Dont forget that when/if you upgrade to rifles or infantry they get to keep all those juicy drill upgrades ~~The new Ethiopian UU..
In my opinion it's one of the strongest in the game, rivals that of a praetorian. I'll attach a screen shot of what I'm talking about.
In this screenshot of the Oromo Warrior notice it has Drill I, Drill II, Drill III, and Drill IV ... with only 5xp's.
4-7 first strikes.. at 5xp.. seriously, they were taking out entire cities without even taking a single point of damage it was insane, they never stopped to heal once, not to mention -60% collateral..
It's out of focus so just click zoom in once!
BTS info for the Comprehensive UU Guide
- Thread starter aelf
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aelf
Ashen One
So many units, so little time. Heh 
InvisibleStalke
Emperor
Sumer is fun. I like getting the great wall and letting my enemies beat themselves against my archers and vultures. I am discovering a new love of the protective trait - its awesome once you get to gunpowder and start producing drill 4 muskets. It takes over as one of the best warmonging traits. Its weak in the early game, but thats where the Vulture shines.
Vultures are very vulnerable to axes though. They start weaker than an axe. A vulture rush really needs to target an AI without metals to be ultra successful - and then its like getting swords early.
If they do have metals, then shock vultures will still beat an axe on open terrain. Getting that shock promotion requires a win in the field and the early priority has got to be killing their copper source before they build too many axes. In my last game I had to wait until iron to build Vultures and Cathy had lots of axes in play. Eventually she invaded me and shock archers and vultures took care of the invaders. But it wasn't until I had catapults that I was able to take her axe defended cities.
LOl yeah you've lost your Window of Opportunity if you're waiting till IW, unless you're up against Rome, their more likely to build Prats, I love Vulture Rushing Rome, their Prats are nothing against me especially if I when I have a nearby explorer to pillage their Iron lol!
InvisibleStalke
Emperor
It was a tough call whether to build vultures or swords at that point. I went more with Vultures though - and stormed through the Portugese. Cathy's DOW came while I was busy mopping up the Portugese. Shock vultures were pretty good on defense though and saved my bacon. In reality though axes would have done just as well by that point and I could have destroyed the portugese equally well with swords.
carl corey
Deity
I've played a few more games with BtS civs, so here are my thoughts:
Bowmen can easily become a life saver and allow you to expand peacefully grabbing good spots regardless of the availability of strategical resources. Even if you hook up copper/horses/iron later than usual the Bowmen can hold the fort against the barbs. Once your empire is safe from barbs you can retreat them for garrison duty under Hereditary Rule, help protect your stacks or defend against AI counterattacks. You'll have barracks when building them so that's an extra promotion, making them good defenders against archers too. (and frankly, aside from barbarian archers you won't see much archer vs archer action anyway) They are probably even better in multiplayer, where humans will build more melee units than the AIs.
There's not much to say about Cataphracts. As has been posted already they're pretty much cuirassiers coming much earlier. With the Byzantines wanting horses for their UB too you're bound to own or conquer a horse tile early on, then you can go to war with Cataphracts only. You'll have more losses then with the Cavalry rushes from Warlords, but the Hippodrome will counter the war weariness with its +2 happiness per 10% culture slider.
I've already written an entry about the Dutch East Indiamen and the Oromos have got their share of posts in this thread.
I feel that the Landsknecht (Holy Roman Empire pikemen with +100% vs melee units) aren't that great of a unique unit. How many times will you see the AI defend it's cities with melee units? You're more likely to face Longbowmen and Crossbowmen, against which a Maceman (or Trebuchet, despite it not being able to kill) is much more effective. They're cheap enough and ok as counter for enemy stacks formed of knights and maces, but this is a situation that does not arise very often. In multiplayer if the human stack contains one or more crossbows you're still relegated to a role of defense, meaning that if you want to counter you'll most likely look for a mobile force of knights instead even if they'll be on par with enemy knights.
Ballista Elephants have already been commented on, but I feel they're more situational than the poster indicated. Often you'll have to trade (more than one resource) if you want to get ivory, and the question remains if you really need them and if you're ok with giving an AI a boost through the trade. Maybe if you can trade supermarket resources (cows, sheep, pig, deer), copper if the AI already has iron, marble or stone if you're not afraid of losing a wonder race, or seafood resources... In fewer words, give him less useful resources, if you have them in excess. The AI will mostly look at quantity, not quality.
You also have some info in this thread about Holkans, Dog Warriors, Carracks and Vultures, so that's all the new Unique Units. Hope you get the type to update the UU thread with these entries, even if some of them aren't as extensive as you wish they could be. We'll probably come up with more details when we have more experience with them.
Bowmen can easily become a life saver and allow you to expand peacefully grabbing good spots regardless of the availability of strategical resources. Even if you hook up copper/horses/iron later than usual the Bowmen can hold the fort against the barbs. Once your empire is safe from barbs you can retreat them for garrison duty under Hereditary Rule, help protect your stacks or defend against AI counterattacks. You'll have barracks when building them so that's an extra promotion, making them good defenders against archers too. (and frankly, aside from barbarian archers you won't see much archer vs archer action anyway) They are probably even better in multiplayer, where humans will build more melee units than the AIs.
There's not much to say about Cataphracts. As has been posted already they're pretty much cuirassiers coming much earlier. With the Byzantines wanting horses for their UB too you're bound to own or conquer a horse tile early on, then you can go to war with Cataphracts only. You'll have more losses then with the Cavalry rushes from Warlords, but the Hippodrome will counter the war weariness with its +2 happiness per 10% culture slider.
I've already written an entry about the Dutch East Indiamen and the Oromos have got their share of posts in this thread.
I feel that the Landsknecht (Holy Roman Empire pikemen with +100% vs melee units) aren't that great of a unique unit. How many times will you see the AI defend it's cities with melee units? You're more likely to face Longbowmen and Crossbowmen, against which a Maceman (or Trebuchet, despite it not being able to kill) is much more effective. They're cheap enough and ok as counter for enemy stacks formed of knights and maces, but this is a situation that does not arise very often. In multiplayer if the human stack contains one or more crossbows you're still relegated to a role of defense, meaning that if you want to counter you'll most likely look for a mobile force of knights instead even if they'll be on par with enemy knights.
Ballista Elephants have already been commented on, but I feel they're more situational than the poster indicated. Often you'll have to trade (more than one resource) if you want to get ivory, and the question remains if you really need them and if you're ok with giving an AI a boost through the trade. Maybe if you can trade supermarket resources (cows, sheep, pig, deer), copper if the AI already has iron, marble or stone if you're not afraid of losing a wonder race, or seafood resources... In fewer words, give him less useful resources, if you have them in excess. The AI will mostly look at quantity, not quality.
You also have some info in this thread about Holkans, Dog Warriors, Carracks and Vultures, so that's all the new Unique Units. Hope you get the type to update the UU thread with these entries, even if some of them aren't as extensive as you wish they could be. We'll probably come up with more details when we have more experience with them.
aelf
Ashen One
Sorry for the lack of activity in the past few weeks. My schedule has been pretty much filled up on most days, and when I'm free I'm mostly playing my newly acquired Bioshock It's a good game.
The good news is I will not be working anymore from next week. I'll be spending my time preparing to leave for further studies, and I'll also have more time to update the guide.
It's a good game.The good news is I will not be working anymore from next week. I'll be spending my time preparing to leave for further studies, and I'll also have more time to update the guide.
carl corey
Deity
Don't let us take you away from your gaming time. That's sacred. 
Also don't forget to make changes to old UUs after the rule changes, Cho-ku-nus can cause collateral damage to siege, all gunpowder UUs can promote through drill line, makes Churchill's Redcoats even more valuable. Conquistador's has been pushed back to MT tech, Cossacks pushed back to Rifling tech. Samurai can now promote down the Drill line and start with Drill 1.
I've already seen the changes to Jags, Hwcha's, Gallic Warrior and Phalanx.
I've already seen the changes to Jags, Hwcha's, Gallic Warrior and Phalanx.
Slobadog
King
East Indiaman
There are alot of naval techs by the renaissance and industrial eras. But
if one can get a large tech lead over ones rivals by the time of Astronomy then one can delay researching further naval techs for awhile. Because even if ones neighbors catch up to astronomy their ships will still be inferior. Obviously this is highly situational. I've had games where some civs get way ahead of me while others end up way behind. So delaying further naval techs has a 50-50 chance of being a good idea at best.
There are alot of naval techs by the renaissance and industrial eras. But
if one can get a large tech lead over ones rivals by the time of Astronomy then one can delay researching further naval techs for awhile. Because even if ones neighbors catch up to astronomy their ships will still be inferior. Obviously this is highly situational. I've had games where some civs get way ahead of me while others end up way behind. So delaying further naval techs has a 50-50 chance of being a good idea at best.
InvisibleStalke
Emperor
Played recently with the Dutch and it is a pretty weak UU (fair enough since the UB is awesome). 6 Strength isn't enough to hold off frigates and the AI seems to beeline chemistry immediately after Astronomy. I was a little more aggressive in attacking caravels with them - but normally you still don't want to risk your transports.
The extra space is useful - it means you need fewer of them to launch an invasion. Given that with galleons, one third of your units had to be ships, being able to get away with only a quarter of your units as ships is an advantage.
You still want chemistry ASAP to protect them. And you are still going to want combustion - destroyers are such a huge step up from frigates that your ancient ships will get slaughtered.
The second plus is the because you can carry four units, there isn't much incentive to upgrade them to transports. So you can save cost on the upgrades.
Their ability to explore rival territory makes them very useful for landing spies. Its not much help at invasion time - I've never seen an AI whose coastal culture expanded so far you couldn't sail in and land troops in a single turn.
Not much more to say - fairly weak as UU's go. If only they could bombard costal defenses - that would be awesome!
carl corey
Deity
Hmm, I wouldn't say the extra space and extra strength is that weak. I've seen AIs use Caravels & Galleons for naval warfare, not waiting for Frigates. In that case you can risk your East Indiamen and sink some of them. Or you can go & unload your troops and then attack, since some of the troops won't make it back to the ships anyway (dying or protecting conquered cities).
As for the extra space, it's especially useful on maps with lots of seas. Three East Indiamen carry as much as four Galleons. 6 EI = 8 G. 9 EI = 12 G. etc. That's 80 hammers per Galleon not built. Plus, as you said, you're less inclined to upgrade them to transports when the time comes, especially if they're already close enough to the future target, or if you don't need to rush there to attack.
As for the extra space, it's especially useful on maps with lots of seas. Three East Indiamen carry as much as four Galleons. 6 EI = 8 G. 9 EI = 12 G. etc. That's 80 hammers per Galleon not built. Plus, as you said, you're less inclined to upgrade them to transports when the time comes, especially if they're already close enough to the future target, or if you don't need to rush there to attack.
Slobadog
King
Holkan
Holkans make better early explorers and settler escorts than archers. A bear vs archer fight would be 50 - 50 since a archer's first strike isn't guranteed to do any damage. A bear vs holkan fight would be guranteed to be 40- 60.
Holkans make better early explorers and settler escorts than archers. A bear vs archer fight would be 50 - 50 since a archer's first strike isn't guranteed to do any damage. A bear vs holkan fight would be guranteed to be 40- 60.
Errr... You are guaranteed to have an extra strike, so you have more than 50% chance.
You're never "guaranteed" any _hit_ in a CIV fight, since it relies on rolls of the dice. Even with odds of 1% you could win, your opponent is never "guaranteed" to kill you.
aelf
Ashen One
Bump so that I can start updating again.
Slobadog
King
Bowman
Build The Shedwagon Paya and a Barracks. Switch to Theocracy. Give Bowmen City Garrison 1 and 2. This when combined with their built in abilities = 100% vs Melee. Comparable to a Longbow. I tried giving them combat 1 and shock instead but they still were't great at attacking.
Even after moderate artillery bombardment.
Build The Shedwagon Paya and a Barracks. Switch to Theocracy. Give Bowmen City Garrison 1 and 2. This when combined with their built in abilities = 100% vs Melee. Comparable to a Longbow. I tried giving them combat 1 and shock instead but they still were't great at attacking.
Even after moderate artillery bombardment.
aelf
Ashen One
Maybe I missed it out somewhere, but I'm surprised that nobody has talked about the East Indiaman with regards to privateers. They should be able to defend against privateer attacks on their own (IIRC, they have the same strength), right?
carl corey
Deity
Nobody's mentioned it, yeah. The only problem with AI privateers is that there aren't any. 
Honestly, in all my games (monarch, a few on emperor) I've yet to see an AI privateer. I guess they'd be good for this purpose in multiplayer, though I imagine that anyone close to the Dutch that would have to choose between privateers and frigates would choose frigates.
Honestly, in all my games (monarch, a few on emperor) I've yet to see an AI privateer. I guess they'd be good for this purpose in multiplayer, though I imagine that anyone close to the Dutch that would have to choose between privateers and frigates would choose frigates.LiberiGlacialis
To the stars!
Nobody's mentioned it, yeah. The only problem with AI privateers is that there aren't any.
I've had one, and it sent me into "Kill it! Kill it with fire!" mode. The AI does build them, rarely. I really should build navies....
sylvanllewelyn
Perma-newb
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,021
What? Samurai can now be promoted down the drill line? That's kind of scary - did they really have such a skill advantage over typical macemen or medieval close-combat infantry?
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