what is the least impotant unit?

[Ace]

"C'mon! Chariots and Elephants have exactly the same stats, and both are equally effective against barbs/AI or ineffective, depending on what's going on. So what's the difference?"

Actually, a chariot is a 3-1-2 and an elephant is a 4-1-2 but they both have 1 hitpoint and 1 firepower. Except for the neat trumpet sound, the elephant is just a slightly stronger, by 1, attacker than a chariot.

 

[Rout]

marines and warriors, too slow

 

[kefra(tm)]

I know I'm going to take a lot of flak for saying this, but I'm just going to put it on the table. Riflemen suck. Sure, if I have a bunch of Warriors and Phalanxes lying around when I get Leo's Workshop, it's nice to get them, but I never get around to building more than a handful of them. Their attack strength (5) is decent, but only if you catch a unit outside of a city. Going toe-to-toe with a well-placed Cavalry or Dragoons, though, they're apt to be annihilated. Their defense strength is low (4) and a veteran Dragoons or Cannon can easily nail them, even when fortified. And they cost 40 shields. Alpine Troops make for a better defensive and/or scouting unit for just another ten shields. So, in conclusion, use Alpine Troops for defense and exploration, and to protect the cannons, and use Cannons and Cavalry/Dragoons for attack.

 

[duke o' york]

I never build riflemen - they just appear in my cities as part of the Leo's chain. I'd rather build Mech Infantry than alpine troops for defense purposes, especially if I have a barracks in the city. I generally only use alpines to pop huts from boats as I'll have explored most of the map by then, whether with units, buying maps or with Apollo.

 

[Old n Slow]

By the time Riflemen become available, Alpines are only a tech or two away -- so I’ll build them in preference. A long time ago I noticed the ai’s preference for Alpines over rifles & I’ve adopted that. What I’ll sometimes do is to switch over the non vet rifles for easy action & clean up to get vets via Sun Tsu; almost as often, I’ll use the traded up rifles for 20 shields of starter material.

But no, once Alpines & Jeeps are available, there’s no reason to build a riflemean.

 

[Priha]

Helicopters. They're fine all-round units but there's nothing they can do better than some other unit.

Capturing cities behind enemy lines: Paratroopers or Partisans can defend the captured city.

Sub hunting: Destroyers or Cruisers can do that job well.

Partisan hunting: I rather use Battleships, Fighters or Armors (greater firepower).

Scouting: Bombers or Cruise Missiles have larger range. Pre-war scouting is easy with Caravan/Freight.

So there's simply no need for Hekos.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

For a Darkshadist who plays Power Democracies, such units as Fanatics, Alpine Troops and Cruise Missiles earn my label as least important to my game style.

 

[Tundera]

Warriors, Cruise Missiles and Helicopters. Cost/benefit [punch]

 

[Ren]

There are many units I don't build, ever (well maybe sometimes just for fun), but I'm going to go with Cruise Missiles as the worst.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by Ren
There are many units I don't build, ever (well maybe sometimes just for fun), but I'm going to go with Cruise Missiles as the worst.

Actually, they're pretty good as scouts at sea. I put them on subs and send them in all directions to see what enemy ships are going to come at me and from where. Uses on land are reduced since a spy on another civ's railroad network will be more effective at scouting.

 

[covok48]

I'd say the Pikeman is the most useless.....why? I'm either a tech or two away from getting gunpowder or I've already researched it. No point building a unit I'm gonna replace in 5 turns...

 

[Morgasshk]

I couldn't rightly say what is the most useless...

Truth to tell, I go Elephant, Crusader, Dragoons, Cavalry, Armor...

Other than that I don't use any units except for sea - which is only transporting units until I get destroyers onwards...

I stick to the adage that the best defense is a good offence and with only using two move units before any one move units get beside my city I attack them and kill them. *shrug*

works for me... Rarely use any airpower at all...

I'm a bit stuck in my ways which I guess is crappy sometimes - only started using spies on my more difficult games recently - before that had a lot of trouble on higher difficulties...

Never use warriors, waste of time, by all rights you should have discovered an advance by the time you would be looking to build defensive units (ie - settler being first unit you build)

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

There was a similar thread on the General forum that died out last summer. (Interesting coincidence that both had a misspelled word in the subject. Oh well...) see Which unit do you think is the most unless? for more on that discussion

On that thread I said the following and I still believe it applies to those saying the warrior is of no use.

Originally posted by TimTheEnchanter
So many people are dissing the warrior because they suck at combat, but I see it as extremely valuable in several ways.

1) martial law. Lets you get the peasant scum back in line early in the game.

2) They can become 10 sheild Riflemen with Leo's

3) and perhaps most important - as the only 10 shield unit, they are EXTREMELY helpful for incremental rushbuying of units early in the game when shield production is low.

 

[sethos]

Warriors and settlers are the MOST important units in the beginning.
The least important ones are explorers and partisans. I never build them.
I often use diplos to explore.

 

[Angry Roman]

Yeah, Helicopters are ****! However, they would have been cool if you could use them as air transport for troops, which would also (I think) be more realistic. Is it possible to do so in the rules.txt?
About the Cruise Msls, are they really so bad? If the enemy cities are impossible to take using armor, and they have a strong fighter force, building 2 cruise missiles is often better than building a bomber, because the bomber is likely to get shot down, and anyway often spends a lot of time to be fully repaired. In my latest game, all I built were msls, and Alpine Troops to move into the cities (and some fighters to take out their leftover msls), and it worked perfectly as a blitzkrieg tactic! =)

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by Angry Roman
Yeah, Helicopters are ****! However, they would have been cool if you could use them as air transport for troops, which would also (I think) be more realistic. Is it possible to do so in the rules.txt?
About the Cruise Msls, are they really so bad? If the enemy cities are impossible to take using armor, and they have a strong fighter force, building 2 cruise missiles is often better than building a bomber, because the bomber is likely to get shot down, and anyway often spends a lot of time to be fully repaired. In my latest game, all I built were msls, and Alpine Troops to move into the cities (and some fighters to take out their leftover msls), and it worked perfectly as a blitzkrieg tactic! =)

No, I don't think you can modify helos to move anything. They suck, end of story. As for cruise missiles, howitzers work just as well, and are reusable.

 

[Shaft]

Warriors are definitely NOT the least important units. Only chieftain-players can say that.

Archer are not that bad either. If you have early contact in an MP-Duel Vet-Archers can be great!

Chariots suck. But they could be great if I changed my tactic. Actually I never research The Wheel.
Well when I think about it, they could be as useful as archers but only when you have early contact.

So the least important unit is the Phalanx. doesn't help against any other unit but a horse. I will have Feudalism until my enemy is near my cities with elephants or Charitos (if anyone would build them)

Explorer also are of less importance, but all these thougts relate on the settings. Trirems are useless when you play on continents, explorers are, on small archipelago maps.

 

[.:KNAS:.]

Allthough the marines, and helicopters and paratroopers dont serve that big of a purpose, they sure are fun to play with though.

 

[funxus]

So the least important unit is the Phalanx. doesn't help against any other unit but a horse.

Fortified, they have a 50/50 chance of survival against archers and chariots, and even more if vet. And with city walls, or defensive terrain, they're pretty hard to win against. They aren't good, but they have some uses.

 

[Shaft]

Fortified, they have a 50/50 chance of survival against archers and chariots, and even more if vet. And with city walls, or defensive terrain, they're pretty hard to win against. They aren't good, but they have some uses

Well actually I'm talking about MP-Games. Players I play, seldomly (actually I never saw it) come along with Archers or Chariots. Sure, one if they found one but not more. Actually everybody starts to fight when he has crusaders and then Phalanx are just useless.

Furthermore City walls are alomst never ever build in MP-Games. And Phalanx are almost never Vets because noone would build barracks that early, except for early contact.