Which is the most useless unit?

[DynamicSpirit]

My vote is for Ironclads. Okay, they're tough, but they can't leave the coast. Furthermore, by the time I can build Ironclads, I'm almost to Destroyers.... Every other unit in Civ4 has its uses (Explorers make good field medics, for example), but Ironclads are a total waste of hammers.

There's a couple of other factors that limit ironclad's usefulness, which I'm surprised noone's mentioned yet.
1. Unless you're behind researching steam power, you get ironclads at the same time you get to build drydocks.
2. If you're doing city specialization then probably most of your coastal cities are commerce centres or (if they have fish/etc.) GP centres. You may have only 2 or 3 coastal cities with enough production to make it worth even trying to build military units in them. This means you *really* need those drydocks if you're going to fight a sea-based war. There's a similar argument for the ironworks which also requires the same tech, though depending on your situation you might or might not want the ironworks in a coastal city.

Now combine those issues with the short tech interval to destroyers, and which would you choose when you discover steel? To start building drydocks immediately, knowing that by the time they are complete you'll be almost ready to start turning out destroyers, or to build ironclads now, knowing you're just delaying the time when you'll be able to really start building a strong fleet? I suspect most people will go for the drydocks, unless they are already at war and need naval defences super-urgently.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

You can go around whatever island you're on, yes.

But at the speed ironclads go at, combined with they have to hug the coast so can't take any direct shortcuts, they're probably out of date by the time they're halfway round the island

 

[Thalassicus]

Ironclads, by far.

I use Explorers on a regular basis as medics, considering that they're dirt cheap, have two movement points (and ignore terrain costs), don't count as military units for unit upkeep, and never get attacked until the stack is dead.

 

[uncarved block]

My vote goes for submarines, for the simple reason that there's no variety in the naval units in CIV. By the time you get to Radio, the chances are really, really good that the opposition has built a destroyer or three, meaning you have to hide subs under the polar ice to protect them, since they're also outgunned by all the modern naval units. Now, if ironclads were oceangoing, and there was a cruiser unit, then subs would go up in value a lot-- but they're not (yet), and so they aren't.
One possible use for ironclads, now that I think about it, is as cheap(er) ways to protect oil platforms in shallow water (on a recent Terra map, four of the five oil sites in my territory were on water) while the destroyers and battleships shell the AI cities. Plunk two ironclads on a platform, and there's a better than 50% chance one destroyer won't be able to take it down. The slow movement isn't a factor any more, at least.
A little kick in the butt has to go out to chariots. Just fast enough to get there, but not powerful enough to do much when they do. That extra point of strength goes away quick if the enemy is on a defensive square, and by the time they move out into the open, chances are you could have gotten an axeman- an archer at least!- there anyway. A good pillaging unit, maybe, but even that depends on your style of war; if you're planning on taking that city anyway, pillaging extensively is rarely a great notion.

 

[Thalassicus]

Chariots are great on early defense. They're dirt cheap and have 2 movement points, making them ideal settler escorts. They can also handle barbarians from animals to archers with ease, and can respond quickly to threats with their 4 move points along roads. Once you're ready to go to war, or barbarians start coming in with axes, you can upgrade your four or five Chariots directly to Horse Archers, and already have significant experience.

 

[Maestro_Innit]

....or barbarians start coming in with axes, you can upgrade your four or five Chariots directly to Horse Archers, and already have significant experience.

If you have enough money to upgrade 4-5 chariots to horse archers when Barb axes come at you then you haven't built enough cities yet

 

[rewster1]

If you have enough money to upgrade 4-5 chariots to horse archers when Barb axes come at you then you haven't built enough cities yet

Maybe he's playing a OCC... I tend to have oodles of cash on hand when I play one.

 

[rewster1]

Well, the explorer seems to be the favorite for most useless unit, but if anyone is interested, I found a use for them (in the early game, even!) Look here for more info: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157706
Basically I use them to escort keshiks (horse archers would work too, though slightly less well) on pillaging rampages.

 

[Mathemagician13]

As to the march promotion....you haven't known pain until a stack of Cossacks with march relentlessly plunders your nation

 

[GenocideBringer]

What? Crossbow useless? BS!

Crossbows are the first actual counter to axemen/macemen. No units at the time, but axemen/macemen, get bonuses vs melee. So basically, every fight involving a maceman/axeman is 50/50 unless you have crossbows.

 

[ShaLouZa]

Submarines are the only way to send a spy on another continent where you don't have an open borders agreement. Along with caravels, sure, but I'd like them there before they die from old age.

Ironclads are totally useless. By the time you build one, you're able to build destroyers, so what's the point ?

 

[rewster1]

What? Crossbow useless? BS!

Crossbows are the first actual counter to axemen/macemen. No units at the time, but axemen/macemen, get bonuses vs melee. So basically, every fight involving a maceman/axeman is 50/50 unless you have crossbows.

Axemen can be countered with horse archers, or certainly elephants, at better than 50/50 odds. Macemen I'd grant you, except that macemen and crossbows generally come online at the same time. And Samurai get a first strike on "normal macemen", so that's a counter if playing a specific civ. Nonetheless, you are correct, crossbows are not useless.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

What? Crossbow useless? BS!

Crossbows are the first actual counter to axemen/macemen. No units at the time, but axemen/macemen, get bonuses vs melee. So basically, every fight involving a maceman/axeman is 50/50 unless you have crossbows.

I don't know if my experience is typical, but I suspect the reason I have little use for crossbowmen is to do partly where they come on the tech curve and how I'm playing at that point. Generally by the time I get them, I already have catapults, and most of my encounters with enemy troops are either
(1) I'm besieging and attacking a city. For that the edge crossbows have for attacking melee units is irrelevent because my catapults have already damaged all the enemy units considerably before any other units become involved.
(2) It's isolated enemy raiding parties coming out. More often than not those are mounted units, presumably coz they move faster. And I need mounted units to deal with them so I can get to them in time too. Again crossbowmen are of limited relevence.

Plus machinery is rarely a priority tech for me, so by the time I can build crossbows, I'm very close to building much better units. The ironclad problem over again. Unless I'm already at war and need more units urgently, I'm going to wait. And if i am at war my priority is invariably more catapults.

Plus I very rarely see the AI using crossbowmen much - and never to any degree of effectiveness. Perhaps that has an effect on my thinking too.

 

[ShaLouZa]

Plus I very rarely see the AI using crossbowmen much - and never to any degree of effectiveness. Perhaps that has an effect on my thinking too.

Same goes for the musketmen. I didn't mention them because they actually can come handy to defend a city if you're attacked in the twenty turns before you can build riflemen or grenadiers (sp ?).

[ranting]Damn I hate the French UU. They could have put something better, like earlier axe-bearers, the usual knight of doom or even set musketeers as replacement for riflemen (wouldn't have been more innacurate historically : 200 years wrong in each case). In AoE3 which is a game of musketeers the Frenchs got the knight as UU, and in Civ IV they also got a useless unit.[/ranting]

 

[Vonreuter]

This poll is broken: two options for Explorer.

I chose Ironclad. So far I've only built one, and even that I built to see what they look like. They're far too slow to guard your coast, and they can't travel in oceans.

Not that you would want to go into the ocean with such a barge! You will most probably have invented Destroyers by the time they'd get anywhere!

 

[ShaLouZa]

And the destroyer would still arrive first on the other side.

 

[shahreevar]

ironclad, they were useless before, and they are now. the second vote is explorer, but as somebodu else mentioned, i think ill use it as a medic. that sounds like a cool idea.

 

[voek]

ironclads, for sure

 

[ArtiC]

for me it would be musketeer i guess, it just so, so "not speccial", longbowmen make a lot better city defenders and they are not quite good at warmongering :F and they re quite expensive and just + 1 tech to grenadiers :F... well i never build them anyways...

Ironclads.. well actually they are not so good-for-nothing at all, remember there is archipelago maps too (well ofcourse units usefullnes shouldnt be determinated by just one speccial map type), and actually there is quite some time between them and destroyers, esspecialy if you are beelinig for communism or smth... and you need a oil or uranium for them :F (jeah well, coal for ironclads ;])

explorers - havent used them as medics yet, but it sounds fun, wery fun in theory ;]

chariots actually are great, this one time, i had no iron or bronze, just horses and my neighbor was culture-pressing like crazy on me, trapped me he got, i managed to take most of his cities just with chariots and archers... how ? with flanking promotion! withdrawal chance ROCKS ! no need to bomb or anything just cripple those defenders baad. and ofcourse 2p movement, awesom for pillaging and they come wery early... tho if enemy has spearmen already... well just dont let him get to bronze ;]

 

[Koelle]

explorers, i only built them once by mistake