Most and least interesting UB's?

[blitzkrieg1980]

The Dun is pretty lame too, but at least both of the Celtic leaders have decent traits.

I never liked the Dun much either. After all, it becomes half useless for a while as the Celtic UU gets the same bonus. However, archers do not get the same bonus. After playing a short game as Boudica, the Dun grew on me. Once you have macemen, they are easily promoted on the Guerrilla line, and I must admit that Guerrilla III has some interesting bonuses attached to it.

After that game, I began exploring the Woodsman and Guerrilla lines a lot more and it really helps to have a couple woodsman/guerrilla units in with your stacks both to guard them in good terrain and to attack hilled cities (not excluding siege of course)

 

[Antilogic]

I think the Hippodrome is pretty neat since it relies on 5% slider adjustments. If I want to play as Justinian I'll actually go and make the single XML change so sliders are adjusted in 5%.

	<Define>
		<DefineName>COMMERCE_PERCENT_CHANGE_INCREMENTS</DefineName>
		<iDefineIntVal>[S]10[/S] [B]5[/B]</iDefineIntVal>
	</Define>

Maybe I'm obsessive compulsive but if a building mentions 5% adjustments then damnit I want those 5% adjustments!

I always thought they just couldn't write in +2 for a 10% increase. I'll have to check this out.

Cool: Research Institute. 2 free scientist! Can you do more?

Not so cool: Shale Plant, but maybe just because I build the Three Gorges Dam any time that I can. Even cheating, if it is necessary....

I modded the Russian Research Institute to receive a freee scientist and a free spy. Makes it much more entertaining.



I always wondered why no UB gave reduced war weariness. It's a basic building effect, and a warmongering civilization could use the bonus. At least, until they turned down war weariness to virtually nothing in the recent patch.

 

[Ghpstage]

I never liked the Dun much either. After all, it becomes half useless for a while as the Celtic UU gets the same bonus. However, archers do not get the same bonus. After playing a short game as Boudica, the Dun grew on me. Once you have macemen, they are easily promoted on the Guerrilla line, and I must admit that Guerrilla III has some interesting bonuses attached to it.

After that game, I began exploring the Woodsman and Guerrilla lines a lot more and it really helps to have a couple woodsman/guerrilla units in with your stacks both to guard them in good terrain and to attack hilled cities (not excluding siege of course)

The celtic UU is unique as the only melee unit that can take the Geurrilla promotion line.
The Dun is weird, not bad with longbows as stack defenders, but very powerful with gunpowder units.
G3 at 5XP for 50% retreat odds on archers and swordsmen can make for some interesting attack opportunities.
G2 units are also fantastic at capturing AI workers and the AI really struggles to get them out of they're territory.
Guerrilla 3 paratroopers promoted from muskets are really fun to use

The only problem is it becomes obsolete before it becomes particularly useful. the only way to abuse its strengths is to mass produce muskets/bows and mass upgrade.
Would be a great building if obsoletion of walls was pushed back! I still like it though

Don't forget, hills never move from the map

 

[The Rook]

Boring: Rathouse
Interesting: Hippodome

Rats aren't cool. Hippos rule!

 

[Antilogic]

Boring: Baray - I'm not against the Baray as a concept, but the +1 Food seems really uninspired regardless of whether it may ever be useful.

I can't believe I forgot to mention a response the OP!

As far as UB bonuses go, the additional food point is unique amongst the uniques (it's not a straight happiness or healthiness boost), and it enables quicker growth, which has high utility amongst those who are eager to sacrifice their population for production. Has anybody tried a game as Khmer where their first two builds in a city are Granary and Baray? Does it make a significant difference in your growth rate?

It does seem a little on the weak side, though--think about it. It allows you to support half a specialist, while other civilizations get an entire specialist for free. Combined with the more limited utility of their UU...I'm not sold on the Khmer civ.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The celtic UU is unique as the only melee unit that can take the Geurrilla promotion line.
The Dun is weird, not bad with longbows as stack defenders, but very powerful with gunpowder units.
G3 at 5XP for 50% retreat odds on archers and swordsmen can make for some interesting attack opportunities.
G2 units are also fantastic at capturing AI workers and the AI really struggles to get them out of they're territory.
Guerrilla 3 paratroopers promoted from muskets are really fun to use

The only problem is it becomes obsolete before it becomes particularly useful. the only way to abuse its strengths is to mass produce muskets/bows and mass upgrade.
Would be a great building if obsoletion of walls was pushed back! I still like it though

Don't forget, hills never move from the map

If you go the grenadier/cannon route you have solid utility for pretty long...although cannons will be the workhorse like usual in that situation your stack D will be that much stronger. Opponents w/o horse are utterly screwed.

 

[Jewman]

coolest: sacrificial altar, is awesome! and i also like the hippodrome, you can go on living your life without luxury resources with just a quick increase in the culture slider wit it!

boring: the persian one. cant even remember its name.

 

[sydhe]

Boring: Rathouse
Interesting: Hippodome

Rats aren't cool. Hippos rule!

I picture the hippodrome like an aerodrome, only with hippopotamuses taking off and landing.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I always thought they just couldn't write in +2 for a 10% increase. I'll have to check this out.

Part of the reason I made the change was that I was spoiled when I saw in some of the pre-release screenshots for BtS that there was a slider with 5% increments (plus an espionage slider!). Some people noticed this and looked forward to it, only to see it got scrapped. It's probably why the hippodrome got left with such an unusual feature.

Also, the AI understands how to use it perfectly well - in fact it might even be a bit better with its economy when it gets 5% increments.

I think the reason they got rid of it was that it might be annoying having to click 20 times to change from 0 to 100% on a slider. But with the BUG mod's two extra buttons beside each slider, this is not a problem anyway!

I picture the hippodrome like an aerodrome, only with hippopotamuses taking off and landing.

 

[Iranon]

Boring: Apothecary, although almost all cap raisers qualify.

Cool: The Sacrificial Altar is awesome thematically and its effect certainly doesn't disappoint either. That it's only good if actively used makes it even better. I'm also quite fond of Research Insistutes because they have a good chance of completely altering my tech path/economy setup.

Both, paradoxically: The Stock Exchange. Mechanically, you can't get more boring than that - some more of what it does already. Gameplay-wise, tempting me to ignore production/industrialisation altogether and simply rush-buy everything (especially with one of the Financial queens) is interesting.

 

[kooboo]

I think the Hippodrome is pretty neat since it relies on 5% slider adjustments. If I want to play as Justinian I'll actually go and make the single XML change so sliders are adjusted in 5%.

	<Define>
		<DefineName>COMMERCE_PERCENT_CHANGE_INCREMENTS</DefineName>
		<iDefineIntVal>[S]10[/S] [B]5[/B]</iDefineIntVal>
	</Define>

Maybe I'm obsessive compulsive but if a building mentions 5% adjustments then damnit I want those 5% adjustments!

Offtopic: Thanks for that, thought it's more sophisticated and I like this change a lot.

Back on topic:
The really interesting is Totem Pole, a really unique obelisk-like building. While not particularly cool effect in game and belonging to Civ which I don't consider to fit in the game.
The not interesting one is Dike, which exactly the same thing as Levee but in other language :-/ And the effect is, imo, bit unbalanced. Moai Statues in every coastal city? Come on.

 

[Dumanios]

YES!!!!!!!!!!=Mall,Forum and Obelisk

 

[glaivemaster]

I think my most interesting one is the Ziggurat: similar to the courthouse but cheaper (I think, I've forgotten), but you have to go down a completely different tech route to get it! (Well, if you're me, for some people, it's just earlier). The only sad thing is that I almost never go Priesthood, and when I'm Gilgamesh I often forget

Honourable mention also goes to the Dutch dike (because I had a fun game with that one), the Baray (because it has a rather interesting, almost unique benefit) and the Hippodrome, because it has a cool thematic link with the UU

Most boring one I suppose would be the Pavilion, usually because I forget to build it, and I tend not to build many theaters in general (if I want territory I'll take it by force).

Honurable mention goes to the Dun because seriously, what the hell? (Although a guerilla 3 machine gun was cool, even if the guerilla 3 effects were useless for it)

 

[kooboo]

Honurable mention goes to the Dun because seriously, what the hell? (Although a guerilla 3 machine gun was cool, even if the guerilla 3 effects were useless for it)

The dun is obsolete by the time you have machine guns. So unless you've promoted something old to Guerilla 3 Machine Gun, Dun has nothing to it.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Ziggurat's cool; not my favorite but I've no real favorite as I tend only to focus on civs and UUs. Buildings I'll capture.

 

[Bob the Barbari]

Interesting ones: Hippodrome and Odeon because they completely change the way the building is used. Ziggurat because it changes the teh path. Totem Pole because it looks cool and let's you produce city garrison 3 archers, which is like an additional UU. Mint and Mall for it's overall usefulness - commerce, happiness, and production/health. What do you need anything else for? Trading Post - on water maps, like plenty of UU's.

Honourable mentions: Forum, nice and unique bonus, but lacks in graphics, Terrace - almost changes the rules of game, but in a very simple way.

Not interesting ones: Stock Exchange - very unimaginative bonus and art. Assembly Plant - just a bigger factory.

Honourable mentions: Dun - lacks a lot in graphics. Apothecary - does not look like what it is.

 

[Aardan]

the Hippodrome allows you to get +1 for every 5% slider as apposed to the 10% for theatre, and perhaps even more important on some maps it gives you an extra for horses which are way more common than Dye. I would say it is probably one of the better UBs.

 

[Aardan]

Ziggurat is one of my favorite buildings if I have Gilgamesh as my neighbor that is. Because even if you attack him early and take his cities, they already have courthouses so that my economy does not go down the drain. It makes him by far one of the better CIVs to attack first.

 

[Antilogic]

I thought the Assembly Plant bonus would be more interesting early on--being able to run more than one engineer in the early or mid-game could be a very interesting benefit. Now, especially with Industrial Parks, the bonus is less remarkable.

I'm liking the Forum UB more and more--back when I was first playing Rome in Warlords, I didn't really utilize the specialists as well as I should. But now that my skills have improved significantly in economy management, I appreciate it a lot more.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Ziggurat is one of my favorite buildings if I have Gilgamesh as my neighbor that is. Because even if you attack him early and take his cities, they already have courthouses so that my economy does not go down the drain. It makes him by far one of the better CIVs to attack first.

Except for the fact that he expands quickly, builds units at a reasonably high unitprob, and is protective, you mean. It can still be done but it isn't ideal. I'd rather have cheaply-taken cities that have less/weaker garrisons with good land and possibly a holy city. Courthouses aren't mandatory until 9+ cities usually (probably more on levels below emp-immortal)