Which would be your choice to replace the F-15 as the American UU?

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

What about an improved ironclad? Build one that is really hard to sink. Was it not Americans that build the first ironclads?

Is that irony?
Sorry, but while the ships you're referring to - USS Monitor and Confederate Merimack (sp?) - can claim to be the among the first Armored Steam vessels to be built, the 'hard to sink' part is funny: The Monitor was also the first Ironclad to sink; not by enemy fire, but a small storm...

(No offense!)

Seriously, those 2 ships may be famous, but they are really no milestone in warship development. About every advanced nation would have been able to muster comparable ships easily, if they had seen any need for them. The HMS Warrior,now that's a different issue...

One more thing: Some of the units suggested in this thread are widely unknown in the rest of the world, and resemble more a national myth than an actually 'strong' military unit.
Best example is 'Minuteman': I know the rocket, I even know the 80ties Punkrock band, but so far nobody ever could enlighten me what's so special about farmers picking up a weapon and raly to defend their lands - about every nation in the world had something comparable at some point of their history.

Tomahawks (the cruise missile, not the mediocre WW2 fighter), Super Carriers and several bombers (B-17, B-29, B-52, B-2) or SR71 are widely known, but face it, for gameplay purpose they aren't better than the F-15.
The Abrams is clearly not superior to some other modern armors.
A useful unit would be the Sherman (same stats as Tanks, but half-priced), but that would be quite an odd UU.

So, best choice for me is a strong Marine or Paratrooper replacement; and surprisingly, the only altered UU in RaR is...the Airborne Ranger

 

[lukasbradley]

I apologize if this is repetitive, but I think the emergence of the special unit should always coincide with the historical (arguably) Golden Age of the civilization to whom it belongs. Having said that, I would argue America's true Golden Age started within World War II, and the use of Marines. Everything else that has been mentioned is either too early or too late, in my opinion.

Maybe it should be the Lend/Lease Act instead. (0/0/0 -4 gold this turn, +20 next turn) HA!

On that note, this reminds me of a similar discussion I had with friends years ago about the Spanish special unit in Age of Empires II. We thought it should be Smallpox... with double effect against the Mayan and Inca.

 

[norwegianviking]

SEAL should be the UU, I mean sheesh, nothing else works, but just make it 10/6/1 110shields, not 12/6/1 110 shields, I mean you can't have a +4 attack for only ten more shields

 

[Teabeard]

Liberty Ship. It is a destroyer which is really cheap and can carry troops.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Historically, the Liberty ships were about as far from being 'Destroyers' as possible - mass produced, mediocre but very cheap transport.
Not that bad idea, btw: 1/3 priced Transports...now, only the problem with the GA shows up.

One small note: In RaR, the Airborne Rangers are amphibious as well.

 

[Teabeard]

Ok, well in that case my vote goes to minutemen which replace musketmen.

 

[viper275]

Either Minuteman, GI, Seal, or Airborne Ranger. I'd want a Minuteman to be a Rifleman that treats all terrain as road and 1 additional attack. GI would replace Infantry and would have more attack, Seal probably the stats shown. Airborne Ranger would replace Modern Paratrooper and be better for attack. All should cost more.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Minuteman to be a Rifleman that treats all terrain as road and 1 additional attack.

Why? (Not 'Why you want that?', but 'Why would anything justify that?' - the +1 Attack, not the ATAR)

 

[Tweedledum]

If you're going to have the Minuteman as the American UU (and I think its a reasonable idea...) it should replace the Musketman rather than the Rifleman. As for stats, I'm not sure: personally I would keep the same A/D as the standard Musketman, make it cheaper, give it M=2 and (maybe) all terrain as grassland (ie ignores all movement penalties) rather than ATAR.

But I'm sure someone is going to think I'm talking ****

 

[dexters]

Just a point of clarification.

UU IMHO aren't meant to be the best of their class. But a Civ difining unit.

Each Civ, especially those who have a long history or an interesting military history will have several candidates for a UU.

The Americans, while lacking in length of history, do have a very interesting and varied military history.

 

[zerksees]

Is that irony?
Sorry, but while the ships you're referring to - USS Monitor and Confederate Merimack (sp?) - can claim to be the among the first Armored Steam vessels to be built, the 'hard to sink' part is funny: The Monitor was also the first Ironclad to sink; not by enemy fire, but a small storm...

(No offense!)

None taken. Maybe they could be limited to sea squares or risk being lost at sea!

Now that you mention it I remember about the ship sinking away from any conflict - I kind of forgot that part. What struck me when I posted was how both ships did not have the firepower to penetrate the other at the dawn of that age.

 

[Teabeard]

Riflemen cannot be the unit the minuteman replaces because Riflemen are from the civil war era and Musketmen are from the Revolutionary War (same time as Minutemen). I think addition to treating all terrain as roads, the Minuteman unit should cost less shields, because think about it - we are talking about a volunteer force.

 

[Longasc]

It would be good to tie the ability to cross certain sea terrains to unit type and not to Civ tech advances. Galleys should be limited to coastal terrain only or perhaps sea, too, but not oceans.

As soon as you get Astronomy, any ship can cross the Ocean.

Rise and Rule addresses this problem, this should be solved in a similar way in Civ4.

 

[James I]

People mention Bradleys.... but what about the m-113? the most widely used troop transport in the western world.... and the animations allready exist in the UL

Also, you could use Delta Force.........Blackhawks....... patriot missile batteries.....

surely Apache attack choppers define peoples impressions of that genre........

i don't like to improve the yanks........but maybe the Brits will get an upgrade too.....

 

[Longasc]

The problem is, even if Seals would rock, late game UU's are - IMO - not as valuable as early ones.

I would prefer the Seal Unit, too.

Until they come up with a useful concept for paratroopers - paratroopers are inherently cool.

 

[thestonesfan]

NOT a minuteman! They weren't nearly as good as a normal soldier!

I would give the US a late industrial UU. Late in the game, yes, but you could counter that by giving them good traits, like Industrious and Commercial. Maybe a GI, or a better Marine. It would be hard to come with a name for the marine though. I guess you could call it a SEAL. It doesn't have to be totally accurate.

In on of my mods, I used the GI as a 10-12-1 replacement for Infantry. (I boosted infantry to 8-10-1.) It's pretty good.

 

[Nobody]

The minute man is that specail. i would say the Titan or a Poleris Tactical nuke. And what would you increase to make a ICBM elite they have unlimited range. and icreasing power is dumb cause the minuteman isnt particlury powerfull (compared to russian missles)

 

[Schmek]

Originally Posted by Doc Tsiolkovski

Seriously, those 2 ships may be famous, but they are really no milestone in warship development. About every advanced nation would have been able to muster comparable ships easily, if they had seen any need for them. The HMS Warrior,now that's a different issue...

That is not entirely true. One of those ships had a rotating turret. This is probably one of the biggest changes in naval warfare. They could now shoot at any given time if the enemy was in reach.I believe it was the Monitor, but I'm not sure.

I voted for the super carrier. Because it seems to me that these ships had and still have a tremendous sphere of influence and power (stacked with the right planes in Civ III).