The UU-A-Day Countdown

[Eagle Pursuit]

IIRC you can have a military unit share a tile with a civilian unit. You stack your Legion with a worker and build roads really fast.

 

[Avatan]

appears to be more useful as a post-invasion ability: take out a neighboring civ, then establish Forts/hook up cities to get your empire online again.

I agree, but since the ranged unit only shoot with a range of two, the ennemy will have to have to come close enough with their melee units in order to use their bowmen. Then your fortified bonused swordsmen will be a real pain to destroy . More like a counter attack thing than a rush ability IMHO.

It will depends a lot on how long does it take to actually build a fort though.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well I think the ability is very good for staged expansion, build Roads to the enemy and set up forts after you take the target cities.

Defend the conquests while you rebuild them.

I think it ties in well to the Roman UA that lends itself to well developed cities.

 

[SuperSmash5]

I actually don't think that the Legion as overpowered as people are making out, mainly because of the Iron requirement. Not only do you need Iron but you need A LOT of Iron to make an effective. I'd say at least 6 or more, which involves acquiring at least 2 separate sources. When you consider that the Ballista also needs iron, it can become difficult to field very many legion units. Unlike in Civ4, you can't just spam them and overrun your enemies.

That being said, while the Legion might not be a rush unit, it can certainly help Rome gain a decisive military advantage. It won't clobber your opponents, but it will make a military push at the classical age very possible.

As for the other abilities of the Legion, I don't find that they're very useful. If you can capture workers like in Civ4, then there's really no use for the Legion's worker abilities. Forts aren't useless, but they're very specific in when you would want one. And it's really impractical to waste 6 turns (or however many) setting up a fort if you're in the middle of a war when you could otherwise be attacking. The main use that I see for this, as others have pointed out, is quickly making roads by stacking them with workers, but even this ability is limited.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think the UU is both helped and hurt by its co-worker UU. On the one hand, if you don't have a lot of iron, you'd be limited in both (I realize you'd be limited with just Cats and Swords, but you'd also be more likely to go Archers instead. With two powerful UUs, that's less of the case). On the other hand, you can move into enemy territory, build a line of forts, and park your ballistas behind them. I could see Rome setting up semi-defensive killing zones if they wanted to. If not, they could advance farther (building roads in neutral territory to help facilitate troop movement) and then set up another line. If they don't attack you by then, you can always use your superior strength to attack them. I don't think the strength bonus is as good as in the past, but it can be quite useful. You can also use them to save on workers by doing some basic road building (or speeding road building by stacking with a worker).

 

[Thormodr]

A Legendary Start could be very helpful here. Likely Rome would be in an excellent production area with 1 or 2 iron to start.

So, they'll be able to churn out the military units and UUs. Sounds like fun.

 

[Calouste]

I actually don't think that the Legion as overpowered as people are making out, mainly because of the Iron requirement. Not only do you need Iron but you need A LOT of Iron to make an effective. I'd say at least 6 or more, which involves acquiring at least 2 separate sources. When you consider that the Ballista also needs iron, it can become difficult to field very many legion units. Unlike in Civ4, you can't just spam them and overrun your enemies.

That being said, while the Legion might not be a rush unit, it can certainly help Rome gain a decisive military advantage. It won't clobber your opponents, but it will make a military push at the classical age very possible.

As for the other abilities of the Legion, I don't find that they're very useful. If you can capture workers like in Civ4, then there's really no use for the Legion's worker abilities. Forts aren't useless, but they're very specific in when you would want one. And it's really impractical to waste 6 turns (or however many) setting up a fort if you're in the middle of a war when you could otherwise be attacking. The main use that I see for this, as others have pointed out, is quickly making roads by stacking them with workers, but even this ability is limited.

You can have the Legions build forts and roads while you are not at war. There is a fairly lengthy period between them and when their upgrade becomes available.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

The way I see the legion being used is for conquering 1 or 2 enemies (depending on map size) after you have spent the previous portion building up.

So Rome should get several cities, build them up (using the UA) and then build its Legion+Balista (and start pumping out cannon fodder, ie Archers/Spears/Mounted units).

The Cannon Fodder units screen for the Legion which guards the Ballista as it breaks down city walls.

Cannon fodder units continue to come (the Legion can build a road to support this)

Once the Civ is conquered, then the Legions can reinforce the Territory by building roads and Forts.

Then possibly move on to the next Civ... until the Legions are outdated, and are more there for Road Maintenance/Fortifying strong positions.

 

[Lyoncet]

A Legendary Start could be very helpful here. Likely Rome would be in an excellent production area with 1 or 2 iron to start.

So, they'll be able to churn out the military units and UUs. Sounds like fun.

Too bad there's no option (that we know of) that resembles unrestricted leaders by unpairing abilities from UUs/UBs. Can you imagine Siberian Riches + Legions/Ballistae on Legendary Start?

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Actually what would be better

1. a Random UA
2. a Random UU
3. a Random UB/UU (50/50)

 

[whipflash]

i to be honest think you have to be lucky with resources or play legendary start as some people stated for balista and legion to really shine, building roads to get to the enemy faster? remember roads have mantince and only 1 unit per tile, this can get very inefective and expensive (far from useless) but it takes much planing and maybe alittle luck to pull off.

If you ask me it seems that haveing UU's like camel archers that dont need a resources has a little edge against people who gets uu that demands resources.

 

[TM Moot]

You can have the Legions build forts and roads while you are not at war. There is a fairly lengthy period between them and when their upgrade becomes available.

This. You are not at war all the time, so whilst creating a sizable force use the first few Legions to ceate some infrastructure, and likewise, whilst taking a breather inbetween wars.

Romans are no.1 on my 'to play list'. I reckon that the 2 UU's will work well together, obviously providing you have enough Iron. But as long as you pick your targets sensibly (i.e not too far away AND with iron deposits) then it becomes a snow balling conquest.

As mentioned, the SA (UA!) will help keep momentum.

 

[Caeserportugal]

Rome is gonna be the first civ I will try and I cant wait

 

[Babri]

Rome is all about conquer & then rebuild your empire during peace time. With worker-legion stack you'd be able to build roads & forts faster which could be very helpful in connecting cities & defending them. A legion in fort would be really tough for his time since it already has +2 strength. If utilized properly they would be a tough nut to crack.

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

I'm willin' to bet that there'll be considerably more iron than in cIV Rome should have no problem crushing her enemies. I just hope the earth map will be big enough for them to have enough Iron in Italy.

Then again if the map is smaller then every one else will also have fewer resources AND everybody will need less units.

 

[Lyoncet]

I'm willin' to bet that there'll be considerably more iron than in cIV Rome should be balanced.

Fixed.

 

[Rusty Edge]

I think the UU is both helped and hurt by its co-worker UU. On the one hand, if you don't have a lot of iron, you'd be limited in both (I realize you'd be limited with just Cats and Swords, but you'd also be more likely to go Archers instead. With two powerful UUs, that's less of the case). On the other hand, you can move into enemy territory, build a line of forts, and park your ballistas behind them. I could see Rome setting up semi-defensive killing zones if they wanted to. If not, they could advance farther (building roads in neutral territory to help facilitate troop movement) and then set up another line. If they don't attack you by then, you can always use your superior strength to attack them. I don't think the strength bonus is as good as in the past, but it can be quite useful. You can also use them to save on workers by doing some basic road building (or speeding road building by stacking with a worker).

So you could re-create Hadrian's wall, and Caesar's envelopment of the Celts.

 

[Schuesseled]

it would be cool to have a hadrains wall wonder do what the great wall did in civ 4.

 

[Babri]

ShaqFu ! One day has passed. Now lets leave Legion & talk about any other UU.
Maybe...Musketeer.

 

[SuperSmash5]

This. You are not at war all the time, so whilst creating a sizable force use the first few Legions to ceate some infrastructure, and likewise, whilst taking a breather inbetween wars.

Romans are no.1 on my 'to play list'. I reckon that the 2 UU's will work well together, obviously providing you have enough Iron. But as long as you pick your targets sensibly (i.e not too far away AND with iron deposits) then it becomes a snow balling conquest.

As mentioned, the SA (UA!) will help keep momentum.

I don't really think that the Legions will be that great at creating infrastructure. You should already have roads to hook up your iron by the time you've started producing your first Legions. Forts can be useful, but they're not the kind of improvement you should just spam all over the place. Not to mention they're useless when you're on the attack, which is what you should be doing with them.