What unconventional units do you explore with?

[walkerjks]

We're talking about anything other than your warriors, scouts, horsemen, etc.

I'm sitting here with Colaeus, a great merchant who will give me 100 faith and a luxury, but I don't need either right now (all cities are at +1 or +2 amenities), so am I foolish to explore with him? What other units do you routinely or situationally explore with?

 

[Halcyan2]

We're talking about anything other than your warriors, scouts, horsemen, etc.

I'm sitting here with Colaeus, a great merchant who will give me 100 faith and a luxury, but I don't need either right now (all cities are at +1 or +2 amenities), so am I foolish to explore with him? What other units do you routinely or situationally explore with?

I explore with Great People ALL THE TIME.

4 Movement is very strong, especially in the early game.

Also, they can't really "die" so that really reduces the risk. The main disadvantage is that as non-combat units, their movement automatically ends when they become adjacent to an enemy or barbarian unit.

The best ones are those with special highlights. Such as Boudicca for Barbarians, Darwin for Natural Wonders, Colaeus/Irene for luxuries.

Another advantage is that Great People can instantly teleport to another city, which makes it easy to move them around.

 

[PsychoticSquid]

I'm boring, I'm afraid. I only ever use units that have stats suitable for scouting.

 

[PsychoticSquid]

I explore with Great People ALL THE TIME.

4 Movement is very strong, especially in the early game.

Another advantage is that Great People can instantly teleport to another city, which makes it easy to move them around.

I'd never thought about this, but those are pretty amazing advantages for a scout. I usually protect my Great People like builders just in case a hostile military unit could capture them by moving over them. Are you telling me there's literally nothing that threatens them?

 

[Browd]

Nothing at all. If they are attacked by barbs or an enemy military unit, they simply teleport to your nearest city, from which they can recommence exploring.

 

[Futumch]

I've used Builders once or twice, simply because they can wade in the shallows before scouts. I'll only use them to just sort of scope out potential future city sites, then pull them back to do work. It's not very efficient.

 

[liv]

When playing islands (vikings) I often build a worker first and explore with it as it can swim long before anything else

 

[teks]

Kongo spawns a pile of free explorers quite early but I'm not sure how unconventional that is

 

[chazzycat]

apostles with the martyr ability. and traders

 

[UWHabs]

I've definitely used builders with 1 charge left to wander the coast at times. And great people as well. I do tend to do a lot of scouting with scouts, mostly because they're free. So you throw them on auto-explore and they do a pretty solid job overall.

 

[kamex]

Missionaries are good for AIs you don't have open borders with!

 

[Halcyan2]

Nothing at all. If they are attacked by barbs or an enemy military unit, they simply teleport to your nearest city, from which they can recommence exploring.

The only thing I'm not sure about is what happens to a Great Admiral, if you no longer have any coastal cities or cities with a Harbor or Naval Wonder. If that Great Admiral then gets captured, what happens to it? Does it just appear in a landlocked city and have to chill out until you get a new coastal city?

 

[Halcyan2]

apostles with the martyr ability. and traders

Bear in mind that Martyr only triggers if the Apostle dies in theological combat. It doesn't work if they simply get squished by a hostile military unit.

I've definitely used builders with 1 charge left to wander the coast at times. And great people as well. I do tend to do a lot of scouting with scouts, mostly because they're free. So you throw them on auto-explore and they do a pretty solid job overall.

I also use 1 charge builders as fog busters. Just put them to sleep on the borders of my cities, or along a trade route.

 

[RealAntithesis]

Nothing at all. If they are attacked by barbs or an enemy military unit, they simply teleport to your nearest city, from which they can recommence exploring.

Sounds like Great People are greater at exploring than they are doing whatever minor special ability they may happen to have. It probably shouldn't be like this...

 

[CD7]

I never build scouts. Production is too valuable in the early turns, they have very limited movement advantage (none if there are lots of hills, or forest) and are useless against barbarians. Plus they don't upgrade.
Slingers are a good early option. If they come across a barbarian they can hide in the woods and throw rocks.

Inquisitors are good later on. They are the cheapest religious units, can travel through boarders, and beat on missionaries. Plus the AI doesn't get upset about you having troops on their boarders.

I don't bother building many naval units, only the min required to get the Eurekas, but then will use whatever random units I have to go swimming around the globe.

And yeah, often I get stuck with great people who are just useless, so I send them wandering.

 

[Dale]

Early exploration warriors for barb busting, then missionaries after i get a religion.

 

[Zuizgond]

I don't know why great persons can't die. Too hardcore for casuals?

 

[UWHabs]

I don't know why great persons can't die. Too hardcore for casuals?

I'm guessing that it's for the great prophets - they have a limited number of them, so having one "die" would totally screw the game by having less religions than possible in it. So I imagine that they just figured it was easier to never kill any great people than to have them able to be captured or killed.

 

[Siptah]

GPs are not capturable or killable, because it would be a major exploit for human players to use. You always know when and where a GP will spawn. It would be too easy to steal or kill them. I think their movement should be reduced, especially with the free teleport available.

 

[Ferocitus]

I only play on ludicrous-size (230x115 hexes) GEM at marathon pace.
There are many goody huts in the frozen lands in North America that can be
found very easily by a builder early in the game when playing as England,
China or Japan. (Possibly other civs as well.)
China and Japan can also find many huts early around Australia and the Pacific islands.