snipafist
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2005
- Messages
- 376
I used to think explorers, musketmen and ironclads were useless units, but I've since changed my tune. I play on epic mode, so units with shorter life expectancies see more play, and can be useful for longer periods. Due to this, I've made extensive use of all three units.
Explorers: beyond being useful as medics, explorers are quite handy for... exploring! On maps like pangaea, they obviously aren't so handy, but in any map with separate continents (most specifically the Terra, Earth, and Continents maps, but just about any with separate continents will do) they are exquisite for running about and gathering info, expecially with guerilla II and woodsman II. With such a configuration, they do an excellent job even as barbarian killers (on Terra maps, mind you) when on a forested hill. Keeping them around your own continent has its advantages as well, just set them to explore and they'll constantly wander about, refreshing your info on enemy cities that you have open borders with. Drop them off on friendly AI continents to quickly pick up info without needing to wrangle map info out of them. Don't forget you can load them into caravels for an extra edge.
Ironclads: these really shine in the stage between frigates and destroyers. Think of them as defensive units and you've got it right. Their use should be based around water resources - either defending your own (fortify an ironclad on top of all your resources and watch your enemies struggle to even budge them), or going after a nearby enemy's (slow but effective and can easily brush aside lesser enemy defenders). Ironclads don't always have to be slow either. You can get their speed up to 5 with both navigation upgrades and being the first to circumnavigate the world (this is especially easy with the Vikings), which makes them reasonably quick vessels more capable of acting agressively, and quite proficient for their era at bombarding enemy towns.
Musketmen: with the introduction of trebuchets, musketmen have a better role to play. Now that you're not dependent on macemen for raiding cities (your trebs manage bombarding and city raiding in the early renaissance), the musetman emerges as the most capable treb defender with a solid strength of 9 and having no counters yet against him. The only other necessity is a pikeman unit or two to ensure the knights keep their distance, but with a strength of 9, musketmen can give knights some trouble as well. I used to swear them off, but now I'm quite fond of musketmen for my early renaissance armies.
What would I nominate as the most useless unit? I wouldn't nominate anything, really. They've all got their uses within their window of use, otherwise they wouldn't be there. Sometimes you play a map that makes them pretty pointless, but that doesn't mean they have no use whatsoever.
Explorers: beyond being useful as medics, explorers are quite handy for... exploring! On maps like pangaea, they obviously aren't so handy, but in any map with separate continents (most specifically the Terra, Earth, and Continents maps, but just about any with separate continents will do) they are exquisite for running about and gathering info, expecially with guerilla II and woodsman II. With such a configuration, they do an excellent job even as barbarian killers (on Terra maps, mind you) when on a forested hill. Keeping them around your own continent has its advantages as well, just set them to explore and they'll constantly wander about, refreshing your info on enemy cities that you have open borders with. Drop them off on friendly AI continents to quickly pick up info without needing to wrangle map info out of them. Don't forget you can load them into caravels for an extra edge.
Ironclads: these really shine in the stage between frigates and destroyers. Think of them as defensive units and you've got it right. Their use should be based around water resources - either defending your own (fortify an ironclad on top of all your resources and watch your enemies struggle to even budge them), or going after a nearby enemy's (slow but effective and can easily brush aside lesser enemy defenders). Ironclads don't always have to be slow either. You can get their speed up to 5 with both navigation upgrades and being the first to circumnavigate the world (this is especially easy with the Vikings), which makes them reasonably quick vessels more capable of acting agressively, and quite proficient for their era at bombarding enemy towns.
Musketmen: with the introduction of trebuchets, musketmen have a better role to play. Now that you're not dependent on macemen for raiding cities (your trebs manage bombarding and city raiding in the early renaissance), the musetman emerges as the most capable treb defender with a solid strength of 9 and having no counters yet against him. The only other necessity is a pikeman unit or two to ensure the knights keep their distance, but with a strength of 9, musketmen can give knights some trouble as well. I used to swear them off, but now I'm quite fond of musketmen for my early renaissance armies.
What would I nominate as the most useless unit? I wouldn't nominate anything, really. They've all got their uses within their window of use, otherwise they wouldn't be there. Sometimes you play a map that makes them pretty pointless, but that doesn't mean they have no use whatsoever.