Most useless unit?

[Warspite2]

No such thing as the most useless unit. All units have their uses, it depends on many factors such as situation, map type, current techs, your territory at hand, what you plan on doing, how you plan on attacking, who you plan on attacking, what units and defenses they have, how you want to defend, what leader you have, what type of terrain your fighting on, I can go on and on. This is Civ4, if you are a true strategist, you will know exactly what I mean. Now there are units that won't be built as much as others but none of them are useless.

 

[Sloth Bear]

Wouldn't that be "least useful" - not "most useless"? A subtle distinction, but some people have indeed used the thread to say - I have not found any use for X unit.

I just think its testament to game balance and ultimate variety of strategies that we can have so many different opinions.

Hmmm. To me the phrases "least useful" and "most useless" are interchangeable. But I think you're actually right on the proper use. Good point

 

[JonnyB]

I have another use for Carriers. I controlled my own continent and Alexander was dominant on the other and hated me. I placed my carriers in the ocean between us and used the planes for recon. Before long I spotted a fleet of 4 transports and 2 destroyers heading my way. This early warning gave me time to counterattack with the fleet I was assembling to invade him. Only one transport was able to land it's troops.

I find Explorers are useless because they're outdated before they're available. And I love bombers, A stack of 20 can inflict serious damage to a city and it's units, and they can stay housed in a city while striking behind enemy lines.

 

[weasel77066]

explorers have their uses, but noot stacks and stacks of them...
If im not mistaken, they get better results from goody huts, they come with good terrain promotions, and they can load on a caravel. Most uses are in terra maps where they are strong enough to defend against murderous barbarians if they run to the trees... I like to keep a couple on reserve if I need them, but never go more than that.

 

[Hey Joni]

explorers have their uses, but noot stacks and stacks of them...
If im not mistaken, they get better results from goody huts, they come with good terrain promotions, and they can load on a caravel. Most uses are in terra maps where they are strong enough to defend against murderous barbarians if they run to the trees... I like to keep a couple on reserve if I need them, but never go more than that.

Barbarians tend to protect goody huts and you can't attack them with an explorer. So the better results are of absolutely no value... Everything else is done better with conventional units, IMO.

 

[aelf]

Indeed, I've always wondered what's the point of having the explorer unit in the game since Civ2. It has proven useless time and again, yet Firaxis still puts it in every installment.

 

[UncleJJ]

Indeed, I've always wondered what's the point of having the explorer unit in the game since Civ2. It has proven useless time and again, yet Firaxis still puts it in every installment.

I don't build many explorers but they are useful sometimes and particularly when caravels first become available. It works just as it did in history

In one monarch game I had (epic and Large archipelago map) my caravel was about to go for the circumnavigation. Mansa was 3 or 4 techs ahead and teching fast and I wanted to win the cicumnavigation bonus badly. But I made my caravel wait a turn while an explorer was made and then they went east together. The first hut he saw on an island popped me Astronomy which was worth maybe 8 turns of research and I was back in the tech race. Also the explorer was great running through the landmasses (6 squares / turn on roads versus 3 for caravel) of all the civs I met and he could have helped get the cicumnavigation bonus if the land masses had allowed, but my caravels met in mid ocean and for those who might be interested I did get the bonus

 

[aelf]

I don't build many explorers but they are useful sometimes and particularly when caravels first become available. It works just as it did in history

In one monarch game I had (epic and Large archipelago map) my caravel was about to go for the circumnavigation. Mansa was 3 or 4 techs ahead and teching fast and I wanted to win the cicumnavigation bonus badly. But I made my caravel wait a turn while an explorer was made and then they went east together. The first hut he saw on an island popped me Astronomy which was worth maybe 8 turns of research and I was back in the tech race. Also the explorer was great running through the landmasses (6 squares / turn on roads versus 3 for caravel) of all the civs I met and he could have helped get the cicumnavigation bonus if the land masses had allowed, but my caravels met in mid ocean and for those who might be interested I did get the bonus

Still, the situation is very rare and you were lucky. I got the circumnavigation bonus with a GM while he was crossing the other continent once, but I wouldn't count that as one of the merits of the GM (as in helping you get the bonus while going on a trade mission) And you don't get Astronomy from a hut every week or even month.

 

[UncleJJ]

You're right of course not every hut will pop Astronomy but I would have been happy with any advanced tech. After I got the circumnavigation bonus my explorer was used to pop another couple of huts although they only gave gold they could have given a tech. The chance is worth taking just like it is at the begining of the game, huts can pop really useful techs, and you need to explore the map at that stage anyway, to find rich sites to colonise and barbarian cities to take (frigates, galleons and grenadiers versus axemen / longbow).

This is especially true on archipelago maps of course but any map that has unoccupied areas (usually large and small islands) in the medieval age are best explored by the caravel-explorer combo. After that phase of the game I'd agree they are no longer useful, but during that short window they're perfect for that job and cost nearly nothing for what they can give.

 

[onedreamer]

The most pointless unit is...

Warriors.

Honestly, you build one, maybe two? They're not good at really doing anything. They are beat by every other unit in the game.

Warriors suck.

uh ? Warriors fortified in a city can easily defeat a barbarian archer attack.
edit: not to mention another warrior's attack.

 

[onedreamer]

Hmmm. To me the phrases "least useful" and "most useless" are interchangeable. But I think you're actually right on the proper use. Good point

not at all: least useful is something that is not as useful as everything else, but not for this useless. Most useless belongs to a category of things that have no uses at all (useless), and in this category, it's even the last, although this is clearly not possible and a paradox, since there can't be something that has less uses than none.

 

[cabert]

not at all: least useful is something that is not as useful as everything else, but not for this useless. Most useless belongs to a category of things that have no uses at all (useless), and in this category, it's even the last, although this is clearly not possible and a paradox, since there can't be something that has less uses than none.

well, most useless could have the meaning of useless in more situations than others, useless in some situations too, but not as often

or

it could mean that it's useless, requires a useless tech, a useless ressource and is not cheap, while others are useless but require less things or are cheaper...

 

[flytyer]

I can not think of a game where i hvae built either a warrior or an explorer...but I would have to vote with the explorer because you often start the game with a warrior unit therefore it can not be counted as "most useless".

 

[jkay]

For me, carriers are less useful than Explorers. I've been playing on fractal and archipelago maps, so Explorers are useful when you get the caravel.

Carriers, though...eh. I usually play for Domination, and I'd rather spend the resources on extra fighters, because you can ALWAYS find an ally or airbase or have some nearby conquered city or conquer an island chain or SOMETHING to base on.

In my first 10 games or so, I did use superior navies to attack coastal cities, and then conquer the interior, but now I feel just air forces and just enough navy for domination are more useful.

Carriers are useful for what the US uses them for, deterrent and instant reaction / help. But that's pretty useless for evil emperors. Note that, ever since carriers've been available, the US has launched the bulk of its bombs from land bases.

Japan needed carriers to attack us, but since it produced a hopeless situation for them, it's a little hard to say that was the right strategic scenario for them. Fundamentally, Pearl Harbor only made sense because they were a small country attacking a big one.

 

[Pantastic]

The people attempting to defend explorers are only showing that explorers actually have negative value; every use for explorers that I saw could be done by a scout instead, and you can build 2 2/3 scouts per explorer. The only thing the explorer does is obsolete a cheaper unit that does the job just as well, winning the 'most useless' prize.

 

[Paeanblack]

The people attempting to defend explorers are only showing that explorers actually have negative value; every use for explorers that I saw could be done by a scout instead, and you can build 2 2/3 scouts per explorer. The only thing the explorer does is obsolete a cheaper unit that does the job just as well, winning the 'most useless' prize.

Explorers have their uses on Terra maps, since they let you start colonizing the New World with Caravels instead of waiting on Galleons. Explorers in a hill city can hold off the barbs long enough for you to produce better troops locally to conquer the rest of the continent.

 

[Paeanblack]

The most pointless unit is...

Warriors.

Honestly, you build one, maybe two? They're not good at really doing anything. They are beat by every other unit in the game.

Warriors suck.

Warriors boost happiness on the cheap...very cheap.

I generally squeeze one non-coastal size-3 city into my empire (plains/hill/city+2 grassland/hill/mines) with no roads connected just so it can sit and build nothing but warriors until Chemistry.

If your long-term mega-commerce cities are fighting an early happiness limit, that will end up costing many cottage-turns of development. If you are whipping temples/theaters/colosseums in those cites, you are also losing alot of cottage development. Bringing cheap warriors built elsewhere at +1 Happy each helps them stick to building libraries/universities/markets/grocers/etc

 

[Pantastic]

Explorers have their uses on Terra maps, since they let you start colonizing the New World with Caravels instead of waiting on Galleons. Explorers in a hill city can hold off the barbs long enough for you to produce better troops locally to conquer the rest of the continent.

Sorry, but you're just plain wrong, at least on any difficulty higher than warlord. Due to the basic game rules you need either a settler or a unit that can attack to get a city in the New World, and explorers are neither. It is just not possible for you to possess a hill city in the New World until you have galleons, as explorers, missionaries, and great people cannot conquer or found a city, and they're all that a caravel can bring across the ocean. I suppose you could bring over a bunch of explorers on caravels and only one galleon, but I'd rather just wait to build or pay to upgrade more galleons and bring over real units. I'll have an army ferried over to the new world long before the new city can really get off the ground.

It would technically be possible to pull this off on a warlord or lower game if you found a hut in the new world with no unit over it (most have a barb guard) and popped a settler, but it's stretching a bit to call a unit useful because it can possibly exploit a rare situation in a beginner difficulty level.

 

[aelf]

Remember the Spanish Conquistador in Civ3 (an explorer UU)? That was a really weird unit (3 attack, 2 defense, 2 moves and treats all tiles as roads). It was extremely effective at killing workers, but quite useless otherwise in the face of 4 attack/4 defense units in its era.

 

[csarmi]

I wonder where do people all against explorers find units with 2 moves on any terrain + medic I promotion for 5 xp - or Medic II promotion for 10 xp (only 5 with red cross). For an insignificant price too. And they don't die in the stacks cause they never get to defend.