Retreat!

[Argetnyx]

I am a very warlike person and find challenges whenever i can. The unit i fear most is the Indian War Elephant, i have bad experiences fighting it, there were just too many of them.

 

[michapr77]

I tend to find that when the berserkers are in the game, I will most assuredly lose that coastal city I have just founded.

 

[Bucephalus]

I tend to find that when the berserkers are in the game, I will most assuredly lose that coastal city I have just founded.

Odd, that; I have never seen the AI use Beserks amphibiously.

 

[criminiminal]

celtic warriors can be a p.i.t.a

 

[Myth5]

definitely berserks. 10 of them babies and even your musketmen run crying for mommy...if you have 'em

 

[CommandoBob]

I chose Cavalry over Modern Armor. Both have caught me by suprise before, since I don't always find how far 3 MPs can go into my territory.

Cavalry comes earlier than MA, appearing at the end of the Middle Ages, while Modern Armor has to wait until mid-late Modern Times. More civs will have Cavalry; by the time MA come into play either the game is over or the number of civs is greatly reduced (usually, depending on how you plan to win).

 

[Quintillus]

Same as CommandoBob. Usually by the time my enemies have Modern Armor (if they ever get there) I've got strong enough defences that they'll only take a few cities. But it's quite possible that they'll have Cavalry while by defences are still lacklustre, and if I'm railed they might cause quite a fracas if they invade suddenly.

Marines are a pain, too, as they mean coastal cities have to have decent defences. But Cavalry are far more often a threat to quickly grab a bunch of cities. The AI doesn't seem to use Berserks as often as Marines when I play - granted, the Vikings are only one civ.

 

[Taras Bulba]

if used right, Stealth Bombers can utterly DESTROY a civ.... I fear them...

 

[Mathias]

How could you leave the dreaded spearman out of the poll?

 

[D.N. Pacem]

For pure fear factor, I'll go with ancient cavalry or crusaders. It starts when your aggressive neighbor gets the Temple of Zeus or the Knights Templar. You know they're coming; you just don't know when.

Then, when the first one shows up at your doorstep, you do some quick math in your head to figure out just how many might be behind him.

ETA: Whoops -- I didn't see "ancient cavalry" and voted for "other" before I noticed you have "crusaders" up there.

 

[Argetnyx]

For Mathias: i purposefully left out Spearman because i was only doing offensive units.

 

[darski]

For Mathias: i purposefully left out Spearman because i was only doing offensive units.

I have used a spear for offense in a pinch and I have seen the Ai do the same. For me, the most feared unit in the entire game is a Reg Spearman. I have lost more units and more elite units to R-spears than to any other unit.

 

[kulade]

I hate nearly all naval units. I never have a strong navy, and if I do, I usually stack them all in one place. I can't stand enemy battleships bombarding lonely places of my land, and transports dropping of even a small number of anything is a far-reached territory...

 

[TheOverseer714]

I picked Modern Infantry, but on further thinking I have decided that the Sipahi worries me even more, should the Ottomans be nearby. It might encourage me to wipe them out before they get those fearsome beasts, y'know an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure and all.

 

[Hynsterider]

I voted Cavalry, purely because you don't see units with a move of 3 coming. So count the Chinese Rider and the Arab Ansar as well. I don't even want to think about the Sipahi.
The Roman Legionaries deserve an honourable mention as well. I prefer to keep the peace with Julius in the early game; a stack of Legionaries is difficult to survive unscathed.

 

[Argetnyx]

About my first comment:
In one of my early games (probably my third), i was playing as Rome and i was sharing a continent with India. Ijust got Chivalry and i was an industrial power so i declared war. I got one city, then all of these War Elephants came in. I now know that they are the same as knights, but they were so BIG! It took fifteen to twenty turns to turn back to the offensive (after they ran out). After that, i was much more confident, but when even a single one attacked, it did some damage.

 

[TheOverseer714]

The extra hitpoint and the fact that War Elephants require no resources make them pretty scary. You either want to hit India early, before they get them, or after you have better units and they are less of a threat.

 

[Loki130]

Bombers-especially in that gap between infantry and tanks. A single round of bombing can make or break a war. I was once in a war with marines against infantry and had taken about half the enemy territory, then they started rolling out bombers... long story short, after several alliances against me and losing a major city, I just barely managed to squuze a peace treaty in and started focusing more on my colonies.

 

[binhthuy71]

The limitations of the poll precluded the Samurai. At 4-4-2 with a resource requirement of Iron (And if I don't have Iron, or can't capture it early it's time for a new game) a stack of Samurais can dispose of most opponents quickly.

 

[Globex]

Cavalry.

I don't fear slow units at all because I can bombard them w/ artillery and destroy them before they even get to my cities.

For units like horsemen and knights, I can bombard all enemy tiles that border my empire so that they can't get into my territory and attack my cities on the same turn.

But cavalry have 3 movement points so in order to slow them down, I would have to bombard all enemy tiles bordering my empire and all tiles adjacent to those tiles. To do this, I would have to park my artillery right next to the enemy borders which would expose them to attack.

And cavalry have the annoying habit of appearing from the fog of war to sneak attack you and retreating back into enemy territory to heal after they have been badly damaged. You can easily prevent slower units from doing this.

I usually win the game before the enemy gets modern armor so I don't really fear them much.