Units that you almost never build

[Wolfshanze]

Musketmen, Riflemen, Infantry, Mech Infantry - That is what drafting is for.

Yeah... if you want to wait half the game before getting to this civic, wipe-out your population, make everybody angry, and get half the experience/promotions you would have gotten if you had just built the unit yourself (which in a properly built military city takes about 2-turns to pop one out normally)... then yeah... that's what drafting is for.

Drafting is an emergency/supplemental option... not a regular military strategy (the half-promotion points alone is bad enough, much less the other negatives).

 

[Supr49er]

I've used every unit in one game or another.
Even the niche units can be very valuable in a certain game.

However, Explorers seem the least useful. I don't build them, but may upgrade my Scouts.

 

[Inky]

What are the units that you almost never use or build?

For me I never use:

Airship -Very weak and I don't like it

Anti-Tank -I never tried one!

Explorer -Comes too late

Guided Missile -Worthless

Irondad -Never built one I usually wait for destroyers/battleships

Privateer -Never built one!

Paratrooper -Nop .. useless for me

Trebuchet -I stick to catapults

Trireme -Stupid ship

A lot of units are situational, and game speed also makes a big difference. Airships, privateers, ironclads, and antitanks all suffer from a limited period of usability before they effectively obsolete due to better new units. On Marathon, and even Epic, this limited time is many more game turns, giving a better use for them.

Airships aren't especially powerful combatants but are very useful in other roles. They are the premier early recon unit, able to watch for enemy movement. They are the only air unit able to spot submarines, which gives a reason to keep a few around if the enemy is using subs. Last, but most important, they upgrade to fighters. You can get your airforce jump-started this way, having a large air combat force as soon as you get flight.

Antitanks rock if the enemy has tanks and you don't. They are quite cheap in any case, but Mech Infantry effectively obsoletes them. I don't build them just to build them, but there are games where I must counter enemy tanks and don't have an alternative. They are good for the AI to build for that reason.

Guided missiles are especially useful to take down enemy invasion fleets. They can sink ships, which no other air unit can do. They're also useful (and cheap enough) on subs or missile cruisers to blast key resources in the opening of an intercontinental war, where you can't base air units within range.

Paratroopers are just cool once you know how to use them. In the Tank era, infantry can't keep up, but the paras can. Drop them on your tank positions to offer defense. A para with terrain promos can make it hard for the enemy to hurt your invading stacks, and also, you can hold the good forested hills for your own defense. They also can reinforce a newly taken city, more than the one airlift could do. A large force of them can tie down a lot of enemies, making invasions easier.


Almost never is always situational. I don't need explorers unless I need to explore, but in a new world map environment I do need them. Ironclads are much better defenders against a larger enemy frigate navy than building more frigates, and are also better in a close blockade environment because they'll survive a single frigate attack. If I'm not fighting at sea and can wait for combustion, they're useless, but what if my opponent's attack early?

 

[6K Man]

Antitank guns - I seldom am on the defense, and they seem too slow for taking cities.

Trebuchets - I seldom build many because I'm usually not attacking at that point - I do an early expansion and then wait for Cannons. I would use them more if I was more aggressive at that stage of the game.

Explorers - rarely, and then only if I need a medic. Same with Chariots, usually.

Spearmen - something very niche - I use them for stack defense when the AI has Horse Archers or Chariots, otherwise, not at all.

Crossbows - like Spearmen, I just use them for stack defense and then just sparingly.

There are a few units (Stealth Bombers, Mobile SAM etc) that I seldom build just because the game is usually over before then.

Can't see why people wouldn't use Privateers unless the AI got Frigates early... as has been said, they're free money + experience (GG) + hobble the AI. And heavily promoted Privateers make for deadly Destroyers. Airships are great for Reconnaisance and even minor damage inflicted to AI units can make mopping up a breeze. Guided Missiles can be a lot of fun when you pack Submarines with them... bye-bye, AI navy.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Airship -Very weak and I don't like it

To this I can only say that if you have a very strong economy with a lot of gold reserves, you can build Airships VERY cheap and cheaply upgrade them
to Fighters (120 gold each on marathon I think)

Anti-Tank -I never tried one!

Not too useful as long as your ahead in the tech race. If not, they can be a life (and city) saver.

Explorer -Comes too late

Excellent in Terra games to explore the new world, grab any possible left villages and swiftly run through all terrains to avoid barbarians while discovering more of the New World resources.

Guided Missile -Worthless

Extremely cheap and awesome at damaging units.

Irondad -Never built one I usually wait for destroyers/battleships

Since they come with Steam tech and require no oil, they are great coast defenders for a while (Marathon/Epic) especially if the AI isn't too far behind on tech and has a plethora of Ship of the Lines and Frigates

Privateer -Never built one!

You are SEVERELY missing out here, bro. Building 6 privateers and having them sit off the coast of a lower tech civ collecting money and earning experience is an awesome way of earning 15-20 EXTRA gold per turn.

Paratrooper -Nop .. useless for me

Huh? These guys are amazing for invading. Strength 24 makes for better city defenders, and if an enemy sends a stack to another city less guarded, it's easy to drop them right into the city, or right next to and they can still advance 1 more square. Good also because you let them heal, advance the rest of your attack stack, airlift defense units, and then para-drop them to meet up with your main stack right next to the city. All-in-all awesome units.

Trebuchet -I stick to catapults

Catapults won't survive city raids against Longbows unless they are already weakened to the point of not needing catapults anyway. Wasting hammers on continuously building catapults to replace the suicided ones seems very inefficient. They don't even cost that much more and are much more effective at city raiding and surviving in the Medieval age.

Trireme -Stupid ship

[/QUOTE]

Yes.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Crossbows - like Spearmen, I just use them for stack defense and then just sparingly.

Crossbows are awesome when upgraded on the Drill line. They are awesome stack and city defenders since they earn minimized collateral damage. Also, they upgrade to Grenadiers that serve as stack defenders and city defense which are upgraded to machineguns. A machinegun with Drill I/II/III (perhaps IV at this point) will serve you extremely well until Robotics.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I don't think the triremes are stupid. They get experience points figthing barbarian galleys, and then you can upgrade them to caravels (which often get additional experience points from fighting barbarian galleys, and then you can upgrade them to really classy frigates. I remember one elite destroyer I had which started out as a trireme.

 

[Al Capwn]

I've used every unit in one game or another.
Even the niche units can be very valuable in a certain game.

However, Explorers seem the least useful. I don't build them, but may upgrade my Scouts.

Agreed...the only time I ever use explorers is IF I've had a scout that has been lucky enough not to end up as wolf kibble and gets upgraded.

Airships-Man I hate these things! When in the history of the world were large squadrons of blimps used for the purpose of warfare?! The only airship I can ever think of is the Hindenburg and not only was that not used in a military capacity I can only imagine the consequences if it had (..."As the mighty zeppelin makes her maiden mission to drop...um..I guess bricks and hurl...insults?...at their enemies, a solitary farmer in enemy territory spots the ENORMOUS, slow-moving target and takes a pot-shot at it with his antique rifle which pierces the blimp, igniting the volatile hydrogen inside and causing a massive explosion that utterly destroys the airship and kills it's entire crew.)

 

[Wolfshanze]

The guys who keep saying Explorers are useless obviously never play "New World" Maps where you get whole new continents to discover after caravels come about. They'd never say explorers are useless if they played where new uncivilized continents become available in the middle ages.

 

[Bad Brett]

The only reason I wouldn't build Airships is that they are ridiculously powerful. I doubt that anyone who hates them ever has fought an industrial era war on Demigod or above.

Trebs are awesome. A spy, a few trebs and 10-15 macemen should be enough to conquer even most well-guarded city.

Paratroopers are great when you're facing a really weak opponent, especially when they live on smaller islands. You can also drop a stack of them on an important resource that would be hard to reach otherwise.

 

[ICNP]

Airship- I love airships in 3.14 but haven't tried them in .17 . I love the fact that once they come they redefine combat with every city having 4 of them bombing every stack that comes through to half strength

Explorer- If only it was strong enough to handle barb axemen... sigh

Privateer- Love 'em

Ironclad, Ships of Line- Just never built em

Grenadier- I don't let my opponent get rifling before I get infantry.

Stealth Bomber- Gets shot down to much.

Guided Missile- Please at least do some collat!

Scout- Warriors are just cooler and more useful

War Elephant- When's the last time you got ivory and the opponent was using lots of Horsearchers and knights?

 

[Deep_Blue]

Not too useful as long as your ahead in the tech race. If not, they can be a life (and city) saver.

I never get behind in Military techs because I always beeline them except at immortal and Deity difficulties where I can get behind in techs easily, then yes Anti-Tanks could be life savior in high difficulty levels when you are behind in tech.

Excellent in Terra games to explore the new world, grab any possible left villages and swiftly run through all terrains to avoid barbarians while discovering more of the New World resources.

What are Terra games and New World games that everybody talks about anyway?

 

[Deep_Blue]

I don't think the triremes are stupid. They get experience points figthing barbarian galleys, and then you can upgrade them to caravels (which often get additional experience points from fighting barbarian galleys, and then you can upgrade them to really classy frigates. I remember one elite destroyer I had which started out as a trireme.

The only urgent use for triremes is to counter Barbarians galleys or enemy galleys. Being attacked by enemy galleys in ancient time is extremely rare so countering Barbarians galleys is left. Now I will only need to counter barbarians galleys to protect workboats working on seafood resources (I'm not sure that barbarians even has the ability to pillage workboats because it never happened to me!). So if I don't have workboats I will never waste my time building triremes to counter barbarians' galleys!

The only real use I could find for triremes other than countering barbarians is when I build ancient navy and move my forces oversea, this is also rare.. who will waste many turns and hammers to build a navy in ancient time while he can take over his closest opponent in much easier and shorter war.

 

[Wolfshanze]

What are Terra games and New World games that everybody talks about anyway?

I don't know if they exist with the default map generators, but they certainly exist with the custom map-scripts (custom random map generators)... Terra and New World games/random maps allow you to setup a "New World" that is essentially a "virgin continent"... ie: a large land-mass, separated by ocean (not coasts) that is not settled by any of the default civs. What this does is prevent any settling/cities/town discoveries or land-claiming by any civs at least until the advent of Caravels, and most-likely till Astronomy.

This means that you can have a very large land-mass/continent completely unspoiled and undeveloped (and probably over-run by barbarians) that you can't do anything about at least until you get your first caravels and can travel on the ocean squares to reach this continent (and if you're first to caravels, you can be first to discover this "new world"). Lots of goody huts will exist on this continent too...

On a continent with no roads, no civilizations to share maps with and completely unknown, guess what unit works best to figure out this continent? THE EXPLORERS!

That's why people keep saying Explorers have uses if you're using the right map(s).

If you want a map script that sets this up, I recomend SevenSpirits New World Map script... just stick it in your private or public maps folder.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

What are Terra games and New World games that everybody talks about anyway?

When you start a game, one of the map options is "Terra", where all civs start on one continent but there is a "new world" (like America or Australia) somewhere out there. It is exclusively populated by barbarians who have sometimes built formidable cities by the time someone comes there.

 

[SheaD]

I wish people would stop using so many abbreviations, I don't know what people are talking about half the time...
Airship -Very weak and I don't like it

Anti-Tank -I have seen enemy tanks and they come in very useful against them, good to have some kicking around.

Explorer -Too late for what? I don't know what you're doing but on a lot of maps, there is still a good deal of unexplored territory, especially the terra maps.

Guided Missile -They are cheap but are good for destroying improvements although I prefer bombers to do that job. However if the enemy has a good number of fighters then missiles are the way to go.

Irondad -Well if you are having a naval war and then suddenly see some AI ironclads, being lazy with upgrading your navy is not an option!

Privateer - I don't like the idea of this unit at all, does it really relate to history? Not really. They don't cause any international tensions but they should.

Paratrooper -I prefer marines.

Trebuchet -Enemy trebuchets are the most annoying unit in the game and they are essential for a decent bombardment.


I rarely use chariots as they seem unusually easy to defeat. I also don't build many pikeman for some reason.
But the least usefull unit has to be the cuirassier as it is useful for very few turns as I usually go straight for rifling. That's why the Spanish special unit sucks.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Chariots are great barb killers and fog busters for early game.

Also, I understand it can be frustrating with the acronyms. But it's forum-speak. You'll find it in basically ALL topical forums on the web. There is a page specifically set for defining the acronyms used regularly here, tho i'm not sure where it is. If someone can link it, that would be great

 

[Wolfshanze]

I still don't know what an "Irondad" is...

 

[Genv [FP]]

Ironman's Dad?

 

[LegionSteve]

The acronyms page is here (thanks to Jason77024 for that link).

I think nearly all the units could be useful in some situations. I have not built an explorer for a long time, but only because I play shuffle or hemispheres maps. If I played a map with an old world start, I would want to build them. I rarely build swordsmen (basic swordsmen - different story if I have a CIV with a swordsman UU) but I can see why you would if you knew your neighbours had no metal. But I normally just build axes instead. It also makes a big difference what path I take up the tech tree. In my current game which is nearly in modern times, I never built a rifleman. I went straight from musketeers (random leader gave me Napoleon) to Infantry. May sound weird but it worked in that situation.