The True Best UU!

[tR1cKy]

The Legionary. Defends as a pikeman, attacks as a sword. Although not fast, it's the perfect all-purpose foot unit of the ancient age. My 2nd choice would be the Samurai, another really versatile unit.

 

[S!n!st3r]

They should just rename Civ, "Math Battle."

Civ 4 would be Math Battle 1, then they could come out with the expansion packs "Multiplication" and "Division".

 

[deo]

the most powerfull of it's era the SIPAHI, 8 attack mama, it's also useful in the industrial era.

 

[Arachnaphobia]

Panzer, as it canes most things for a while.

 

[gunkulator]

For GA timing: the Swiss Mercenary
For kicking ass: the Mounted Warrior

The SM comes with tech #1 of the Middle Ages. The Knight replacements are good too, however they are expensive and the AI can get a jump on those juicy MA wonders before you get your GA started.

The MW is just an unbelievalbly good deal. 50% more offensive oomph for the same cheap price. It's like having a 24/8/2 tank. When most the world is defending at 2 in towns and you are attacking at 3 with retreat, life is good. Also, the AI doesn't know how to defend against fast movers.

 

[S!n!st3r]

W00T!!! Immortals are still in the lead!

 

[deo]

I have an idea, run this pool for i few days, pic the top 5, start a new thread and analyse all of the 5(not only one person), than make a pool on the thread an decide which is the best.

 

[Tomoyo]

I agree, but can we make sure we take UUs of different categories/time periods?

 

[Moss]

The Soldiers from Persia...

 

[Tomoyo]

Mossy!

 

[Tatran]

Russian Cossack.
Blitz + excellent Golden Age timing (early Industrial era).
With a little luck the free tech will be Steam Power and
artillery will be a few techs away.Also you can't almost
never miss the ToE + Hoover Dam.
Factories,Stock Exchanges + Hostipals need to be build too.

 

[Richard Cribb]

Dudes and Dudesses!!! Hello!!?

What's the most important element in battle?
Speed

When is it good to pick up a Golden Age?
Mid-Middle Ages into Early Industrial Age - important wonderrs and crucial infrastructure.

Is it good to have your UU upgradeable into Cavalry?
Hell yeah.

What does that leave us with?

The Chinese Rider - a knight with cavalry movement, triggers GA for those crucial wonders (JSB, SunT, Sist Chap etc also for building banks, unis etcetc), upgrades to cavalry so as soon as it becomes obsolete you can upgrade em all.

The only real downs with it are: 70 cost is a little steep (but Chinese are industrious so plenty of mines to do the job fast), it has no real attack or defense advantage (but Chinese are industrious so there are many more riders), you need the right resources to build them (but Chinese are industri..... oh - this is the only real downside).

I've lost count of the amount of times one huge army (ie. whole military force not the little dude with flag) that was raised during a GA just goes on to steam the whole world flat - be it as riders, upgraded to cavalry or whatever. The problem with them is making enough ships to get them to the scene of the crime.

Gotta love THE CHINESE RIDER!!!

Worst UU is either the American or English pieces of wastage - but they are appropriately ommitted from the list.

Excellent post.
I can but agree: I also find the Chinese Rider to be the best UU, for the very reasons you write.
Actually the only thing I can't agree with you is about the English UU, I find it very useful in most cases.

 

[Zelda's Man]

I am all about the samauri. There is nothing worse than not having horses in the Middle Ages...unless you are Japan and don't need them (I never build horseman in AA). Defense of musketman is nice for protecting captured cities. Triggers golden age just after switch to republic/monarchy which is perfect.

 

[Tomoyo]

Note that the Ansar warrior is as fast as the Rider, cheaper, and can be defended by Pikes...

 

[Hyronymus]

I voted the dutch Swiss Mercenary. I often wage war around the time these beauties kick in and I can pretty darn well rely on their defensive powers. Even attacking weakened units is a good option with them!

 

[DS_Legionary]

My vote goes for the Ansar Warrior. Just as fast as the Chinese Rider, and costs 10 sheilds less. Only downside is the two defense, but if you're using speed to you're advantage, as you should be, that extra point of defense won't make that much difference. You may lose a few more units, but you will take over cities/empires much faster then with a regular Knight. With it being cheaper then any other Knight units one is able to crank out more of them in a shorter amounts of time. For every 6 Knights you build, you could have built 7 Ansar Warriors. Not to mention a prefectly timed GA.

My second choice, and a very close second it is, is the Mounted Warrior, for reasons to obvious to name.

 

[Wolfwood]

I'm sitting here wondering why English Man-of-War was not included in the poll... Then I remembered that people like to play on pangaea maps and never need ships anyway...

 

[xiaoafei]

Vanilla>>Playing as China, deity, huge, 15 civs
turn1: i got chivalry. i had horse but had no iron, so set a deal with Russian for iron. started to produce riders in 8 cities
turn2: buy the 8 riders
turn3-turn5: moved my riders to England
turn6: declared war and attacked, riders upgraded, city captured, entered my golden age. no rider lost.

So, rider is great!

 

[shortguy]

Mounted Warrior. Deadly and cheap. I would say gallic swordsman, but, in the ancient age, the 10 shields (20 in PTW) probably outweigh the defense point.

 

[rbis4rbb]

Hopkite, because they are effective even in the late medieval age.