Carracks?

[Mik1984]

Does anyone have the feeling that they are somehow of little use?
You can't really capitalize the bonus, one tech later you get galleons: bigger, faster, stronger and can blockade.
In praxis they serve as caravels = you produce two of them to prove that the world is round and by the time they get back home you have galleons.
Maybe they should have some additional bonus to keep them alive like 4 or +50% vs. galleon? Caravels were merchants, Carracks were similar sized warships.

 

[GeoModder]

Simple. Load those two caravels which scout the world with a settler and a defensive unit and drop them off at the first promising-looking big(ger) island to found a new city. By the time most people have galleons, you can have settled the best offshore real-estate.

 

[Refar]

All unique units should be beelined, to get them early, to get tha maximum advantage. Optics comes at 30% of the cost of Astro. So beelining Optics early is a lot easier than beelining Astro. You can colonize the all tha tasty islands, the complete new world (if present) or deliver a invasion force loooong time before the AI even gets close to Astro, while on the other hand you can put off the expensive Astronomy tech for a while and focus on other cool stuff...

There are sure UU's that i like more than the Carrak, but the ship is far from beeing useless.

 

[jkp1187]

Beeline Optics. Astronomy's an expensive tech; you can be tooling around in your Carracks for dozens of turns before another civ gets Astronomy.

 

[Mik1984]

Astro is expensive, but it is very lucrative to trade around. Moreover you must be in position for colonization in the short moment when they appear. What if you are caught struggling with empire support costs and you are more keen on building courthouses or you didn't finish outfitting your cities with forges, or you are in the middle of a war?
In those situation expansion can easily wait until galleons. Furthermore G's can bring Settler + defensive unit + worker.

 

[GeoModder]

It's all about putting a presence on remote parts of the world before the others do. Nobody forces you to settle right away if you think you can't support a new city. But with Optics enabled you should be able to see when another civ has researched Astronomy and THEN you can settle those remote lands.

 

[magicalsushi]

In praxis they serve as caravels

Praxis?

Astro is expensive, but it is very lucrative to trade around. Moreover you must be in position for colonization in the short moment when they appear. What if you are caught struggling with empire support costs and you are more keen on building courthouses or you didn't finish outfitting your cities with forges, or you are in the middle of a war?
In those situation expansion can easily wait until galleons. Furthermore G's can bring Settler + defensive unit + worker.

Sure, but with the exception of fast workers, there are always situations where you can't capitalise on your UU. At least Carracks don't rely on a resource - just look at Ballista Elephants. If you want to make the most of a UU, you need to plan carefully. Carracks give a benefit that's arguably more 'unique' than what you get from most other UUs (again fast workers are the exception) - there are lots of UUs with military bonuses, but only the Portugese get to settle other continents early. If you don't plan ahead, you won't get the benefit, but that's not the Carrack's fault.

Common sense says that you research Optics early and make sure you're ready to build some Carracks when you reach it. If something happens outside of your control, then your plans might get messed up, but that could happen to any type of plan. There will always be many situations in a game where you could say "I wanted to do X, but then someone invaded me so I couldn't"; bad luck can strike any plan, whether Carracks are involved or not. As for being too busy building other things, that's just poor planning.

 

[TM Moot]

You can colonize the all tha tasty islands, the complete new world (if present)
There are sure UU's that i like more than the Carrak, but the ship is far from beeing useless.

I like the Carrack, its different and requires a bespoke strategy to utilise it fully. The only problem comes when those shiny new 'New World' cities kill your economy big style. Darius of the Portugese might be the answer.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Clear out your home continent while building a load of triremes. Build the Great Wall. Upgrade your triremes to carracks. Ship your entire army to the other continent and bash some heads.

 

[TM Moot]

Praxis?

practice...?

 

[Mik1984]

Well carracks may be useless simply because there is no new land to colonize at all at this point on the selected game map. But it hangs on the choice of map. Ballista elephants are great - if you have ivory. The height of the bonus offsets the risk of not having it at all.