useless units?

[PibbZ]

This is how i do it by now (still improving). Unit type and upgrades with promotions, revealing their main purpose in my playstyle.

Archer -> Longbowman -> Rifleman -> Infantry -> Mech. Inf
CITY GARRISON I, CITY GARRISON II, CITY GARRISON III, DRILL~ (City Defense Only)

Archer -> Crossbowman -> Grenadier -> Machine Gun
GUERILLA I, GUERILLA II, DRILL~ (Defending nearby resources / borders on hill tiles)

Warrior -> Phalanx -> Pikeman -> Grenadier -> Machine Gun
WOODSMAN I, WOODSMAN II, DRILL~ (Defending nearby resources / borders in forest / jungle tiles)

Scout -> Explorer
COMBAT I, MEDIC I (Explorers are excellent medics because they move 2 pr turn, and always gets attacked last in a stack, thus providing healing to the bitter end)

Knight -> Cavalry -> Gunship
Im not sure how to properly promote these in order to get the best bonuses for my gunships, but i tend to promote them with Combat I - III to get Blitz.
Flanking I & II is not a bad option either.

Submarines are nice with Flanking I & II and maybe some first strike promotions if you get enough experience (flanking will make sure you do over time, since a retreat will give 1xp)

 

[Mathemagician13]

As the last poster mentioned, Explorers make good medic units, since they have movement 2, and can keep up with your calvary/tanks.

And I will make one statement in defense of machine gunners. Are they not seige units? Why is that significant? Well, in my experience you are less likely to encounter units with the charge promotion (as opposed to units with the anti-gunpowder promotion). That means, its harder for your opponent to counter your machine gunners, because he does not often get a bonus against them.

 

[Yushal]

The most useless unit... Im surprised no one mention this one yet but.. that spaniard looking guy... I forget what you call him. Take a crap scout, and upgrade him. You get a mounted guy with a sword, and still he cant even attack! Haha. What a waste of hammers and time. I don't know why he even hold's a sword. He still has ZERO attack value...literaly.

The value of the explorer lies only (?) in Conquest victory game. He exposes the fog of all the city sites you have razed in order to prevent barbarians from destroying your road network, etc.

Definitely, PIKEMEN must be the most useless unit. Has ANYONE EVER built one on purpose?

 

[LordCopenhagen]

Definitely, PIKEMEN must be the most useless unit. Has ANYONE EVER built one on purpose?

Behind in tech at Immortal level (which is always going to happen), getting spammed by knights, spearmen quite not doing the job; macemen getting hammered. Pikemen have, I believe, a 60-70 % chance straight up (same promotions, etc.) of winning at way less cost than a knight. Of course I build them.

 

[LordCopenhagen]

Also, about Musketmen; build them em masse when you want to attack an enemy with Riflemen. Here's why: you can start gearing up a huge army of Musketmen and Catapults and plop them on a border. Now, a few turns before you get rifling, turn down your research to 10% or so an accumulate 5k in gold. Finish up the research, then upgrade your huge stacks (which is ~100-120 per unit I believe) to Riflemen. BAM, insta-pimp army. So even if your opponents are even with you in the tech race, there is no way they can counter 50 instant riflemen with catapult support with 1-2 of their own riflemen per city and 5 longbowmen. You can ride that army all the way while you research Assembly Line and then upgrade again (which is ~80 gold per Rifleman if I'm not mistaken) to Infantry (if you haven't conquered the world by then).