Your thoughts on the Janissary?

[CivIVMonger]

Oreo warriors are very strong in my book.

 

[UWHabs]

I like Jans. Draft Jans are very strong. If you get them early enough, they can have ~50% odds right out of the box against non-protective, non-hilled cities once you've either torn down the cultural D or wasted a catapult or Trebuchet against them. And as much as people say, "Oh, I can just go for another 3 techs and get rifling", remember, rifles cost more, and with Janissaries, you can ignore rifling. Go over, get cannons.

Janissaries are even strength vs. cuirassiers, so as long as you're not going up against cavalry, they're still strong. And after using them a bunch, you can get some wickedly promoted ones. Last Ottoman game I had most of my veteran guys up to about 4 or 5 promotions. Combat 4 Jans are pretty strong - With cannon support, they can survive strong until you need infantry.

For me, I'd say they rank definitely top 5. Any UU that can nearly single-handedly wipe out a rival is very strong. They may not be quite as strong as the Praetorian or Quechua, but I'd definitely rank them top 5.

 

[macmert]

Correct me if Im wrong but I always thought that jannissary power was 12 not 9... Do I know it wrong or is it tweaked with 3.19?

Anyways I love jannissaries... But I have to agree that the opportunity window is small for them since you can ruch rifling right after gunpowder so I think it is best used in slower game speeds...

 

[Sam_Yeager]

It's a bit out of date but you might find this thread interesting. You may well disagree with some of the views expressed but it does give another perspective on various UUs.

 

[J-man]

A powerful strategy with the Ottomans is drafting the Janissary. If you Suleiman (philo) and beeline liberalism, pick nationalism a free tech. Tech gunpowder (and perhaps build the TM) and switch to the draft civic (forgot the name).

 

[macmert]

A powerful strategy with the Ottomans is drafting the Janissary. If you Suleiman (philo) and beeline liberalism, pick nationalism a free tech. Tech gunpowder (and perhaps build the TM) and switch to the draft civic (forgot the name).

nationhood

I was advised by TMIT to try out drafting strategy, which I never used or even tried... Poor me...

 

[nbcman]

@ DigitalBoy

Drill IV helps somewhat against mounted +10%-but it is not as good as formation.

 

[cracked]

They are a good unit, but I far prefer Oromos. They are equally good for a musket-based offense and keep promotions that stick, allowing a renwewed push with highly-promoted Riflemen or even Infantry.

The latter might not be immediately obvious, here is how it works: Start with Oromos teching towards Steel, go to town once you have Cannons. More than good enough until your opponent has their own post-Musket units, at which point the party is mostly over anyway.
For this reason, you can postpone Rifling until after Assembly Line, at which point you can mass-upgrade your Oromos to Infantry for another overwhelming advantage.

In definite agreement here. Thier autmatic promotions allow you to build units with both pinch and formation, while the first strikes deal with enything else, and they are also less susceptable to collatoral damage from artillery. That's most other strong units taken care of straight.

 

[cracked]

Is there not too much love for musketeers? I love 'em personally. They are really great on tight maps because of their movement bonusses. Great pillagers.

 

[walkie]

i love janissaries. if play with ottomans (i am also playing with them again right now), i try to get gunpowder as quick as possible and then just let them shine


one thing i love about ottomans: if you do quick rush early, you kill/disable one or more civs early and when you beeline to gunpowder, you have chance to dominate game easily even before rifling kicks in. the only problem is ocean, which slows you to kill your opponents before rifling/astronomy

 

[§L¥ Gµ¥]

janissaries are amazing for filling out those stacks if you've slingshotted your way to steel with some bad intentions. Pick up gunpowder before engineering, switch your HE city to build nothing but janissaries before the cannon start rolling out and you'll have a massive and effective army in the early renaissance able to steamroll through anything. Upgrade those Janissaries later for highly promoted [albeit not CR] rifles.

 

[binhthuy71]

If you want to promote down the drill line, and you know you want to, you end up with a lot of units promoted in a way that makes them inefficient against knights.

That's why you build Pikes. Out of the box they're STR 12 vs Knights. Combined arms is always better.

 

[DigitalBoy]

That's why you build Pikes. Out of the box they're STR 12 vs Knights. Combined arms is always better.

I'd beg to differ with janissaries; I don't think I'd build pikes at all once I got gunpowder as the Ottomans.

But my comment on the oromos, I was thinking more about attacking with drill oromo warriors, since you can't choose the defender and a defending knight would make the first strikes worthless.

 

[cracked]

I'd beg to differ with janissaries; I don't think I'd build pikes at all once I got gunpowder as the Ottomans.

But my comment on the oromos, I was thinking more about attacking with drill oromo warriors, since you can't choose the defender and a defending knight would make the first strikes worthless.

I think the main thing with oromos are their flexibility. e.g A stack of twelve....

Two have pinch and formation. (stack and city defenders.)
four have combat one and two.
six have drill three and four.

When I get 'em, I build a damn site more than that though. Easy upgrades. their flexibility is what makes them strong!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Knights don't light up defenses anyway, and if you really need to beat them there's always formation. Or just minor collateral.

 

[Flying Pig]

Or pikemen, which were built to beat them, or as you said formation and drill.

 

[braindrain]

I think the main thing with oromos are their flexibility. e.g A stack of twelve....

Two have pinch and formation. (stack and city defenders.)
four have combat one and two.
six have drill three and four.

When I get 'em, I build a damn site more than that though. Easy upgrades. their flexibility is what makes them strong!

While it's true oromos are an awsome unit, whats more flexible than having a bonus against everything under the sun? (ya besides gunpowder, but the point is to have them before rivals have it)

nope, you wont convince me jans aren't the coolest unit ever... it's all in the moustache

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Or pikemen, which were built to beat them, or as you said formation and drill.

Pikes would probably switch the defender to something else, unless the target city is defended ONLY by knights (not likely) or everything else is badly damaged anyway (also not super likely). Formation might actually do that too, but it's less likely.

 

[cracked]

Pikes would probably switch the defender to something else, unless the target city is defended ONLY by knights (not likely) or everything else is badly damaged anyway (also not super likely). Formation might actually do that too, but it's less likely.

As Knights don't receive a defensive bonus, they are more vulnurable when being attcked by a stack than when attacking a stack, as if they survive they will cause collatoral damage to your catapults.

The point of formation oromos or pikes is that they make it lees likely for such attacking units to survive and thus impede your invasion. A balanced force. Why would you attack with a unit whos' intention is to defend the stack?

 

[cracked]

While it's true oromos are an awsome unit, whats more flexible than having a bonus against everything under the sun? (ya besides gunpowder, but the point is to have them before rivals have it)

nope, you wont convince me jans aren't the coolest unit ever... it's all in the moustache

It's just a shame some of those traits are lost when you upgrade the units. Not true of oromos as their traits are promotion based.

Besides, Oromos have cool colour changes as you play with them. Ooooh. Changing colours. Nice.