Most worthless unit in the game?

[Ansar]

I dont think Ironclads are that useless, I play Vanilla/PTW .

Also, I use Ironclads as Galleon defense when transporting units.

 

[Neomega]

I've played an MP game as Japan where chariots served me quite well.... well enough to be accused of cheating. It's like having an armed scout in five turns if you fell a forest.

Try comparing apples to apples and throw out consideration of any variants. Straightforward whatever version of Civ. What is in general the most useless unit? My vote goes to the 2 movement spear, the impi.

No way, the impi kicks. I have used impi effectively into the industrial age. They are fast and annoying, and retreat, to hel up and come back and hold chokepoints.

f-15... worst unit ever.

 

[tR1cKy]

You contradict yourself well Tricky

Why?!?

...

Ironclads in Vanilla/PTW are useful, at the cost of the short life of frigates. Usually steam power is the 1st industrial tech to research, and so the lifespan of frigates may even be 10 turns or less. Then, you have useless wooden vessels that cannot be upgraded, only scrapped.

 

[Gogf]

Send out an army with five explorers, and you can pillage any five tiles two tiles away or three tiles away in the direction that the army is moving. And yes, it's in C3C, but also in vanilla.

Presumably you can load explorers into an army. If so, it will be incredibly effective for pillaging, as I know a Conquistador army is.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

No way, the impi kicks. I have used impi effectively into the industrial age. They are fast and annoying, and retreat, to hel up and come back and hold chokepoints

More details, if'n you don't mind? Level, map, version, etc.? Interested to know how you used them effectively. They've always been a PITA for me.

 

[Tomoyo]

Presumably you can load explorers into an army. If so, it will be incredibly effective for pillaging, as I know a Conquistador army is.

I thought explorers were like scouts and workers? Not loadable?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Presumably you can load explorers into an army. If so, it will be incredibly effective for pillaging, as I know a Conquistador army is.

you suggested this in HNDY15 and it sounds like an incredible idea. I'm gonna try it in an epic unless you already have? Given the minimal defense of the explorer, does an army of them have enough scare power to keep from being attacked by an AI?

@ tomoyo - I won't say great minds think alike, cause I already know you're smarter. Good question. Can inca C. Scouts be loaded into an army?

 

[Neomega]

More details, if'n you don't mind? Level, map, version, etc.? Interested to know how you used them effectively. They've always been a PITA for me.

Huge map, random climate/age/size, emperor, 16 civs. How I always play.

First offensive use scouts and impi to do a one turn pilliage surprise attack on a young capital. Put them on the territory, agree to withdraw, and next turn pilliage and run, waiting a few more turns for your archers to catch up.

Gang up on enemy farm pillagers in open plains for bashing and retreating, then bring in archers to finish pilliagers off. Impi go back to city to gaurd, and heal. Eventually, (being militaristic), your impi become elite, and the retreat begins to work very well.

When the offensive begins, use impi to run up on border, pilliage, then run away when attacked, send the survivors, (there are many) to cities with barracks to heal up, to come back and strike again in two turns.

In the later game, Impi are rushed around my empire to shore up defenses.

Not only do impi retreat, but they can keep knights and horsemen from retreating...

 

[Tomoyo]

A conquistador army has as much scare power as a spear/sword army. Not sure how much that is.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Huge map, random climate/age/size, emperor, 16 civs. How I always play.

All becomes clear. i rarely play above standard size. thanks.

 

[Jeremy Tusant]

Uh, you are .
Look, I'm one of the small minority of Deity (+) level players who actually likes Spearmen. I will build them later - but in the verly early game, you just need a warm body as MP, and to prevent the AI from stumbling into an empty city. You can by no means afford to build a 20sp unit for every Settler - unless you build too few Settlers. And that's what you seem to do wrong.

Here is the way I play, I don't attack anybody unless he attacks me, I search for minor tribes like crazy, I get out and look for those things as my number one priority, they give you a jump on the other civs. While i'm exploring from mountain top to mountain top, i set my cities to make one settler first and move any spearmen or warriors up to the borders to protect while cities are building settlers, each city of mine builds one settler until i'm expanded up to my opponents. Then its about protecting the borders, once the borders are shored up with units, just build the heck out of your cities, improve them as fast as you can. The AI is not going to attack you if you have your border towns with 8 to ten units in them and trade with the AI when it wants to trade, you can win that way all the time because you'll get the diplomatic victory by being stronger than your opponents but being polite as well. Cultural victories are fun to, love it when cities join my side. So as far as doing thing wrong, don't think so.

 

[brennan]

Why?!?

Umm, because you said there was no such thing as a useless unit, then offered 2 examples of useless units.

My current game; spy reports the Americans as having 41 F-15s Clearly Mr Lincoln doesn't think they are useless! (That's about 2 per city)

Btw, I agree with Doc over Spearmen. Just build warriors at first, they are quicker. Have a barracks build spears for defence when you are finishing expansion phase.

 

[Rik Meleet]

New addition to the worst unit discussion: Mobile SAM 1-6-2 aa4 for 100 shields. Insufficient defense value of 6, attack value of 1. So it does a bad job in defense. No bombardment and expensive. It can be used as anti-aircraft-bombardment, but after 4 units in a city have fired, the 5th and beyond won't do anything anymore.

If the only reason to have them is anti-aircraft fire; I'd rather have some fighters (80 shields) or jet fighters (100 shields) as, unlike the Mobile Sam, they keep some usefulness when enemy bombers can't reach you anymore (destroyed or too far away).

Not too mention I very rarely need anti-aircraft fire anyway.

 

[gunkulator]

If you're landing overseas in some AI's territory that has bombers, they will mercilessly bomb your stack, even if you have armies in it. Flak and Mobile Sam are you only chance to fight back.

 

[Rik Meleet]

If you're landing overseas in some AI's territory that has bombers, they will mercilessly bomb your stack, even if you have armies in it. Flak and Mobile Sam are you only chance to fight back.

I disagree. If I get into a situation where the AI has so many bombers that they can do serious damage to a landing SoD then I either have sufficient bombers myself to bomb all the defenders in a coastal city to kingdom come and capture the city with 1 marine, allowing me to unload my units directly in it and relocating fighters to it, or I must manipulate that AI in such a way that those bombers are either useless or not close to the landing zone.

If I land it is by 100+ units. To do serious damage, that AI needs 150+ bombers. With that amount Mobile Sams won't make a lot of difference.

 

[gunkulator]

I disagree. If I get into a situation where the AI has so many bombers that they can do serious damage to a landing SoD then I either have sufficient bombers myself to bomb all the defenders in a coastal city to kingdom come and capture the city with 1 marine, allowing me to unload my units directly in it and relocating fighters to it, or I must manipulate that AI in such a way that those bombers are either useless or not close to the landing zone.

If I land it is by 100+ units. To do serious damage, that AI needs 150+ bombers. With that amount Mobile Sams won't make a lot of difference.

I'm talking more like landing maybe 20-30 units against a similar number of AI units. Yes, everything can be overcome by having zillions of units. But if you are only landing an army or two plus some tanks and artillery to take over a reasonalbly sized AI island, a half dozen or so AI bombers will hit those armies every turn, possibly opening them up to counter attack.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Mobile SAM are HUGE. The AI will thow all their Bombers against pillaging Armies, the SAM are the only thing that help here.

 

[Elysium Dreams]

I disagree. If I get into a situation where the AI has so many bombers that they can do serious damage to a landing SoD then I either have sufficient bombers myself to bomb all the defenders in a coastal city to kingdom come and capture the city with 1 marine, allowing me to unload my units directly in it and relocating fighters to it, or I must manipulate that AI in such a way that those bombers are either useless or not close to the landing zone.

Getting the AI to shift bombers away is always handy, but relocating fighters to a newly conquered city while there are still bombers in the area just lets the AI bomb your grounded fighters to oblivion before you have a chance to put them on air superiority (assuming we're talking about Conquests).

 

[romeothemonk]

I agree with Rik that the Mobile Sam is pretty ********. When he says move fighters in to the city he probably does what I do and move a carrier with air superiority fighters into the city. Boom, 3-4 bomber kills. I also like to move in a BB or 2 for AA values as well. BB's are really handy in AA mode.
Anyone that thinks that naval tactics are worthless in C3C should play me in the WW2 conquest. It gets really fun with all the stuff you can pull off with decent naval tactics.

 

[Himalia]

Th single most worthless unit to me are the scouts. I never use them unless i have one to start the game with. I dont bother with them as they have no combat value.