BTS info for the Comprehensive UU Guide

aelf

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There's been many additions and some changes to the game's UUs in BTS, which warrants an update of the UU Guide.

I know this might be a little early, but I want to start doing this as soon as possible. I don't know how much time I will have a few months from now, since I will be leaving for further studies. And I'm sure the bright minds around here have figured out how to use most of the new UUs effectively by now ;)

I've already added to the entry on the Phalanx to accomodate the major change to it in BTS. If you guys have any ideas regarding the new UUs or the old UUs that have been changed, please post them here. I will try to quote all relevant discussion that takes place here in the actual thread for future readers' reference.

The reason why I'm not doing this in that thread itself is the lack of attention it will get in the Strategy Articles forums. I think it would be to the guide and everybody's benefit that ideas come readily :)
 
Well, as was mentioned in another thread, Numidian Cavalry are improved, since they no longer get the -10% city attack horse archers had in Warlords. And they get the flanking attack all mounted units get against siege units of their era.
 
In general I think that it is worth noting that the nerfing of siege units make any HBR UU better, just by making the tech more attractive.

Specifically:

The Ormo Warrior has better synergy with nationhood than any of the other draftable units due to it s TWO free promotions. Getting muskets with 4 first strikes out of the box and possibly up to drill 3 if you have a barrack + anything. Promoting them is also easier b/c you can have 5 promo at 10 xp. This also leads to better upgrades, without having to sacrifice built up XP. Love the Ormo.
 
In general I think that it is worth noting that the nerfing of siege units make any HBR UU better, just by making the tech more attractive.

This has also made the Korean hwacha much worse: it can't kill a unit anymore.
 
That and the two extra first strikes. Jags are 2 XP away from that, and they can travel at speed 2 through forest to faster reach the enemy.
 
Apart from its military uses (which I haven't really explored too much), the East Indiaman is also excellent for sending masses of spies overseas. The large cargo capacity, good speed, and most importantly, its ability to move freely through opponents' territory without Open Borders, lets you keep a constant stream of spies flowing to wherever you like in the world (and the Dutch can generate the EPs to back it up). Plus they can hold their own against pesky privateers.
 
Guerrilla 3 gives +25% hills attack and a 50% withdrawal chance. Since both Celt leaders are charismatic, it's easy to get guerrilla 3 with the Gallic warrior.
 
Great idea. I learned a lot from that thread when I got into Warlords. I'm curious how to leverage some of the new UU's and the changes to others.

I played as Hammurabi in my last game and didn't find much of a use for the Bowman. I'm sure there is a way to leverage it and find a good use, but it eluded me. I built a couple and never used them until I upgraded them to Longbows for a war.
 
I noticed that the ability for Navy Seals to promote down the drill line makes them even more effective vs. spearmen.
 
I've played a bit with the Dutch and their East Indiaman (replaces Galleon, +1 cargo space, +2 power) makes them insanely good for intercontinental invasion. Thanks to the Pyramids (Police State) and Vassalage/Nationhood I managed to get an impressive stack of Riflemen & Trebs into East Indiamen and shipped them over to Alexander who a few turns before decided to send a naval stack of his own my way.

By the way, in BtS the transport ships seem to defend after war-ships, as Alex's Caravels defended before his Galleons. That makes a force of East Indiamen pretty good for counter-attacking naval forces. Just let your Frigates destroy their Frigates & Caravels, and then your East Indiamen can take care of the enemy Galleons. There's still a risk of losing some along with the troops in them, but your own losses should be minimal compared to the AIs.

So with Willem you might try to take advantage of the new AI's slower tech speed and get Astronomy from Liberalism. Having control of the seas is great especially considering how some of the new maps require more intercontinental warfare then the previously popular ones.
 
I noticed that the ability for Navy Seals to promote down the drill line makes them even more effective vs. spearmen.

I'm sure Navy Seals don't need any improvement to fight spearmen anyway...
 
:sarcasm:
I'm sure Navy Seals don't need any improvement to fight spearmen anyway...
Hey Aelf, can't you see the difference between a real suggestion and an ironic one?

However, I think the drill option for protective Redcoats or other gunpowder UUs is something to think about.
Even more so if you play tokugawa leading ethiopy...
I have the feeling that there are too many options now to really create a guide examining all of them. Either you make another article specifically for BtS, or at least you should put some disclaimer on the "random leader" thing.
 
It would also be interesting to note that the East Indiamen takes a huge amount of synergy from the Dutch UB, the Dike. The Dike comes at around the same time (steam power, close to astronomy) and gives all Water tiles +1 Hammer. Since you would be building the dikes in all of your costal cities, they allow for some serious industrial output and would be able to create fleets of East Indiamen very quickly.
 
I have the feeling that there are too many options now to really create a guide examining all of them. Either you make another article specifically for BtS, or at least you should put some disclaimer on the "random leader" thing.
Should "random leader" be taken into consideration at all? It is, after all, a seemingly very unbalanced feature. It is nice to have because some people might be interested in it, but it shouldn't be considered canon, IMHO. A bit like not taking OCC into account when writing a generalist strategy guide: specific OCC guides do exist.
 
Should "random leader" be taken into consideration at all? It is, after all, a seemingly very unbalanced feature. It is nice to have because some people might be interested in it, but it shouldn't be considered canon, IMHO. A bit like not taking OCC into account when writing a generalist strategy guide: specific OCC guides do exist.

exactly my point
I also think that with differences between vanilla, warlords and BtS, it will necessarily be confusing to put everything into one article.
 
The korean UU seems kind of nerfed with the new constrains to siege units and the flank attacks.
The Oromo warrior is quite good IMHO, pairing easily with the jannisary in terms of effectiveness.
The Mayan UU can be a lifesaver if you start near a Egyptian or Persian, but has little value as a rushing unit.
The Bizantium UU is a monster, one of the Best UU IMHO. Very versatile and strong, can hold easily against pikes ( their natural counter ) andexcept phants, nothing can stop them easily before gunpowder
 
Hey Aelf, can't you see the difference between a real suggestion and an ironic one?

I thought maybe he meant riflemen.

cabert said:
I have the feeling that there are too many options now to really create a guide examining all of them. Either you make another article specifically for BtS, or at least you should put some disclaimer on the "random leader" thing.

I'll go for the disclaimer.

I also think that with differences between vanilla, warlords and BtS, it will necessarily be confusing to put everything into one article.

What I'm doing is adding a little section at the end of each entry for BTS. I think that's the clearest approach. It also keeps things simple.
 
When writing up the Native Americans, you may want to consider including the UB as well. The dog warrior itself isn't great but combined with the 6 xp archery units out of the gate, Sitting Bull is the ultimate defender. With an aggressive neighbor. you can really rack up the xps for your troops and if building the great wall, great generals will follow twice as fast. On top of that, some vicious pillaging stacks can be assembled.

Perhaps this is deviating too much from what you're looking for, but I remember this thread being well rounded and educational. I've found sitting bull to be tricky in leveraging these early benefits.

He's not really an attractive choice for play because he is an early turtle, but consider this. With the great wall and using the philosophical trait to generate great people (no anarchy for religious and/or civic shifts during a GA), you can loosely consider him to be philosophical, protective, spiritual, and imperialistic. He can be a real middle ages offensive monster provided you can take advantage of his versatility. Now that I've gone completely off course, let's just say a lot of this is possible by making proper use of his early game units. They won't win you any turf, but they'll soften up your neighbors for a later strike. Perhaps two early pillaging wars to keep them very backwards.
 
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