Weakest Unique Unit

[drubell]

Well that Scotland reveal offers a great new contender for worst UU

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

The military tactic melee units do have one substantial advantage over the swordman and that is they can take advantage ot two eras of great generals. Military tatics is also rather easy to belinee and is on the same line as campuses, commerical hubs and industrial zones as well as +1 production on mines.

The problem is the lack of upgrades and you need feudalism to get +50% production.

But why would Japan want ironworking anyway? I rather spend my science on these techs above to unlock the districts and the better mine, grab a couple of general on the way and samurais is going to be pretty strong.

 

[liv]

They upgrade to tanks actually (was wrong about the cavalry).
Try putting them in cities later on.

It's also kinda moot to point out they don't upgrade to knights, because the varu replaces the horseman, which doesn't upgrade to knight anyways. Even if you built generic horsemen, you couldn't do that. So why would anyone expect that to happen? India still can do chariot ---> knights anyways so it's completely apples and oranges.

I have played India. I think although they are strong, I end up with expensive lame units for quite a bit in the game. As for putting them in the city.... not really needed that much... AI does not really get that close to the cities for the most part.
It is true that I can build other units to upgrade to knights or muskets but that seems cumbersome to me. A stronger unit would be something that actually upgrades rather than require me to build even more units. But it is not weak. As for the why should varu be knight? Well why do varu become a tank? Horseman does not

I also wanted to put in a pluss for the hoplite - while not a great unit... it does have good adjacency bonuses and if you can get it to get the support unit promotion it can be come a decent unit. Drawbacks are that there is no production card and also the upgrade was problematic. Now they are adding in the pikeshot so that will be interesting to see if that makes the hoplite somewht better

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Hoplite is pretty decent for its time and even if it is not terrible exciting you also have to factor in the rest of the greek civilizations bonuses as the unique unit is only one part of the package.

But a 35 strength resourceless ancient era unit that can hold its ground against medieval knights mean greece can focus on other research than military techs for a while and at 65 production it is not that expensive.

 

[Wingednosering]

Added Egypt and France. Also enabled to ability to change your vote if anyone wanted to vote for one of these two.

I don't see either in there? The Maryannu got better with Nubia's release, but it's still pretty lackluster.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Varu is a strong unit. 45 Strength classical unit(40, enemy -5 is similar to self+5), without resource requirement, very strong.

Keep in mind that it stacks this nonsense going into future eras. Varu itself might be weak by medieval but if you wander it next to a knight/rifle/whatever it's STILL slapping them with that -5, no matter what you're using to attack them otherwise. This isn't the best UU in the game but it has no place being even considered for the bottom.

Rough rider gets the "win". It's late, nothing upgrades to it, and has a small window before being functionally obsoleted. America could straight up not have a UU and it would make almost no difference whatsoever. Even stuff like the hoplite might see actual use.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I don't see either in there? The Maryannu got better with Nubia's release, but it's still pretty lackluster.

Is it not basically a cheaper and more mobile crossbowman, don't see why it is that bad other than not being able to upgrade to knights and lack of great general bonuses.

 

[Softly]

Sorry fixed the poll for real this time.

 

[steveg700]

Hoplite is pretty decent for its time and even if it is not terrible exciting you also have to factor in the rest of the greek civilizations bonuses as the unique unit is only one part of the package.

Well, no you don't have to factor in the rest of the package. You can actually contend that having a unique unit that gets nothing other than a bonus for standing next to itself is weak.

However, I would spare it only because there are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many finer choices for crappiest UU.

Trumping the hoplites is any unit outside an upgrade chain. This is one of the unlearned lessons from Civ V. Maybe an exception would something like the samurai, where you thematically throw them away in suicide attacks attacks later-era units for some kind of compensation.

Next would be any unit so expensive you ain't gonna built it. The Khmer's Domrey really deserves to be called out. Cranking one out feels like a task on the order of completing a wonder.

So, the hoplites by virtue of being able to upgrade them to pikemen and effectively forget that they were ever unique.

 

[Jewelrunna]

The Mustang's the clear choice for me. Air combat in this game isn't as viable as it was in Civ V, as you have to build a whole new district to allow you to use it. Even with air combat being weaker, the Fighter isn't the strongest air unit, and the Mustang isn't even that much stronger as a Fighter. There are some other duds, for sure, but the Mustang's the clear worst in my opinion.

 

[NukeAJS]

Really? The hoplite is high on this list? I understand that it has got some problems such as no +50% card and requiring multiple units to get a benefit, but if you can get 4-5 of them and get them to level 1 EXP (not terribly hard, especially with plenty of barbs at this point in the game), they are stronger than swordsmen, cheaper than swordsmen, and more effective against cavalry.

The Mustang is by far the worst UU. Simply comes too late and even if it is used, probably won't make a difference anyways.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Aw I have kind of a soft spot for the Hoplite, actually. Not only is the Hoplite a visual treat, its innate ability references both to the Phalanx formation and the Erastes/Eromenos system exercised by the Theban military. Obscure references to homosexuality <3

I never bother with the Egyptian Chariots. I suppose they're my least favourite unit. (them or the American bomber)

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Well, no you don't have to factor in the rest of the package. You can actually contend that having a unique unit that gets nothing other than a bonus for standing next to itself is weak.

What do a unique unit need to be considered good? Hoplite is close to being a +10 strength spearman which is pretty nice. It is also a unit you get very early and it do provide some nice safety during the early game and that is all it really needs to do.