So what is the best UU in the game?

[Bad Wolf]

I won't even try to venture a guess as to which is the best, but I would point out that the Jong is indeed really good. Not only can you buy it with faith (and a very reasonable amount of faith too, they're cheaper than missionaries!) but it can be used to transport land units across the water at 5 hexes per turn in the Renaissance era! This is a level of mobility that you don't usually achieve until, what, the Modern era?

In my Indonesia game I didn't even produce a single naval unit until after I'd built the Venetian Arsenal, I just bought them all with faith. I had a good six or seven Jongs going and I didn't have to spend a single hammer on them.

 

[Pietato]

Warrior Monks.

 

[Jewelrunna]

Easily the Pítati Archer. Archers are the most important units in the ancient era - along with the heavy chariot - and it's just a much better Archer. +5 bonus damage is a dramatic increase in combat over the standard archer (a 20% increase in strength), and they have an extra movement point. That movement point is just enough for the Pítati Archers to catch up to & fire at most units that are retreating. The only land units that have a shot at escaping them are heavy chariots, scouts, and their replacements. They're great for offense, great for defense, great for clearing barbs; they do it all. Oh, and their slightly higher production cost is moot, because of Nubia's unique ability they can churn them out stupidly fast.

War Carts are the only real competition, because they're also quite strong while being available at the start of the game. Other runners-up are the Eagle Warrior, Mamluks, Cossacks, and to a lesser extent, the Minas Geraes.

 

[Pietato]

+5 in strength is the same increase no matter the age or unit, I believe.

 

[Jewelrunna]

+5 in strength is the same increase no matter the age or unit, I believe.

Not the case. War-Carts are +2, Eagle Warriors are +10, Maryannu are +7 (factoring in that they attack from range now), Okihtcitaw are +10; and that's just the ancient era.

 

[kb27787]

Hetairoi... GG points for a total of +10 with GG on what is essentially horsemen costwise with one free promotion which upgrade to knights.... So your conquest keeps its momentum even when facing crossbows. Macedon has the best UU and the worst UU (hypaspist) which I never ever want to build.

 

[Bad Wolf]

+5 in strength is the same increase no matter the age or unit, I believe.

Not the case. War-Carts are +2, Eagle Warriors are +10, Maryannu are +7 (factoring in that they attack from range now), Okihtcitaw are +10; and that's just the ancient era.

+5 makes the same difference in this game whether we're talking about 20 vs 25, or 40 vs 45, or 80 vs 85. Hence the Pitati Archers aren't 20% stronger than regular Archers, though they do have 20% more strength, which I know is confusing...

 

[Esperr]

I think ive already said this, but the nubian archer is the best UU in the game. Its just a better version of the best unit in the game.

 

[xjzorbtpwqimay]

+5 makes the same difference in this game whether we're talking about 20 vs 25, or 40 vs 45, or 80 vs 85. Hence the Pitati Archers aren't 20% stronger than regular Archers, though they do have 20% more strength, which I know is confusing...

While you are correct here, the real-terms damage increase from Pitati Archers is actually pretty close to 20%.

The damage formula is an exponential function of the strength difference. It's multiplied by a random value (between 24 and 36) at the end to get the actual value. I'll just call the random value 'r':

r * e ^ (strengthDifference / 25)

We can read this as "every strength increase of 25, the damage done increases by e (2.718...) times". Being an exponential function, we can rewrite it with any base (other than 1) that I'll call 'x' by multiplying the exponent by log_x of the original base. E.g. rewritten with a base of 2:

r * 2 ^ (log_2(e) * strengthDifference / 25)

which simplifies to:

r * 2 ^ (strengthDifference / 17.329...)

I.e. a strength difference of about 17 will double the actual damage done, which is probably why +17 strength was chosen for armies (+10 strength for corps corresponds to about +50% damage).

So if we want to find how much of a damage difference +5 strength makes, we want to solve for x in:

r * x ^ (strengthDifference / 5) = r * e ^ (strengthDifference / 25)

Some algebra later, we have that x is the fifth root of e, approximately 1.221... So +5 strength gives +22.1% damage.

 

[Pietato]

Not the case. War-Carts are +2, Eagle Warriors are +10, Maryannu are +7 (factoring in that they attack from range now), Okihtcitaw are +10; and that's just the ancient era.

I think we are talking about completely different things.

 

[Sostratus]

Some algebra later, we have that x is the fifth root of e, approximately 1.221... So +5 strength gives +22.1% damage

Also very handy: +10 is 50% more damage dealt, 50% less damage taken. (The corps upgrade)
+17 is +100%. (Armies.)

So an army is actually as good as 4 of its base unit in a fight- a pretty good bang for your buck!

Anyways, while I think war carts, eagles & legions are just amazing, I think the Impi are highly underrated. They are just so ridiculously cheap in their era- 125. Vs 180 for a knight, 200 for a pikeman, 240 for muskets) that you can actually really leverage Zulu's corps bonus and get a bunch of base 56 strength impi corps running around in the middle ages. They get some other perk but who cares. Unlike other civs, the impi actually lets you fully counter cavalry/knight users; unlike normally, since regular pikes cost more than knights for a paltry +3 strength in direct combat. You can completely shut down Mongolia et al.

The existence of pike & shot units also massively aids their lifespan. They are simply so cheap & efficient for what they do!

 

[Krajzen]

What is in your opinion the best UU from 8 new civs introduced by R&F?

 

[Sostratus]

What is in your opinion the best UU from 8 new civs introduced by R&F?

Impi or keshig. Impi because partly bargain basement low cost, partly how it has synergies with Zulu's crazy corps bonuses. Keshig because it's a hyper mobile crossbowman. 5 move crossbows!!! Pitati archers on steroids.

Malon Raiders are essentially mobile muskets with some pillage bonuses, although pike and shot in the next tech hits them a bit. (Pike and shot are vastly more efficient anti-cav than pikes.) Being light cav is also a non-ideal upgrade path.

Highlanders are quite good units, but not as game changing as having a keshig given its tech path and proximity to infantry.

 

[liv]

What is in your opinion the best UU from 8 new civs introduced by R&F?

I think it is impi. It is very strong unit and cheap to build.
Keshig are fast crossbows but it is the time where you need artillery units more
The Seven Provices Boat is a superb unit but as a boat it is a bit limited

The rest of them are most useful for their era score unfortunately