Most Useless Unique Units - Vote

[Pyrodrew]

Vote for any Unique Units which you feel are useless or strategically inferior compared to the others. Most important is when these units come into play & how long they remain strategically useful (someone mentioned in another thread of the man-o-war becoming obsolete too soon for example). Vote for all 16 Unique Units if you feel they are all balanced. Only vote if you have viewed the correct stats for ALL Unique Units. And I'll make that part easy for you...

Aztec Jaguar Warrior 1-1-2 Cost:10shlds (none)
Zulu Impi Warrior 1-2-2 Cost: 20shlds (BronzeWorking)
Greek Hoplite 1-3-1 Cost:20shlds (BronzeWorking - Greece starts with)
Babylonian Bowman 2-2-1 Cost:20shlds (WarriorCode)
Egyptian WarChariot 2-1-2 Cost:30shlds+horses (TheWheel)
Roman Legionary 3-3-1 Cost:30shlds+iron (IronWorking)
Persian Immortal 4-2-1 Cost:30shlds+iron (IronWorking)
Iroquois MountedWarrior 3-1-2 ZOC Cost:30shlds+horses (Horseback Riding)
Chinese Rider 4-3-3 ZOC Cost:70shlds+horses (Chivalry)
Japanese Samurai 4-4-2 Cost:70shlds+iron (Chivalry)
Indian WarElephant 4-3-2 Cost:70shlds (Chivalry)
French Musketeer 3-4-1 Cost:60shlds+saltpeter (Gunpowder)
English Man-O-War 3-2-4 (3-1-2) Cost:60shlds+iron+saltpeter (Magnetism)
Russian Cossack 6-3-3 ZOC Cost:80shlds+horses+saltpeter (MilitaryTradition)
German Panzer 16-8-3 ZOC Cost:100shlds+oil+rubber (MotorizedTransportation)
American F-15 8-4-1 (4-0(6)-2) Cost:100shlds+oil+aluminum (Rocketry)

The stats in the manual & strategy guide are wrong - changes listed in italics.

[justjake73]

The Egyptian War Chariot - by the time you (usually) lock in a source of Horses, you have HB Riding and Chariots are obsolete!

[Patriqvium]

My votes went to the War Chariot and Bowman. Here are the reasons why:

WC: As someone mentioned elsewhere, this contraption turns quite useless after you discover Horseback Riding. If you have HUGE amounts of barbarian settlements near your cities and you're playing on some high difficulty level, it may become more useful...

BM: That +1 defense is not THAT useful, because the Babylonians start with Bronze Working, making Spearmen your main defensive unit in the early turns. Besides, Swordsmen make better all-round units (or then not if your only source of Iron is miles away, in which case the Bowmen could be more useful)

[August Borms]

English Man-O-War:
Sure, bombarding cities is nice and makes conquest a little easier, but as a unique unit? nah...

American F-15:
I'm usually way ahead of my enemies by modern age so I haven't needed them yet; they seem pretty useless.

[Akron]

Originally posted by Pyrodrew

Indian WarElephant 4-4-2 Cost:80shlds (Chivalry)

Last time I checked, the war elephant was 4-3-2 with a cost of 70 shields.

[Pyrodrew]

Originally posted by Akron
Last time I checked, the war elephant was 4-3-2 with a cost of 70 shields.

Opps. You're right. I'll edit the 1st post accordingly.

[siredgar]

It "bombs".

[KaiserIsak]

Who needs an extra offence point to the musketeer?

[Dev]

Musketeer, Man-O-War and War Chariots are all below par IMO.

Note that some of the unique units only shines under the right circumstances.

For example the The Chinese Rider is about at par with the Japanese Samurai and they are both better on paper than the Indian War Elephant but if you have no iron and/or horses the elephant will surely save your day.

I disagree with whoever said the bowmen is below par, I rank them right up with the hoplite, sure they are not as good defenders but they are much better allround, pre-emptive attacks anyone?

/dev

[mharmless]

I rather like the bowmen myself as well. Hard to argue with a 20 sheild unit requireing no strategic resources which is able to fill both offensive and defensive infantry roles adequately for an entire age.

And as to the Impi, they look kinda lame on paper, but when you consider that they allow you to keep an early game horseman force fully mobile without sacrificeing defense, they look much better. Two impi + four horsemen is a hard nut to crack in the early game. Extremely manuverable, should always be strikeing from a possition of strength. Difficult to kill, because every unit in the above army can withdrawl.

I cast my votes against the War Chariot and the Jaguar Warrior. JW is basicly a chariot that doesn't require horses, but does anybody here actualy build chariots anyway? 2 movment looks good for that early scout period, but good luck actualy winning any battles against annother civ with one attack and defense. Might be suited to raiding workers and pillageing roads, but come on people your time is better spent on units that can take ground.

With the WC, this unit has got to have the shortest shelf life of any unique unit in the game. If you don't have horses in your city radius, you gained no advantage from this unit. Should be able to make regular horsemen quickly, which have the precise same stats and cost.

[chocoballs]

most the civ building and border stretchng occurs well before the F15 bcomes available. playing as the Americans, i grew old and wrinkly. by the time you get the f15, you're mainly using it to keep the peace.
it's almost too much of chore to conduct warfare on huge map with 16 civs in the 20th century

however, i can say which unique units i hate facing...persian immortals and the chinese riders. for some reason, whenvever i don't play the chinese, the dominance of of the horse last forever. those riders attack and defend more efficiently than their contemporaries for a long time.


one thing though, aside from the impi and jaguar warriors, i don't notice the AI taking advantage of their uniques very often.

hmmm, come to think of it, the musketeers are pretty easy to rollover...

[agoodfella]

I have only played CivIII for a couple of days, and although I am generally happy with it (leaps and bounds better than CTPII)

But it seems that each Civ should be able to have more than one unique unit.

Also, for the Americans, the F15 seems like a weak choice. I would have chosen the B-52 bomber (one that would have a massive, massive range - depending upon the size of your map, but I mean look at the bombing campaign in Afghanistan - some of those B-52s went half-way round the world - that's unique military power).

Thoughts?

[ElitePersian]

oops i voted for persian immortal thinking this poll was for BEST unique unit.

[ThaddeusAlexander]

Musketeers are useless - they are the only thing stopping me from playing french (well, maybe that nasty purple colour too )

I think the impi is pretty useless as well ... since zulu can build scouts, the scouting ability of impis aren't all great unless you plan on searching through a dozen or more barbarian villages. The only reason i can see them being useful is for keeping in your cities until barbarians draw near your cities, then bring them out to defend your workers.

Man-o-War is pretty crappy as well. In effect, you'll never use its bonuses.

Contrary to some replies on this thread, i think the War Chariot and Bowmen are quite good. The Bowmen gives you everything that an archer can, as well as everything a spearman can, all in one little package. if you're going for peace, they are amazing - less units to have the same military potential. Under a republic, they do the trick very well (until the middle ages of course), and are the first all around great unit in the game and require no special resources. As for the War Chariots, they are essentiall horseback riders but they cost 20 shields as oppose to 30, so you can build 3 in the time it will take opponents to build 2 horseman, and i think that is a big advantage if you're fighting someone close to home and you want to swarm them fast.

But thats just what i think

Cheers!
~Alex

[ElitePersian]

Right now the f-15 is the most useless since it doesnt even work properly....even when it DOES work properly, i still dont think it will be that great.