwhelm the enemy forces with its considerably great range and damage capabilities, it is also fairly quick to build and superior compared to most rival units at its time. Combined with at least 3 Battering Ram, I can conduct quick Blitzkriegs that shatters early 5 city sized empires.

That is why, I think units like the Hunnic Horse Archers are great.

 

[Hoplite191]

MKDELTA3 I've personally never experienced playing with the Carolean but from what I've read it seems that the only difference between it and the Rifleman is the March promotion.

 

[Dgodus]

Big fan of early war. The Huns are awesome. Battering ram is evil!