Unique Unit Elimination Thread

[jlim201]

Camel Archer 40- Very similar to the Keshik, the differences cancel each other out. The Arabians are just in a better position overall at this point in the game.
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 40
Impi 39
Janissary 37
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 9
Pathfinder 38
Sea Beggar 24
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23- I like multipurpose units and I don't like early wars.

 

[DeathwatchBob]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 40
Impi 39
Janissary 37
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 9
Pathfinder 39
Sea Beggar 21
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23

Pathfinder going up. So far the only downvote is because you can cook the map settings to nullify their main ability (though not sure why you'd pick shoshone and turn ruins off).

Sea Beggar going down because, unlike Ships of the Line, they lose almost all value on Pangea maps.

 

[Matthew.]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 41
Impi 39
Janissary 37
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 9
Pathfinder 39
Sea Beggar 18
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23

Yep, going with Sea Beggar as well. Beefy unit with a lot of utility, but even so, naval units have a small niche and you will still want a good number of frigates backing them up. They don't carry a game like these other UU's do.

Another up vote for Chu's. If it isn't obvious yet, they are in the top 3 for me.

 

[TreYs]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 41
Impi 39
Janissary 38 Upvoting this vampiric unit.
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 9
Pathfinder 39
Sea Beggar 15 Personally, I don't do much naval combat, and even so, it usually isn't conventional to just keep hacking away at a city with these things. It's more reasonable to wear it down with ranged units, like always.
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Chus' can earn level 4 promotion as little as 12 turns after they are trained compared to the longbows that can take 24 turns.

in practice the amount of variables that occur during the game can throw off the consistency

It's funny that these two phrases are in the same post. In theory Chus level up twice as fast, in theory. If you count the fact that longbows extended range gives them more opportunities to attack without having to move and that they're rarely in harms way meaning less time healing they will be able to attack almost as much. At best CKNs get maybe 50% more attacks and that's at best. Not enough to make up for the reduced str.

In my current game I'm playing the Shoshone and got a CS that gifted CKNs. My upgraded pathfinders are leveling up faster simply because they don't have to deal with terrain. Get your Longbows on hills and you can cover a huge area even in jungles or forests.

I'll say it again. It is flawed logic to believe CKNs get to attack twice as much as longbows.

 

[Matthew.]

Play on Deity and I guarantee the AI will throw more than enough units your way where you don't need to move. Chu's picking at a fortified musket (which the AI can get easily by the time you have Chu's) and you rack up exp very fast. True, it is almost an exploit at this point since the game isn't really designed to whack at muskets for several turns straight, but most of the units left on the list exist because they exploit the system, such as Camel/Keshik hit and run and Longbow attacking out of city range.

And Longbows are subject to their own set of limitations: terrain features get in the way, so there are plenty of situations where you simply cannot use the 3 range.

 

[Jernfrau]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 41
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 6 - This unit trades mobilty for some strength, and I like my cavalry fast
Pathfinder 41 - This unit lost a point along the way so I'm adding it now, a fantastically fun unit
Sea Beggar 15
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23

 

[Sake]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 42 - I start training my ranged units as archer, they can get first upgrade, sometimes even two upgrades from barb hunting. If i'm going for some early war (as China, it wouldn't surprise me) then i sometimes get third promo by the time i hit crossbows. I can barely make sometimes even normal CB to 4th promo, so CKN can easily get to 4th promo that way. Also CKN is more in danger and needs to heal more often that longbow, but taking damage gives xp too, it isn't worth xp you would get by shooting instead of healing, but still something.
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 6 -
Pathfinder 41 -
Sea Beggar 12 - I play very often on pangaea maps, and this unit is limited to attack ships and coastal cities. It's still naval melee unit.
Ship of the Line 33
Siege Tower 23

 

[Walter R]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 39
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 41
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 6 -
Pathfinder 41 -
Sea Beggar 12 -
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 23

Chu's: I play as England and China most often - Chu's are great units but I prefer longbows
SOTL: How can anyone seriously vote these down?

 

[BUDISMYBUDDY]

Do your londbows have +1 sight? If not then you need another unit in front of it if out of your territory to make full use of it. Plus what if there is a forest tile in front of you? No more 3 range i guess.

 

[Walter R]

Do your londbows have +1 sight? If not then you need another unit in front of it if out of your territory to make full use of it. Plus what if there is a forest tile in front of you? No more 3 range i guess.

All good points. I did say I prefer longbows, i.e. personally I find them the better of two great units. BTW, surely the forest tile situation applies to all ranged units unless you're on a hill and the forest tile isn't? I'll grant you that the game does throw up the occasional mystifying interpretation of line-of-sight that robs the longbow of it's range, but not often enough to downrate the unit wrt Chu's. IMHO!

 

[greygamer]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 39
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 42 +1 Still seems the best unit to me
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 3 -3 Pikemen are this units weakness so easy to cheaply counter
Pathfinder 41 -
Sea Beggar 12 -
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 23

 

[Arilian]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 39
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43 +1 Either Keshik or Camel archer would be already at +60, but nobody seems to be able to decide which is better
Longbowman 38
Naresuan's Elephant 0 -3, Melee, and too many pikes on the map. - eliminated.
Pathfinder 41 -
Sea Beggar 12 -
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 23

 

[arand86]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 39
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43
Longbowman 38
Pathfinder 41
Sea Beggar 9 We're all just hitting the sea beggar now.
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 24 I think the siege tower is much more influential a unit than the SotL even, as the SotL is more of a overpowered support unit than anything else. With a comp bow or two and a spearman, you could lead a few Siege towers in and take a few capitals without too much trouble.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 40
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43
Longbowman 38
Pathfinder 38
Sea Beggar 12
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 23

Up voted the Chu-ko-nu. It's the better of the 2 archer units, imo. It comes at a great time and promotes really quick. What's not to like.
Down vote for the pathfinder. A lot of people who don't like random luck play without ruins. So what does the pathfinder do, other than eliminate random luck? If you play with ruins, then its removing that random element for you but not for the opponents. So it's a great unit that gives you an advantage, but not in all situations. The remaining military units can defend you regardless of whether you play with ruins or not, so they're more relevant to the game as a whole.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 40
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43
Longbowman 38
Pathfinder 38
Sea Beggar 9
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 24


Fixed

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Play on Deity and I guarantee the AI will throw more than enough units your way where you don't need to move. Chu's picking at a fortified musket (which the AI can get easily by the time you have Chu's) and you rack up exp very fast. True, it is almost an exploit at this point since the game isn't really designed to whack at muskets for several turns straight, but most of the units left on the list exist because they exploit the system, such as Camel/Keshik hit and run and Longbow attacking out of city range.

And Longbows are subject to their own set of limitations: terrain features get in the way, so there are plenty of situations where you simply cannot use the 3 range.

Ah, the old "You don't share my opinion you must not play deity" retort. It seems to be a favorite around here. I do play deity and I've won too.

Actually deity is an even better reason to prefer longbows. On lower difficulties it's no big deal to march your crossbows up 2 tiles from a city and whittle it down, pulling back to heal when damaged. On deity the AI will gold buy walls and castles as soon as a city is threatened and they'll usually have their own crossbow garrison, sometimes a galleass too if it's coastal. That's enough to take out ranged units in one turn. It's better not to risk that especially considering you probably already have a smaller army than them and every loss is going to hurt.

Not having indirect fire is rarely a problem considering that the AI clearcuts everything in their territory. Even more so on deity because the AI improves tiles pretty quickly on that level. If it's a hill that's in the way, stand on the hill.

Even China's stronger generals don't make up for the weakened str. The 30% only puts them on par with a normal crossbow at 18.2 while another civ will have their crossbows fighting at 20.7 with their 15% generals.

IMO CKNs are a solid 4th place. The top three are the ones capable of clearing a continent without taking damage. Keshiks, Longbows and Camel Archers. Of course that's just my opinion. The fact I think they're easily top 4 is what's kept me from downvoting them.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 40
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43
Longbowman 39-See post above
Pathfinder 38
Sea Beggar 6-I think you're awesome sea begger but out of what's left you're the least useful.
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 24

 

[Via]

Down vote for the pathfinder. A lot of people who don't like random luck play without ruins. So what does the pathfinder do, other than eliminate random luck? If you play with ruins, then its removing that random element for you but not for the opponents. So it's a great unit that gives you an advantage, but not in all situations. The remaining military units can defend you regardless of whether you play with ruins or not, so they're more relevant to the game as a whole.

Sure you can play on map without water and then Ship of the Line becomes crap too. Or you can play Arborea/Amazon and Keshiks/Camel Archers becomes a lot worse too. You can always alter default settings to fit some units or vice versa. Blaming Pathfinder for turning off the ruins is like blaming Bismarck for turning off the barbarians.

 

[Via]

Camel Archer 40
Carolean 39
Chu-Ko-Nu 37 - great unit, but competition is getting harder and I think Longbowman is a superior xbow unit, Chu-Ko-Nu needs long wars to maximize it's benefits
Impi 39
Janissary 38
Keshik 43
Longbowman 40 - the ability to take down cities unharmed is a key here, Longbowman is medieval Artillery, ready upon arrival unlike it's competition
Pathfinder 38
Sea Beggar 6
Ship of the Line 34
Siege Tower 24