Most worthless unit in the game?

[predesad]

Ironclads are useless, so are chariots, since they are wheeled and horsemen are only a tech away. War Chariot is a horrible UU, so is cossack, man O war, and F-15. If your having alot of naval battles at that time, ironclads are just around the corner.

the cossack in Conquests is a pretty good UU, yeah it comes late, but if used properly can generate a lot of elites and therefore a good chance at MGLs.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Stealth Fighters are absolutely worthless. The Stealth Bomber is much more worth it.

 

[Son_Of_Dido]

Well, I for one will avoid building warriors whenever possible, and always upgrade them as soon as the chance presents itself. I suppose they aren't the absolutely least useful (compelling arguments for the ironclad in this thread seem to have it as the leader), but warriors are somewhere high up there.

The Chariot is another contender, but I just can't bear to condemn it for that; sorta seems like piling on. It's almost tragic how the Chariot has fallen off in power and importance over the course of Civ. It was a terror in Civ I, remember? And respectable in power, even if quickly made obsolete, in Civ 2. But in Civ3, it's... a pathetic shadow of its former self. Poor Chariot.

The curragh is a waste of shields, too, unless you're playing as a Seafaring Civ to give it that 3rd movement point, then it becomes a semi decent scout, but it's still pretty worthless.

 

[Tomoyo]

I can't agree with that. Warriors are critical. They are your cheapest unit and should be built excessively for MP and scouting. Curraghs are very important even for non-Seafaring civs to make early contact between close continents without the need to research/trade for an otherwise useless tech, Map Making.

How could anyone put the warrior next to the ironclad? The warrior upgrades to swordsman too!

 

[Ansar]

Chariot .

Totally agree with you Turner.

 

[Son_Of_Dido]

How could anyone put the warrior next to the ironclad? The warrior upgrades to swordsman too!

Well, that's not the Warrior being directly useful in and of itself. Although it does give it a leg up on some other nominees in this thread.

True, warriors aren't as HORRID as, say, the Ironclad, but if I start with Bronze Work or Warrior Code I'll churn those units out and not bother with warriors at all (and if I don't, I'll only use warriors until I get one of those. Once I get warrior code, it's Archer time.)

 

[Tomoyo]

I've played games where the only unit I've used is a warrior. The most important use of the warrior is as a scout. Use the warrior as a scout, then build them for cheap MPs. The key word being cheap.

 

[madviking]

The stealths, F15, War Chariot, chariots, ironclads, catapults, bowman (maybe), and AEGIS crusier.

 

[Own]

Stealth fighter.

 

[Invisible Rhino]

Most Useless UU : Three-Man Chariot, i'd rather have horsemen

Most Useless Unit : Helicopter, I have never used it, whereas I have used Ironclads, Explorers, Chariots, etc.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

There are ironclads in Conquests?

Much depends on the level/variant you're playing. Spears aren't usually needed in Monarch or below, but in AW you need to build them like reproducing bunnies.

In one of the SG threads, DocT gave a nice discourse on the utility of helicopters. Personally, I spend much of my time trying to find a game where the forgotten units (helicopters, paras, stealth, etc.) have utility. Until recently, I thought explorers were useless. On AWD, however...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

ironclad-they exist for about 5 turns during most of my game and by the time I would actually build them I can build something better

 

[predesad]

Well, that's not the Warrior being directly useful in and of itself. Although it does give it a leg up on some other nominees in this thread.

True, warriors aren't as HORRID as, say, the Ironclad, but if I start with Bronze Work or Warrior Code I'll churn those units out and not bother with warriors at all (and if I don't, I'll only use warriors until I get one of those. Once I get warrior code, it's Archer time.)

I use to be of that opinion, only build a few warriors until i had a tech to build spear / archer, but now i consider the spear to be much more useless than a warrior, i often dont build any spears & will continue to build warriors after warrior code unless I am planning an archer rush.

uses for warriors:

1) best scouts - cheap
2) expendable to pop huts - cheap
3) best MP's - cheap
4) best AI expansion blocker - cheap

because they are so cheap and many can be built during rex phase they are a good multipurpose unit, I'd rather have 3 warriors than 2 spears. the only time a unit ever takes precedence over warriors during REX phase is if I am expansionist, seafaring, or the Aztecs, & then that precedence is temporary, except in the case of the Aztecs whose Jag is really a warrior variant.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

go along with predesad for the most part.

I use to be of that opinion, only build a few warriors until i had a tech to build spear / archer, but now i consider the spear to be much more useless than a warrior, i often dont build any spears & will continue to build warriors after warrior code unless I am planning an archer rush.

but, archers will keep the AI at bay better (there's some article in the war academy IIRC) There's a flexible point in the game, depending on level, when archers become counter productive. They upgrade to guerillas, not inf. As I've played through the modern age, inf are more useful than rambos. Then again, I'm an idiot, so my musings should be evaluated based on the availibility of a free substance.

 

[Desertsnow]

Galley and Curragh, in my experience, unless I have the Great Lighthouse, in which case they becomes fairly useful for exploration if not much else.

 

[commodified]

@Madviking--War Chariots can totally slaughter, man. Ever played the Egyptians on a 5 billion year man? They're horsemen for 20 shields instead of 30 and require two less techs to get to them. Plus they upgrade to Knights.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Ok, several units like frigates were completely useless before C3C, no arguing here; several others (Paras, even Marines) were substantially weaker.

IMHO for C3C, you really have to distinguish between utterly useless units, and actually semi-useful ones that unfortunately require an extra tech.
I rarely build Helicopters, since I almost never research Advanced Flight; but, if I happen to get the tech in a trade, a couple of them are actually useful.
And face it, Ironclads are a pretty strong unit; of course, you normally won't research the tech. Still, I managed to pull that one as free era advance tech with a SCI Civ, and occasionally it is worth a sinlge scientiest run.

Stealth Fighters, OTOH...I'm yet to see a game that wasn't over before Stealth was researched (since at that time, even the AI should have won by 100k), but I played on a couple of times to see them. And they are completely useless. Absolutely.

Curraghs are one of the most crucial units in the game. I have little patience with anyone calling them worthless.
That's like claiming artillery is useless...

 

[Nobody]

warrior- duh. but really the Chariot suck

 

[bob rulz]

The Ironclad is very useful, especially in a water-dominant game. They are miles ahead of the late Middle Age boats, and it doesn't take five turns to get to the next level of naval units. Even in the Industrial Age I'm still churning out those technologies at about 3-5 turns each and the AI usually won't trade with me in the Industrial Age (or asks for a ridiculous price to get one).

Anyway, I think chariots are pretty useless. There's no point for upgrading to horsemen when swordsmen are so much better. Even if horsemen are faster, swordsmen have more attack AND defense. Plus, in the early Middle Ages you rarely, if ever, have enough money for a mass chariot-to-knight upgrade. The only thing I have ever used chariots for is for barbarian mop-up operations early in the game.

Also, the stealth fighter and paratrooper are pretty useless. The paratrooper and modern paratrooper are too weak to compete with the other units of that time and the stealth fighter is very little improvement over the original fighter. Plus, the fighter doesn't even upgrade to the stealth fighter (otherwise, they might actually be useful). The helicopter and paratrooper would be a lot more useful if you could paradrop onto squares with enemy units in them.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

My list of worthless units is Chariots, privateers, stealthfighter, both paratroopers, and F15s.