The least effective unit

[Winston Hughes]

Practically all units have good uses. If you do not know how to use unit or never run in situation when you need unit, it is your problem.

I thought that was the point of threads like this: to get other players to point out uses for units you may not have considered before. And just because there have been similar threads before, doesn't mean there won't be new ideas explored here.

 

[Dirk1302]

gunships die to many units
Sam inf are useful, for this, sure. But it's easy enough to cut of oil to prevent the gunships to appear, and I take cities full of gunships easily after a few bombings

I'm mostly the defender in modern wars, masses of gunships are very annoying then. Cutting of oil is not possible in this case without a counter invasion. I agree on attack you can plan to take out the oil resource and gunships are not good defenders anyway. One or 2 sam infs to together with some normal inf to protect a stack of tanks should be enough then.

 

[rugger11]

I can't find a good use for Galleys or Ironclads

I like galleys on certain maps. I also like to put two together and dump four units deep behind enemy lines during a war just to screw with the enemy and keep him wondering.

I use the ironclad as a defensive unit to guard my workboats against enemy frigates.

 

[KMadCandy]

about galleys:

That's true, but I still can't see a use for them! 2 movement? A settler can manage that without the need to move him to a coast and the cost of building a galley (and once you've built some roads...). Since it can't take him across an ocean...<shrug>. 2 cargo spaces? Again, with the overhead of moving units to the coast it doesn't seem practical to use Galleys for moving an army around.

they can't cross ocean ... unless the ocean is in your territory.

as you said later, the map matters, they can be key on archipelago. the other day i used them to wipe out isabella before anybody else even knew she existed. she had the buddhist and jewish holy cities for me. madrid became my wall street, and barcelona had a ridiculous amount of sea food and ended up my oxford.

the fact that they can go into ocean squares in your territory (like workboats can) is how i managed to do it. i'd settled an island north of me that was close to her. even without open borders, my culture borders touched the coast on her big island, and that was all i needed. well, that and quite a few galleys and a lot of patience moving units around!

 

[Bagpuss]

Thanks. I consider myself educated - or more educated than I was anyway!

Mr Hughes has it right, I think.

 

[cabert]

I still don't have much use for the explorer
Medic? I tend to have a medic before I can build explorers, and the guy never attacks, so he never dies!

 

[Buntaro]

Subs are not that useful, but, as has been said, no unit is useless.

I think their combat abilities were not well thought out. If they had an ability to always attack the weakest ship in a stack as opposed to the strongest, that would be good. It would also be damned annoying.

I use them to scout rival's coasts during peace without open borders. Best service I ever got from one was inserting spies to sabotage space ship production by a militarily superior rival.

 

[Giaur]

1) Musketman ... it cannot stand against cavalry (to weak strength) ... should be 10
2) Crossbowman ... when city placed on hills crossbows have same stats against melee units as longbows and longbows are cheaper. However only mounted units can beat them (elephants and knights). When I build them I give them combat and shock or combat twice. However I'd rather depend on the terrain features for my melee, so I rarely build crossbows. I would gave them same bonus (25%) via defending city
3) Explorer ... to weak strength ... should be 5

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

Crossbowman ... when city placed on hills crossbows have same stats against melee units as longbows and longbows are cheaper. However only mounted units can beat them (elephants and knights). When I build them I give them combat and shock or combat twice. However I'd rather depend on the terrain features for my melee, so I rarely build crossbows. I would gave them same bonus (25%) via defending city

I usually have a couple in my stack with shock upgrades, to deal easily with macemen. I find them even more useful as stack defenders with drill promotions. I suspect (or would like to believe) that a reason for the archer boost in cities is the speed at which they are able to deliver their missiles; I don't think crossbowmen have this same ability.

I've only recently developed a taste for these guys; I should play China, and give the cho-ko-nu a shot.

 

[Robert_Marshall]

Explorers hands down for me. I never build them.

 

[Blaarg]

My responses:

Crossbows: They are the counter to Macemen/Axemen. They get to use that 50% bonus against Macemen, where Macemen do not get to use it against them.

Musketmen: They are good simply because they are the first Gunpower unit. Nothing will be around that is good at killing them at the point they show up.

Ironclad: I never really build a lot of naval units. As in all civ games I've played, Naval units seem really under powered. All Naval units should really be a lot faster. It would be also cool if you could run some Naval units up rivers. Like Galleys and Ironclads.

 

[Gryman]

Although I have seen many people don't like crossbows I think they can be extremely important, especially in multi player games! Most multi-player games I play are decided in the classical era, usually through either a melee or mounted attack. Several crossbows with combat I and shock promotions can destroy a stack of CR Macemen, Swordsmen and Axemen before they ever reach a city.

As for my most ineffective unit, I rarely ever build regular archers . Depending on my start I always tech either AH or BW very early if not first thing. 95% of the time my warriors do the job until either Chariots or Axemen are hooked up. I prefer to pick up both hunting and archery from alphabet and usually won't garisson defensive units until longbows are available. Mansu being the exception

 

[Mehmed100]

Ironclads for sure. Modern Armour are also useless because I never get around to build them.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

I think the sole purpose of a crossbowman is to romp down enemy macemen or outdated melee units. Horse Archers and Keshiks are still useful for rushes (I used a single keshik to raze two American cities once).

As for useless units

Musketmen
Musketeers
Grenadiers
Catapults (post-engineering)
Chariots
Warriors
Archers (except for protective ones)
Longbowmen (same as above)

I have actually never been beyond the early Industrial age .

 

[Harbourboy]

Subs are not that useful, but, as has been said, no unit is useless.
...

I use them to scout rival's coasts during peace without open borders. Best service I ever got from one was inserting spies to sabotage space ship production by a militarily superior rival.

I think that is the best use for a submarine as well. Strategic spy insertion can be a matchwinner in certain circumstances.

 

[popejubal]

Musketeers
Grenadiers
Catapults (post-engineering)
Chariots
Warriors
Archers (except for protective ones)
Longbowmen (same as above)

Musketeers have 2 movement. 2 movement is HUGE!

Grenadiers are just fine at fighting any unit less advanced than Riflemen and they have a huge bonus when attacking Riflemen. I used to beeline to Riflemen and upgrade all of my CRIII Macemen to Riflemen. Now I beeline to Chemistry and upgrade all of my CRIII Macemen to Grenadiers and I get to keep attacking when my opponents have upgraded to Riflemen because of the attack bonus.

Catapults still knock down City Walls just as well as they used to. Why throw away a useful unit that can still perform its job well? I'd rather have a Cannon and a Catapult than just a Cannon.

Chariots are hugely helpful against marauding Barbarian Axemen (a very popular Barbarian unit) and they Fog Bust very well with the Sentry promotion.

Warriors make great city defenders for cities that aren't going to be attacked. Why waste a useful unit when all you need is a warrior to keep away the "We have no defenders, so here are some angry citizens as a present".

The same is true of Archers and Longbowmen. I've had Warriors, Archers and Longbowmen guarding my Capitol while it was building Spaceship parts (don't try this with a Coastal Capitol.)

 

[Evanesce]

Settlers.

Really, I can't name a least useful unit; however, I will say that certain units have more specific roles that don't pop up very often; ironclads, musketmen, horse archers, and SAM infantry come to mind.

 

[mikeocarroll]

Galleys can also be useful early on (when they are the only naval unit) to prevent barbarian naval units destroying your nets. Nothing more annoying than watching helplessly while a single barbarian galley pillages all your nets and all of a sudden you have no crabs to trade for luxuries and disorder everywhere, not to mention a cut in income from not being able to work sea squares around the city and the pain-in-the-ass effort of having to build a new load of work boats, plus some galleys to protect them this time.

I think barbarian naval units only really come along on big maps and/or higher levels though.

 

[Giaur]

I have voted already, but one more word. Since they improved Flanking2 promotion, it would be great to add 10&#37; withrowal bonus to Knights. I suppose none of you give Flanking promotion to Knights.

P.S. And maybe to tanks and armors ...

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Musketeers have 2 movement. 2 movement is HUGE!

Knights have more strength, 2 movement, and cost just 10 more shields.

Catapults still knock down City Walls just as well as they used to. Why throw away a useful unit that can still perform its job well? I'd rather have a Cannon and a Catapult than just a Cannon.

They're useful for Classical Age Warfare, but then Trebuchets come in.