zwei833
Emperor
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2011
- Messages
- 1,240
After a little debate about the Teutonic Knight in the guess trait thread, I decide to start a thread to discuss about the criteria of choosing Unique Units.
First of all, this topic is NOT about how to design the stat and special ability of a UU, but how to decide which unit should become a UU of a civilization.
I found that the UUs in Civ game series can be divided into 4 kinds:
(1)These units are extremely well-known and iconic for its civilization, people will immediately think of them once they think of the civilization, and can hardly believe that it is not the UU of the civilization.
Only very few of the civilizations has this kind of unit, some examples I found for this kind of UU are:
Samurai of Japan, Berserk of Viking, Legion of Rome. Maybe Winged Hussar of Poland too.
(2)These units have some very special weapon/equipment/military tactic compare to the unit they replace.
Some examples:
-Camel Archer of Arabia, which has different weapon and mount compare to Knights.
-Chu-Ko-Nu, which has a repeated crossbow campare to normal crossbowman (despite the historical inaccuracy)
-Kris swordsman, has a Kris sword campare to common sowrds
-Keshik, has different equipment and military tactic compare to Knights.
-Hwach'a, different weapon campare to Trebuchet.
Both (1) and (2) are very good choices of UU imo, and some units might belong to (1) and (2) at the sametime, such Samurai and Legion.
Sadly, not all of the civilization have (1) or (2) kind unit in history, so they get (3):
(3)These units are not so iconic as (1) and not so special as (2), but still have a certain fame or speciality.
Some examples:
Rough Rider of USA, Panzer of Germany, Musketeer of France, Redcoat of England, Minuteman of USA, Landsknecht of Holy Roman Empire, Cossack of Russia, Janissary of Ottoman etc.
IMO, (3) is not as good as (1) and (2), but still not a bad choice, and afterall as I said before not all civilization has (1) or (2) kind unit in history.
And finally (4):
(4)These units really bad choice, they are neither famous nor special at all, the designer probably because they can't think of any UU for Examples:
-Bowman of Babylon. well, bowman is just another word of archer, right?
-Barrering Ram of Huns. Nearly every european and asian nations have such a siege unit....
-Chinese Rider(Civ3) of China. Not famous nor special at all, why can't it just represent by a normal Knight.
-Hussar of Austria. Very common unit in 18-19th century.
80% of the UUs which name are X(civ name) + Y(unit name) are bad choices IMO.
In short, two criteria of choosing the UU of the civilization: Famous and Special. It will be very good if the you can found a (1) or (2) kind of unit for the civ, but if they can't find one, there is a dangerous that the UU may become a (4) kind bad choice. This time you should ask yourself, is this unit really famous or special enough? Can it be just represented by a common unit?
Now the question is, are the choices of UU in Civ6 good enough?
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First of all, this topic is NOT about how to design the stat and special ability of a UU, but how to decide which unit should become a UU of a civilization.
I found that the UUs in Civ game series can be divided into 4 kinds:
(1)These units are extremely well-known and iconic for its civilization, people will immediately think of them once they think of the civilization, and can hardly believe that it is not the UU of the civilization.
Only very few of the civilizations has this kind of unit, some examples I found for this kind of UU are:
Samurai of Japan, Berserk of Viking, Legion of Rome. Maybe Winged Hussar of Poland too.
(2)These units have some very special weapon/equipment/military tactic compare to the unit they replace.
Some examples:
-Camel Archer of Arabia, which has different weapon and mount compare to Knights.
-Chu-Ko-Nu, which has a repeated crossbow campare to normal crossbowman (despite the historical inaccuracy)
-Kris swordsman, has a Kris sword campare to common sowrds
-Keshik, has different equipment and military tactic compare to Knights.
-Hwach'a, different weapon campare to Trebuchet.
Both (1) and (2) are very good choices of UU imo, and some units might belong to (1) and (2) at the sametime, such Samurai and Legion.
Sadly, not all of the civilization have (1) or (2) kind unit in history, so they get (3):
(3)These units are not so iconic as (1) and not so special as (2), but still have a certain fame or speciality.
Some examples:
Rough Rider of USA, Panzer of Germany, Musketeer of France, Redcoat of England, Minuteman of USA, Landsknecht of Holy Roman Empire, Cossack of Russia, Janissary of Ottoman etc.
IMO, (3) is not as good as (1) and (2), but still not a bad choice, and afterall as I said before not all civilization has (1) or (2) kind unit in history.
And finally (4):
(4)These units really bad choice, they are neither famous nor special at all, the designer probably because they can't think of any UU for Examples:
-Bowman of Babylon. well, bowman is just another word of archer, right?
-Barrering Ram of Huns. Nearly every european and asian nations have such a siege unit....
-Chinese Rider(Civ3) of China. Not famous nor special at all, why can't it just represent by a normal Knight.
-Hussar of Austria. Very common unit in 18-19th century.
80% of the UUs which name are X(civ name) + Y(unit name) are bad choices IMO.
In short, two criteria of choosing the UU of the civilization: Famous and Special. It will be very good if the you can found a (1) or (2) kind of unit for the civ, but if they can't find one, there is a dangerous that the UU may become a (4) kind bad choice. This time you should ask yourself, is this unit really famous or special enough? Can it be just represented by a common unit?
Now the question is, are the choices of UU in Civ6 good enough?
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