Mistakes I made (will be edited) and general responses to sentiments expressed in the comments. Mistakes: - Maryannu Chariot Archers were made cheaper in Gathering Storm. They should be up to B Tier. Things I forgot: - Roman Legions and Toa can repair a city quickly after they conquer it with their build charge. "Don't listen to this guy he knows nothing he doesn't play multiplayer" Yup, if you want to play multiplayer ignore everything I said. If you want to play Singleplayer against Deity AI then I'm worth listening to. Multiplayer is very different.
THIS COMMENT IS WRONG, SEE POTATO REPLY The Toa cannot be used to chop because of the civ ability Mana which says " [...] Resources cannot be harvested. [...]" Considering that you said that playstyle would hurt I think no tier correction is necessary.
You remind me SO much of FilthyRobot, when he used to do Civ videos AGES and AGES ago. Except he was the exact opposite - he was always talking about multiplayer, and almost NEVER played single player, whereas you only talk about single player, almost never about multi player. xD
To be honest, one of the reasons why Ancient Era units are so good is partially because of players bias towards Pangea Maps. Like, Eagle Warriors are very good if you dont have to cross a single water title and can sorround a city by all sides. But in an Earth Map, for example, they become a lot less useful. That's why I think the Pangea Map is overall the worst map. It invalidates naval civs and makes early war way too easy.
I totally agree. Naval maps are really nice. Especially if you exploit the fact that the AI rarely builds a navy but usually has some strong coastal cities. Not to mention the strength of a Carrier with some promotions (taken by bringing down cities with battle ships and capturing them with the carrier). Or you can specifically put England (that passively gains ships), Norway (that actively builds ships) etc. To have fun with naval battles.
It's a bit sad that Samurai isn't a Knight replacement or a separate unique heavy cav unit. They used horses in reality you know, pretty much to the same extent as knights. But for some reason Firaxis has a obsession of making them melee in every game, while Knights get the horses.
@@sirgromith Well, they started to use firearms in 16th century, but not for the most prominent time of their history. So I don't think that would fit.
@@wombat4191 To be fair they could also be done like in game. I would make Japan have two samurai units; mounted knight replacement, and the one in game
@@wombat4191 Personally. Horseback samurai and cavalry were so similar. It would be fine that the Japanese keep regular knights instead of a special unit. Sure they might not look like samurai, but mods exist for these games and it seems with Civ 6. They moved a little into trying to make each at the very least, group of civs have unique looking troops. If each Civ had their troops look unique, then the Knights wouldn’t need to really be overhauled to be a new unit.
Crouching Tigers just make me sad because they're an early ranged gunpowder unit. There's so much potential for flavourful bonuses. What if it was 3 range base but had a RNG chance to take "backfire" damage or deal greatly reduced damage? What if it got science from kills like saxy gamer suggested? What if it retained the 1 range but became a tanky front line unit like the gattling guns in civ 5? I just don't understand how they fucked it up so badly. Doesn't help they still have the ranged unit city attack penalty, so they can literally only be used against enemy units.
GreatKnightJ China is just a trash tier civ in general. The wonder builder stuff is shit cuz you can only use it for ancient and classical wonders, the crouching tiger is garbage, the Great Wall is mediocre at best. The only thing that China has going for it is the extra builder charge which if you manage to build the pyramids, which should be easy with the wonder ability, can give you five charges per unit but that’s really convoluted.
@@MortalWombat4480 Well... China could easily squeeze out the benefits of Apadana with the wonder builder so it'd be easy for them to get dozens of envoys early game even in higher difficulty levels so that's pretty nice. Crouching Tigers are garbage, but since the damage of city ranged attack is determined by your strongest ranged unit you could crank all of your city attack up to 50 in medieval ages by just building one unit.
For Bireme: Bireme's biggest strength comes from its movements. Biremes come early into the game, and that extra movement means you can scout a lots of coastal lands very early quickly - a crucial point for Phoenicians, as they are a civ focusing on early coastal colonization. I would say Bireme is an adequate fit for Phoenicans' ability as a civ.
@@constancebashford2324 The longships are actually more powerful due to the pillaging bonus. It's hard to put/compare naval and land units together in a simple tile list.
Viking Longships are basically just two turns of production which can be translated into thousands of gold, and hundreds of faith culture and science early in the game with pillaging on coastal tiles and harbor districts. Easy S tier on non pangea maps.
@@thehighandmightyasur7873 They also just got a 5 combat strength buff, pretty much all melee naval units did. So Phoenicia and Norway's bireme and viking longship have 35 combat strength and 4 movement, so you're basically running around with floating swordsmen an era before actual swordsmen show up. They're also cheaper, and if you slot maritime industries and play as Norway or have a Cothon as Phoenicia you can have a 150% production boost towards them. Even if all you do is train 1, all of your cities will suddenly be a lot stronger, having 25 combat strength with no garrisoned unit, making it way easier to survive an early attack from nearby AI. That single unit will be very useful for scouting as well, since they're relatively fast. Is it just me or are all the naval civs really cool in concept? It's ultimately disappointing because the AI sucks at naval combat so much and seemingly avoids founding naval cities, so you never really get to have their abilities shine.
If it's a naval map where the AI is likely to have coastal cities, you can very quickly end the game or cripple the AI by capturing their coastal capitals/cities. While they are niche, they're very powerful.
@Celtic Phoenix I have to strongly disagree. Having just did a Norway domination game myself, Norway is easily S tier for naval maps. Being able to send out floating swordsmen and get promotions on those swordsmen to make them stronger and just early sweep enemy AIs coastal cities is simply insane. Not to mention the huge return on investment. I was making pillages of over 400 science in the medieval era as Norway and had already completely conquered two enemy AIs by then on a standard map. The world hated me, but they couldn't do anything about it since by then I had a huge navy with promotions and upgrades. Honestly, playing as Norway was the funnest attempt at domination I've tried yet. Every other form of it relies too heavily on bombards and getting strategics early whereas with Norway, you can just steamroll your neighbors provided you're on a coastal map.
@@richyrich6099 I always love to see the AI try and play as Norway, they moan about my lack of a navy, but then I find they're navy is trapped by ice or stuck in a large lake. I often conquer them without ever engaging their navy.
"Eagle Warriors can be S tier, but can also not be very good" Me: Aw, he's gonna make it B Tier Potato: I'm gonna make it S tier Me: I love you, Potato
The Conquistador also resonates with Crusade since they already have a religious unit with them so they can get +10 from the unit and then +10 from crusade. With wars of religion and Spain's UA they can easily get an additional +8 strength which will obliterate cities if you have a siege tower. You can build an entire conquest game around this unit up until the information era and never need to upgrade it.
A few notes about the Brazilian Minas Geraes that makes it stronger is the fact that it comes at a time where you can combine them into fleets, boosting their already INSANE naval strength. The game also treats them as an industrial era unit due to being unlocked at nationalism, which means press gangs effectively halves their production costs, allowing you to build a massive naval force of Minas Geraes fleets.
anti-cavalry really needs a buff. The only really useful one is the pike and shot, which is only useful against earlier units, not industrial cavalry class units.
I told my friend (who just began playing Civ VI, and plays in lower difficulties) to just don't build Spearman, if the opponents have an army that isn't only made out of cavalry, which is an example for nearly all of the anti cavalry
It is indeed ridiculous because other than that Gorgo is a fun civ to play; the extra wildcard slot comes so early that you have a unique flexibility to steal things like Great Prophets or Hypatia without actually hampering your progress since you don't need to commit production, few other civs can do that. The unique culture district and progressing your culture by killing enemy units is a cool mechanic and a hill start bias isn't anything to complain about. They had a pretty well put together civ. And then they turn around and make one of the all time legendary military units a joke. Anyone playing this game that knows anything about history is immediately like "sigh, why the fuck did you screw up hoplites". Makes no sense why they didn't just allow anti-cav to be the only infantry that exert ZOC on all cavalry because without that they're too slow to catch the only thing they exist to stop. Since they're trying to make the units historically accurate Hoplites could also negate the anti-cav penalty against melee and have more defense than other infantry against ranged since pretty much everyone was at a disadvantage when fighting Hoplites back in the day.
flat buffs to them have the side effects of de-emphasizing strategic resources. Maybe increased intrinsic anti-cavalry bonus, even if in combo with a base nerf (i.e. all anti-cav units get a +18 bonus to cav instead of +10 but get a -4 nerf to base strength)? Maybe front-load their promotion tree with 2-3 VERY JUICY promotions (similar to how a siege unit that promos left, left, right gradually becomes a monster), or give them a deep-but-rewarding path similar to the scout classes +20cs "ambush" promo so that - if babied - you can un-trash-tier them. Or maybe play into flavor more by giving them deeply enhanced flanking bonuses, or even adjacent unit bonuses in the style of the Llanero, so that you can un-trash them with the deeper investment of building 5 or 8 of the turds
the two different pikemen are fine, it's just that the spearman and the ATs can't seem to fight the dangerous cavalry units of their era and the next. maybe a straight +3 combat for spearmen (spears are actually amazing weapons). For the ATs, a plus five buff would be nice. They still lose to the melee units, but they now have the ability to kill tanks
The Inca unit is pretty insane for conquest. You spam scouts early and use the 100% exp bonus on scouts card. When you're closing in on the tech for this unit you call your scouts back from exploring and start going ham. 2 x 60 dmg with high mobility absolutely shreds at the stage of the game where you get these. Walls, cities, any units really. The only downide is that they are kinda squishy.
A couple extra things to consider: Both the Maori and Roman UU's can repair pillaged improvements if they keep their build charge. This means that they can repair all the improvements in a city they've conquered very quickly without the need for builders or, if you're being extra clever, can be used in a pillage economy strat where you conquer/settle a city in a place that is succumbing to alot of loyalty pressure, repair the improvements and pillage/reconquer it again ad infinitum. These units can pull off the pillage economy strat cheaper and more effectively than other civs can. This alone should elevate them both up a tier in my opinion. The Indonesian Jong has another neat little mechanic where anything that it connects to adopts its movement. This means that you can move a land unit of any kind up to the Jong, attach it, and then continuing to use the Jong's movement to get the unit even farther than it could have gotten even if it was out of movement points before it got attached. This allows them to act as ferries for very quick invasions or settling across continents. Another trick you can do with them is have a unit embark onto a sea tile with a Jong (losing all its movement points) and then attach the Jong and carry it away in the same turn. This allows for some coastal hit and run tactics that are similar to Norway and very unique and powerful on coastal maps. Personally I think the Jong is an amazing unit and deserves an A tier but naval units ARE less valuable than land units so I'm ok with where you got it. I just want you to be aware of this additional use for it cause it is very unique and interesting. Lastly, I do think you underestimate the Australian Digger a bit. Just the fact that it requires no Oil in of itself puts it in a higher tier. It can be upgraded into, is a fairly strong unit for the era it is in and, like i said....it REQUIRES NO OIL. In later era warfare the bottleneck is access to strategic resources compounded with the fact that your factories use those same resources to produce energy. Australia can amass a fairly devastating army for either attack or defense with no consequences to its economy. Furthermore, because you are not using Oil to field them, it means you can use that Oil to field units like Biplanes, Artillery and Tanks, while still being able to field a formidable Digger army. It may not be a top tier unit, but it's definitely alot better than you're giving it credit for.
John Lu I would probably say that the Seowon is much better than the observatory, and the Zulu one (I can’t remember) also isn’t that amazing if I remember correctly.
There should be a separate S tier for Pitati Archers. Horrifically strong and early, extra movement point is game changing, and fits with the meta of how you play the early game to begin with.
@@claymathews8814 Everything else about Nubia seems fair. The pyramid tile improvement is situationally decent, and their mine buff is strong. But Pitatis make them ungodly strong. And the power spike continues, since your Pitati swarm is far more likely to produce some quad promoted CBows or Field Cannons, which is a huge deal. My first Deity win was with Nubia, and it didn't feel fair. I mean, Colombia even less so, but still
When building a strategy around the Conquistadors they should easily be S Tier. Combining the Oliargy legacy card, great general, crusade belief and a relegious unit sums up to +29 combat strenght. Not even taking into account the support, flanking and promotion bonusses. Imagine having to fight them with +40 extra CS on offensive and +45 on defence...
@@thesmm2311 That would be too much for a cheap unit on a very easy military tech with no resource cost. Maybe something like 58/59 with an equal buff on the musketman. Or the Cavalry/Cuirassier duo may need a nerf, just like the Courser/Knight duo, though this would be really painful to me if it actually happened.
@@XenophonSoulis 60 might be good enough. But i don't think the Musketman needs that buff because it can still deal +5 damage against the Pike and Shot. Or just make it so it does +5 extra damage against cavalry.
@@thesmm2311 Units that are cheap and don't require resources are not meant to be that good anyway and the musketman is meant to really beat them. So I insist on something like 58. This would put its damage in regards to Cavalry and Cuirassiers on the same level as the damage of Pikemen in regards to Coursers and Knights. This would be a good enough balance, since a musketman would beat them by 7 (swordsmen beat pikemen by 5 only, but they are two tech-tree-rows earlier, while the musketman is one tech-tree-row earlier than the pike and shot). Given that they are so much cheaper than Cavalry and Cuirassiers and that they require no resources, it's a good enough balance.
1. REALLY appreciate the bookmarks! Not only does this serve as a primer video, the bookmarks make it a wonderful in-game reference tool. You can very quickly remind yourself of how you should be leveraging your UUs strengths! Similarly, you can get expert intel on your enemies' UUs before they ROFLstomp you. 2. What do you think about giving the Australian Digger a single Builder/Engineer charge? Fortifications, trenches/canals and (rail)roads seem appropriate within their historical context.
Dude, looking back at this tier list now, they actually did a pretty good job of ballancing things all around. They actually listened to community thoughts.
@Celtic Phoenix I'm conflicted about GS nerfing Legions by adding an Iron requirement- like, yeah, it makes sense to nerf Legions a little bit since having no resource requirement made them pretty OP... but otoh, Trajan has no other domination-oriented bonuses (I guess the amenity from their unique aqueduct is sort of relevant to domination, but that hardly counts), so having a really strong early UU actually makes sense for balancing the civ overall, even if the unit itself is a little unbalanced at the time you get it. If its the main thing that's going to set you up for the entire rest of the game with few other bonuses, then it SHOULD be really powerful. Look at Sumer: he doesn't have really any relevant mid or late game bonuses, but you don't need any, because the massive empire you acquired with your War Carts is already a big enough advantage.
* and its not like Legions are weak now, but I've had games where I had no feasible source of iron and so basically my entire domination strategy was screwed for that game... so making them contingent on RNG makes it a pretty big risk/reward issue rather than a reliable strategy (neither Sumer nor Nubia need to worry about not being able to make any of their UUs, for instance)
Informative video as always, thanks! @39:27 - Janissaries' need for Niter is counteracted by the Ottomans' unique building Grand Bazaar in that you get one more strategic resource gain in the city that has Niter, so it really synergizes well in its power window
@PotatoMcWhiskey Finally someone that sees how the Brazilian Battleship is S tier. Rushing them was my easiest Deity win. I just blasted away every costal city on the map while the other civs even though ahead on tech were fighting with Frigates. Even when the other civs caugh up with my navy by then my Battleships were fully upgraded double attack 4 range monsters. Easiest deity win I had.
The thing about the unique scout units that are later on (Inca and Scotland UUs) is that you don't build them. You build a lot of scouts early on, try to get them as many promotions as you can and preserve them, and upgrade them. Normally one regards scouts as disposable, but if you keep them around with these civs you can have a probably not that large but nonetheless potent force later.
I suck at naval gameplay so I basically sit out on scouts after scouting main continent until I get the way to cross ocean tiles and get map open even way later... yeah that's not for pangea maps.
Plase rank city-states per victory type! Edit: Oh my god yes, I have been waiting for this my entire life. Btw, It would be ranking on a tier list with 5 columns per victory type and placing every cs on each column each time. Or do whatever you want lol. Nice vid of course!
What if they made it such that Crouching Tiger cannons get +1 range when in defensible districts or the Great Wall? (not Forts tho, since that would allow them to be used offensively)
I actually like this idea quite a bit as it's somewhat historically accurate. The Crouching Tiger saw a lot of use for defensive purposes and in particular was deployed to the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty making the Great Wall extra range an interesting idea.
Another option: since Crouching Tigers were primitive cannons, they should have no district damage penalty. Station a Crouching Tiger either within the Great Wall or an Encampment and it'd basically act as a weaker Bombard that could also hold its own when being attacked because it's inside defensive terrain.
I like that idea. If they are to make China a defensive builder civ, then make their defensive unit actually worth building other than getting the era score & cranking up city combat strength
Ancient era units in general should also get a bump from the fact that they help get the era score for the first golden age, which is by far the hardest/most crucial to get. It’s also important to view units from the civ’s victory conditions. For example, hoplite, although not very useful offensively, is perfect in a Culture game to defend both from ai and horse barb attacks.
Actually I find on harder difficulties that's actually a disadvantage for ancient era uniques, as even with that era score bump you'll be unlikely to manage a classical era golden age...its often better to get a classical dark age (which is why that era score actually hurts more than it helps), pick up monasticism dark age, then aim for a medieval heroic age. For this reason I tend to rate classical era uniques quite highly personally.
Paradox knew what they were doing with Norway. Just by adding Norway to the game, they instantly pleased the norwegian playerbase. The Longship might be situational, the Berserkers weaker than fresh Lutefisk and the Stave church almost makes you happy to be pillaged, but... Norway was mentioned! We as a nation are content.
Potato is talking about Barbary corsair where he says "when you combine it with the raid card, The Great Lighthouse and a great admiral you basically get the equivalent of an anime super villian teleporting behind people's coastal improvements printing stupid amounts of gold and faith for you" that comment was so hilarious I'm still laughing whenevet it comes to my mind. Great work buddy!
To fix Horse archer: ignore zone of control, can move and attack in the same turn. Berserker: ignore zone of control, start with a promotion. Crouching tiger: Plus 10 combat strength when in a defensive improvement or district. Samurai: plus 5 combat strength when defending. Highlander: plus 1 range, double experience. Rough Rider: plus 1 range.
The longship is my favorite unit in the game just for the ability to coastal raid. Playing a fractal map or archipelago map is a blast using the longship. It especially helps in wars, being able to pillage that many tiles early on is so useful in a war. It's not a bad idea to just declare war with a civ early without even wanting to fight them just so you can pillage them with one or two long ships.
My issue with Civ - all the way back to the first one - is that fighting a war is so costly in production (and how much it drops you behind orher Civs) that the fun of battle barely exists for me. I always just avoid wars and fight a big one at the end. The only way I can kinda enjoy warring is on a lower difficulty setting and then it's far too easy.
My tactic is to only attack if you have a clear advantage. i.e. a timing attack after beelining research to unlock a key unit early, counter attack after a succesful defense or ganging up on someone who is already at war. This works quite well on deity as well.
I always thought that having separate production slots in each city (or in cities with an encampment/harbor) exclusively for building military units would be great. And maybe add a manpower mechanic that's determined by your population + government type, policy cards, etc to keep army sizes from getting too crazy with this.
I'll normally have 1-2 cities dedicated heavily to unit production, and then just slam down some money/faith when I really need a specific building there. Then when war is done, I'll rush them back up and rarely have much trouble.
See I find quite the opposite. I'm a bit of a warmonger who takes things personally when someone declares war on me. If you attack me, I obliterate your civilization. I just finished a high seas map where I chose only civilizations that had a naval bias. I was Norway, and I was at war literally from like turn 6 all the way through a domination victory. I have yet to play on Deity, but that was on Immortal.
You said this took you ages and that our responses to the others put you in a "very happy time" and so I just wanted to say thanks a ton for making these!! I find the insights super handy and Civ 6 has quickly become my most-played, and a part of that is definitely thanks to your content! Keep it up man 😊😊
I think a roman war bonus that often gets overlooked is their instant roads. Conquer the first border city, and from then on your invasion speeds up. Perhaps this should be mentioned in mistakes or something?
When playing Sumeria I don't even go for scouts (1 at most and bought if I can). Simply build 2-3 War Carts and go barb hunting. In barb heavy maps, the investment return is _insane_ .
the Russian Cossacks should be higher. If it's used in the right hands it can eliminate any Nation right next to you it has similar abilities to the unique ability of Gran Colombia. It definitely doesn't deserve to be on the same rank as the British Redcoat
A televangelist. Siphons gold when it wins a combat or converts a city. Double gold for converting a city you own. -1 amenity for the city it's built in.
Not really a UU but I've had some success with Warrior Monks. They're cheap and if you have a lot of religion credits you can spam out a LOT of them and overwhelm your enemy. They're also pretty fast, with three movement points.
When you play Spain you need to make your entire game plan based on the conquistador. You can give them 83 combat strength which will almost one shot everything else around you. 55 base +10 from a missionary +10 from crusader religious perk +4 from facing a civ with a different religion and the policy card that does the same for an additional+4 puts the conquistador stronger than tanks. I know that sounds impossible to achieve but I've done it in multiple games relatively easy. Just focus on religion and science and turtle up until you're ready to kill everything in your way. Convert like 2 or 3 cities but make sure your opponent stays a majority different religion or you won't get the plus 8. You can conquer half a continent in like 25 turns with just 6 conquistadors
I've really enjoyed your tier videos. Thanks for all the time you put into them. On future lists I would love to see tougher rating scales. When 40% of the units/wonders/civs are S or A tier, then it's hard to judge their relative power level. A tougher scale would give a more normalized distribution. S tier: ~4 units/wonders/civs A tier: ~7 units/wonders/civs B tier: ~9 units/wonders/civs C tier: ~10 units/wonders/civs D tier: ~9 units/wonders/civs E tier: ~7 units/wonders/civs F tier: ~4 units/wonders/civs Cheers! :)
Warakaq is honestly one of my favorite units BY FAR, its so fun to try to get your 1-3 early game scouts to level up and promote and survive and really value them, so that you can then upgrade them into warakaqs. I love Inca in the first place for their unique playstyle and once you have 2 or even just 1 warakaq with the ambush promotion it will DESTROY literally ANYTHING it sees, NOT a single unit from the era and not a single unit even from the industrial era stands a chance against this.. it is LITERALLY a 120!! Combat strengths unit at this point that does not take any damage when attacking! And even without the promotion it is still a 80 Combat strength unit. Used right it is very much the definiton of an OP unit.
Personally, I would swap the Immortal and the Legion, the Immortal is just SO unique (the next non-recon unit capable of both melee and ranged attack in the giant death robot) that I can't place the Immortal anywhere but S tier.
I wouldn't swap, but put both in S tier, the Legion is the only unit that can chop (?) out itself without destroying important things (Toa), so it's incredibly good
The version of the Civilopedia is a little bit outdated. I have noticed that when I was trying to find the profiles for some units. For example, pikemen now cost 180 production in GS instead of 200. Thank you for posting this list, hope to see more.
My favorite thing about the Immortal is that, as a melee unit, it exerts zone of control This means you can besiege cities in an early war while dealing ranged damage, and therefore not taking damage yourself.
the warak'aq are just amazing. i understand that you don't really use them, but tried conquering with them once and it was amazing. you basically get a crossbowman that shoots twice a turn and have no penalty towards districts. i used 6 warak'aqs and a warrior to conquer my big rival with a much bigger army in something like 20 turns. they are just awsome.
@@XenophonSoulis the warak'aq would just be over powered. i mean, crossbowman are already a strong unit, now give it another shot, no district penalty AND its cheaper.
The Inka Skirmisher can get the double recon unite experience bonus from however that Millitary card was called. Let me tell you, having 60 combat strength units that can move up 2 tiles through hills, shoot twice and then move back is pretty funny in the medievel era. Also pretty easy to get them to ambush when fighting a defensive war, they get 14-16 experience a turn when double shooting when combined with the double experience card and a Barracks.
This really helped, appreciate it a lot🤩 And, as a sidenote, dear goodness the Jannisary is OP, i have Steamrolled people, combined with a siege tower this thing is really good And another sidenote, i am really unhappy with the Seadog, i think there could be a better choice like, as an example, longbowmen as like a replacement for crossbowmen or something, but that might just be my opinion.
The Warak'aq is clearly A or even S tier. It's strong enough (two shots at 40 is usually enough to kill your prey, so the weak defense is less of an issue), quick leveling enough (two shots means twice as much xp, which also means hp faster) that Ambush is realistic to get (especially if you can get hold of Kabul), and with that, you will have a 40/60, double shooting combat unit that is faster and more mobile than the crossbowman, slightly cheaper than the crossbowman and can withdraw after shooting to make up for the disadvantage of only having one range. Recon units get a bad rep, but consider how strong the upgrade tree is before discounting them.
Honestly it seems like the lion's share of the weight you give is based on the base unit and how important it is to overall game: how it's unlocked, cost, strength relative to era, expected time period of usefulness, promotion class, etc. And I can't really argue with that, since any non-ridiculous unique unit buffs on bad base units is the quintessential example of "polishing a turd." It'd be a crowded field (circa 50 total), but a tier list for base units might be a good resource for new players, and leads to some fun discussion of overall game shape and some little technical pleasures like promotion choices and different mixed military compositions.
OK I DID IT FOR FUN Scout S+ Skirmisher F Ranger F SpecO C Warrior B Swordsman A Musketman C Inf D Mechanized Inf E Slinger C Archer A Crossbow S Field Cannon C Machine Gun F Spearman F Pikeman F P+S F AT F Modern AT F Horseman A Courser C Cav C Helecopter E Chariot C Knight S Cuirasser B Tank C Modern Arm A Catapult C Bombard S Artillery B Rocket Art A Galley C Caravel C Ironclad E Destroyer D Quadrireme B Frigate A Battleship C Missile Cruiser B Privateer E Sub F Nuclear Sub D Carrier C Biplane B Figher S Jet Fighter S Bomber B Jet Bomb A
Thank you for the time to making this list, altho with a lot of hours in Civ you get sort of a feeling for the unique units and their worth its nice to see them all in comparison to each other and even learn a few more things. I never valued the Basilian ship before, I may be able to get use out of it in the future. More to the violent nature of Gengis and Shaka than to my own preferences on the Corean Playstile I was forced into a couple of wars recently as Korea, including a Havacha Push and I have to say they make decent support and siege Units in an offensive War. They still do a decent amount of damage against walls, especially with a couple of promotions and general support. In my situation a total lifesaver because of no niter. The squishiness and the no attack after moving debuff makes them very venerable to City attack focus which often means sacrificing one or two. But there amazing attack as well as their decent melee defense still makes them a good offensive Unit. The cheap prices of the sevons allow Korea to have time to focus on war economic as well. If you would rush an AI early with those things they will easily thair down walls and units, altho Bombard support would be still adequate if possible. In my opinion B-Tier
I remember one of my most recent games, I went full Waraq'aq, and moved on to try and punch Genghis Khan for an emergency. Deleted his melee units and crossbowmen, got some good promotions in. Suffered a couple losses due to cavalry and obliterated them the turn after. Then I moved to his city to actually do something useful, and my host of unique units went *ping* against those walls before getting one-shot, making me lose most of the rest of my army in what turned out to be one of my costliest military losses. Fun times
I've never seen the timeline bar have named separators. It certainly makes it easier to find the specific units in this video, but it stopped sectioning at the Ottoman Barbary Corsair. Is that a production error, or something on UA-cam's end?
One thing Potato never even mentions about the Roman Legion is that it can also repair forever if it has a build charge. So you can pillage, and then repair it with the same unit.
Writing this before I watch just to tell you how excited I get when I see you upload these teir lists. I immediately saved what I was doing grabbed my dog and ran to my bed to watch this under the covers for maximum focus. Keep doing what you do man you have genuine fans beacuse of it
Is worth pointing out that both Greece (Gorgo) and Rome get UAs that give them lots of early culture, helping you get to Agoge and Oligarchy much more quickly, which syncs well with boosting their units
Guys do you know about the winter war? You wouldn't be telling such a nonsense if you knew about russian performance in Finland or even about what means being a cossack. Russian cossacks are cossacks to the same extent as Russia being the third Rome
my favourite strategy with the Jong is to get Crusade, use the Jong to move your melee units to the place your killing, which gives your Jong an extra 15 combat strength, and you will literally MELT walls
Thank you very much Mr Potato to invest a lot of time and effort to give this tier list to the Warmongers and the people (like me) that barely builds an army if not just for mere defense purposes. We appreciate this analysis and, again, thank you SO MUCH for this :) It was a shame that Ethiopia wasn't release yet so we could have their unique unit in the tier list too
That explanation about the snowball effect and how units useability depends on how early into the game they come... this explains why archers are SO POWERFUL.
3:13 when you play on archipelago map the bireme easly becomes A-S tier. You can create a lot of them in early game and they can easly defeat naval cities. (It's bonus is useless though)
I love your way of doing the voice-overs. As an Impi-fan you made me sit on the edge of my seat here. But yeah.. Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi ImpiImpi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi ;) Since I found your channel I've been playing Civ 6 almost non-stop, and improving way more quickly than I did before! Thank you so much!
I love how the heavy bomber is just called a jet bomber when it's CLEARLY a B-52. Have your engineers build two forward airfields, buy 6 bombers with that strong economy you've built, and you can start steamrolling across the world. AI doesn't use air defenses.
@@PotatoMcWhiskey I guess it's just personal preference but for me the efficiency of being able to take out units and cities with just ranged attacks without losing health is just so nice. Also I don't need chops when you can just use the monumentality perk with a Golden Age and if you rush pyramids or the governor who gets builders extta charges then boom, buy a 5 or 7 charge builder with faith starting from the classic age
Next civ game needs to have wide rivers that naval units can travel down, while also serving as “railroads” making travel much faster. Rivers are a huge deal in civilizations in real life.
Question in your opinion, what makes fighters useful? I find that the AI is typically very bad at defending against air power even on deity so bombers are typically all that are necessary. Maybe one fighter to provide vision, but that's about it. I'd rather spend my oil on one more bomber or tank than on a fighter.
Mistakes I made (will be edited) and general responses to sentiments expressed in the comments.
Mistakes:
- Maryannu Chariot Archers were made cheaper in Gathering Storm. They should be up to B Tier.
Things I forgot:
- Roman Legions and Toa can repair a city quickly after they conquer it with their build charge.
"Don't listen to this guy he knows nothing he doesn't play multiplayer"
Yup, if you want to play multiplayer ignore everything I said. If you want to play Singleplayer against Deity AI then I'm worth listening to. Multiplayer is very different.
THIS COMMENT IS WRONG, SEE POTATO REPLY
The Toa cannot be used to chop because of the civ ability Mana which says " [...] Resources cannot be harvested. [...]" Considering that you said that playstyle would hurt I think no tier correction is necessary.
@@Vetta306 You can chop features with it, forests are features not resources.
You remind me SO much of FilthyRobot, when he used to do Civ videos AGES and AGES ago. Except he was the exact opposite - he was always talking about multiplayer, and almost NEVER played single player, whereas you only talk about single player, almost never about multi player. xD
Multiplayer LUL. If I wanted to play for an hour then have everyone leave me I'd just go call my real life friends to hang out
@Steve Wilkos' Abused Chair I have pinned it youtube is being dumb dumb
To be honest, one of the reasons why Ancient Era units are so good is partially because of players bias towards Pangea Maps. Like, Eagle Warriors are very good if you dont have to cross a single water title and can sorround a city by all sides. But in an Earth Map, for example, they become a lot less useful. That's why I think the Pangea Map is overall the worst map. It invalidates naval civs and makes early war way too easy.
I totally agree. Naval maps are really nice. Especially if you exploit the fact that the AI rarely builds a navy but usually has some strong coastal cities. Not to mention the strength of a Carrier with some promotions (taken by bringing down cities with battle ships and capturing them with the carrier).
Or you can specifically put England (that passively gains ships), Norway (that actively builds ships) etc. To have fun with naval battles.
I always play fractal. I like not knowing what I'm dealing with until I send the scouts to find out.
My thoughts exactly, I always play on continents, Pangea removes a lot of the game's features and lends itself to a 1 dimensional playstyle.
well also on continents you can have one civ nearby. Sure, naval units are "nerfed" on pangea, and can be really strong on other maps.
it just sucks that the only way to have balanced mp games is to do pangea
Both the Bireme and the Viking Longship being Sea tier makes a lot of sense :P
CrossEyeMusic bruh underrated comment lol
I always thought naval games/strategy in civ deserve a separate tier
Out sailing move!
Buh dum tish
666 likes
I have PTSD from getting gilgamashed by war carts.
Who doesn't make friends with Gilgamesh when they meet him?
i wake like wolverine at 5 am having a gilgamesh flashback
@@bigfudge2031 Gilgabro is a fickle friend. It's a coin flip whether he decides to smash even if you are friends.
@@nolongeraperson that's why you have to renew friendship asap
‘Gilgameshed’ Maybe the greatest verb ever...stolen...
Samurai are S tier just for that *_shwing_* sound effect.
It's a bit sad that Samurai isn't a Knight replacement or a separate unique heavy cav unit. They used horses in reality you know, pretty much to the same extent as knights. But for some reason Firaxis has a obsession of making them melee in every game, while Knights get the horses.
@@wombat4191 At least they could have made them into a musket men replacement knowing that samurai in that time also use firearms.
@@sirgromith Well, they started to use firearms in 16th century, but not for the most prominent time of their history. So I don't think that would fit.
@@wombat4191 To be fair they could also be done like in game.
I would make Japan have two samurai units; mounted knight replacement, and the one in game
@@wombat4191 Personally. Horseback samurai and cavalry were so similar. It would be fine that the Japanese keep regular knights instead of a special unit. Sure they might not look like samurai, but mods exist for these games and it seems with Civ 6. They moved a little into trying to make each at the very least, group of civs have unique looking troops. If each Civ had their troops look unique, then the Knights wouldn’t need to really be overhauled to be a new unit.
A funny thing, in Crouching Tiger's civilopedia, it said "it outranged anything else at the time."
And it got an attack range of "1".
Really?
"It outranged anything else at the time... except bows and arrows. And catapults. And anything that could reach further than a guy with a club."
Crouching Tigers just make me sad because they're an early ranged gunpowder unit. There's so much potential for flavourful bonuses. What if it was 3 range base but had a RNG chance to take "backfire" damage or deal greatly reduced damage? What if it got science from kills like saxy gamer suggested? What if it retained the 1 range but became a tanky front line unit like the gattling guns in civ 5? I just don't understand how they fucked it up so badly. Doesn't help they still have the ranged unit city attack penalty, so they can literally only be used against enemy units.
GreatKnightJ China is just a trash tier civ in general. The wonder builder stuff is shit cuz you can only use it for ancient and classical wonders, the crouching tiger is garbage, the Great Wall is mediocre at best. The only thing that China has going for it is the extra builder charge which if you manage to build the pyramids, which should be easy with the wonder ability, can give you five charges per unit but that’s really convoluted.
Coby also serfdom or public works makes SEVEN builder charges.
@@MortalWombat4480 Well... China could easily squeeze out the benefits of Apadana with the wonder builder so it'd be easy for them to get dozens of envoys early game even in higher difficulty levels so that's pretty nice.
Crouching Tigers are garbage, but since the damage of city ranged attack is determined by your strongest ranged unit you could crank all of your city attack up to 50 in medieval ages by just building one unit.
Potato: I'll give tips on how to fix those under-powered units.
Also potato: they are so trash I don't even know how to fix them.
I think the devs should give the saka horse archer 2 range instead of 1.
And i don't care if that seems overpowered. To me, people overestimate buffs.
give Saka Horse Archers more melee strength so they don't get one-shot
make Samurais upgrade from Swordsmen
tbh his suggestion to have saka horse archers move after attacking works well historically so thats okay
@@atocanboi409 doesnt make sense historically tho
@@mackycabangon8945 well a horse should be decent at hitting melee opponents with kicks
Everybody gangster until pitati archers hijack a war cart
No
...and start enslaving their enemies as builders and speaking Zulu.
...and start chopping woods with Roman Forts
...and starts producing builders when it kills an enemy
and heals after a kill
For Bireme: Bireme's biggest strength comes from its movements. Biremes come early into the game, and that extra movement means you can scout a lots of coastal lands very early quickly - a crucial point for Phoenicians, as they are a civ focusing on early coastal colonization. I would say Bireme is an adequate fit for Phoenicans' ability as a civ.
Also, it's high combat strength makes it extra good for defending the settlers you rush to those coastal locations.
I think the same could be said for the Viking longship as well, especially considering the early ocean crossing that Norway has access to.
@@constancebashford2324 The longships are actually more powerful due to the pillaging bonus. It's hard to put/compare naval and land units together in a simple tile list.
Viking Longships are basically just two turns of production which can be translated into thousands of gold, and hundreds of faith culture and science early in the game with pillaging on coastal tiles and harbor districts. Easy S tier on non pangea maps.
@@thehighandmightyasur7873 They also just got a 5 combat strength buff, pretty much all melee naval units did. So Phoenicia and Norway's bireme and viking longship have 35 combat strength and 4 movement, so you're basically running around with floating swordsmen an era before actual swordsmen show up. They're also cheaper, and if you slot maritime industries and play as Norway or have a Cothon as Phoenicia you can have a 150% production boost towards them. Even if all you do is train 1, all of your cities will suddenly be a lot stronger, having 25 combat strength with no garrisoned unit, making it way easier to survive an early attack from nearby AI. That single unit will be very useful for scouting as well, since they're relatively fast.
Is it just me or are all the naval civs really cool in concept? It's ultimately disappointing because the AI sucks at naval combat so much and seemingly avoids founding naval cities, so you never really get to have their abilities shine.
Pangea is boring
If it's a naval map where the AI is likely to have coastal cities, you can very quickly end the game or cripple the AI by capturing their coastal capitals/cities. While they are niche, they're very powerful.
@Celtic Phoenix I have to strongly disagree. Having just did a Norway domination game myself, Norway is easily S tier for naval maps. Being able to send out floating swordsmen and get promotions on those swordsmen to make them stronger and just early sweep enemy AIs coastal cities is simply insane. Not to mention the huge return on investment. I was making pillages of over 400 science in the medieval era as Norway and had already completely conquered two enemy AIs by then on a standard map. The world hated me, but they couldn't do anything about it since by then I had a huge navy with promotions and upgrades.
Honestly, playing as Norway was the funnest attempt at domination I've tried yet. Every other form of it relies too heavily on bombards and getting strategics early whereas with Norway, you can just steamroll your neighbors provided you're on a coastal map.
@@richyrich6099 I always love to see the AI try and play as Norway, they moan about my lack of a navy, but then I find they're navy is trapped by ice or stuck in a large lake. I often conquer them without ever engaging their navy.
"Eagle Warriors can be S tier, but can also not be very good"
Me: Aw, he's gonna make it B Tier
Potato: I'm gonna make it S tier
Me: I love you, Potato
Me, after playing Maya vs Aztecs on deity: I don't think these two are in the right order on the tier list, stomping Monty was waaaay too easy.
@@theodoremurdock9984 but a player controlled aztecs is different from a computer controlled aztecs
I mean, if you can't get them to capture alot of enemy units, because your nearest neighbours have an incredible defensive position...
37:11 spain gets era score from conquistadors converting cities so they can chain golden ages which can help with loyalty
True, it can be really good.
I don't have much loyalty issues (I don't have that much dark ages, but still), so this bonus would be better with malis trader capacity bonus
Also the fact that you get bonus loyalty when a city follows your religion, which could be useful when conquering cities with conquistadors.
The Conquistador also resonates with Crusade since they already have a religious unit with them so they can get +10 from the unit and then +10 from crusade. With wars of religion and Spain's UA they can easily get an additional +8 strength which will obliterate cities if you have a siege tower. You can build an entire conquest game around this unit up until the information era and never need to upgrade it.
Spain's my favorite domination civ, because of those buffs.
A few notes about the Brazilian Minas Geraes that makes it stronger is the fact that it comes at a time where you can combine them into fleets, boosting their already INSANE naval strength. The game also treats them as an industrial era unit due to being unlocked at nationalism, which means press gangs effectively halves their production costs, allowing you to build a massive naval force of Minas Geraes fleets.
anti-cavalry really needs a buff. The only really useful one is the pike and shot, which is only useful against earlier units, not industrial cavalry class units.
I told my friend (who just began playing Civ VI, and plays in lower difficulties) to just don't build Spearman, if the opponents have an army that isn't only made out of cavalry, which is an example for nearly all of the anti cavalry
they were busted af in civ v that i usually didnt build any non anti cavalry melee units and got away just fine in single and multplayer alike
It is indeed ridiculous because other than that Gorgo is a fun civ to play; the extra wildcard slot comes so early that you have a unique flexibility to steal things like Great Prophets or Hypatia without actually hampering your progress since you don't need to commit production, few other civs can do that. The unique culture district and progressing your culture by killing enemy units is a cool mechanic and a hill start bias isn't anything to complain about. They had a pretty well put together civ.
And then they turn around and make one of the all time legendary military units a joke. Anyone playing this game that knows anything about history is immediately like "sigh, why the fuck did you screw up hoplites". Makes no sense why they didn't just allow anti-cav to be the only infantry that exert ZOC on all cavalry because without that they're too slow to catch the only thing they exist to stop. Since they're trying to make the units historically accurate Hoplites could also negate the anti-cav penalty against melee and have more defense than other infantry against ranged since pretty much everyone was at a disadvantage when fighting Hoplites back in the day.
flat buffs to them have the side effects of de-emphasizing strategic resources. Maybe increased intrinsic anti-cavalry bonus, even if in combo with a base nerf (i.e. all anti-cav units get a +18 bonus to cav instead of +10 but get a -4 nerf to base strength)? Maybe front-load their promotion tree with 2-3 VERY JUICY promotions (similar to how a siege unit that promos left, left, right gradually becomes a monster), or give them a deep-but-rewarding path similar to the scout classes +20cs "ambush" promo so that - if babied - you can un-trash-tier them. Or maybe play into flavor more by giving them deeply enhanced flanking bonuses, or even adjacent unit bonuses in the style of the Llanero, so that you can un-trash them with the deeper investment of building 5 or 8 of the turds
the two different pikemen are fine, it's just that the spearman and the ATs can't seem to fight the dangerous cavalry units of their era and the next. maybe a straight +3 combat for spearmen (spears are actually amazing weapons). For the ATs, a plus five buff would be nice. They still lose to the melee units, but they now have the ability to kill tanks
The Inca unit is pretty insane for conquest. You spam scouts early and use the 100% exp bonus on scouts card. When you're closing in on the tech for this unit you call your scouts back from exploring and start going ham. 2 x 60 dmg with high mobility absolutely shreds at the stage of the game where you get these. Walls, cities, any units really. The only downide is that they are kinda squishy.
Doesn't the ambush promotion's 20+ damage bonus only apply when the unit is defending?
@@thesmm2311 Nope, its +20 overall
But how do you protect yourself until you can promote them?
@@boomzy9532 Even before the promotion they do double the damage of crossbows
It was like a potato famine no potato for 10 days
You forgot one "unique" unit: Warrior Monks.
technically unique...
to a god awful religion dedication
but it exists.
Good point, next time around I'll consider non nation specific unique units!
and the new Nihang! The warrior monks' cool, weed-smoking cousin
Warrior Monks are AMAZING MEME CITY and deserve SSS Tier
@@gjits5307 nihang units are actually so strong :D
@Stephen Rynd Lahore is a city in pakistan.
A couple extra things to consider: Both the Maori and Roman UU's can repair pillaged improvements if they keep their build charge. This means that they can repair all the improvements in a city they've conquered very quickly without the need for builders or, if you're being extra clever, can be used in a pillage economy strat where you conquer/settle a city in a place that is succumbing to alot of loyalty pressure, repair the improvements and pillage/reconquer it again ad infinitum. These units can pull off the pillage economy strat cheaper and more effectively than other civs can. This alone should elevate them both up a tier in my opinion.
The Indonesian Jong has another neat little mechanic where anything that it connects to adopts its movement. This means that you can move a land unit of any kind up to the Jong, attach it, and then continuing to use the Jong's movement to get the unit even farther than it could have gotten even if it was out of movement points before it got attached. This allows them to act as ferries for very quick invasions or settling across continents. Another trick you can do with them is have a unit embark onto a sea tile with a Jong (losing all its movement points) and then attach the Jong and carry it away in the same turn. This allows for some coastal hit and run tactics that are similar to Norway and very unique and powerful on coastal maps. Personally I think the Jong is an amazing unit and deserves an A tier but naval units ARE less valuable than land units so I'm ok with where you got it. I just want you to be aware of this additional use for it cause it is very unique and interesting.
Lastly, I do think you underestimate the Australian Digger a bit. Just the fact that it requires no Oil in of itself puts it in a higher tier. It can be upgraded into, is a fairly strong unit for the era it is in and, like i said....it REQUIRES NO OIL. In later era warfare the bottleneck is access to strategic resources compounded with the fact that your factories use those same resources to produce energy. Australia can amass a fairly devastating army for either attack or defense with no consequences to its economy. Furthermore, because you are not using Oil to field them, it means you can use that Oil to field units like Biplanes, Artillery and Tanks, while still being able to field a formidable Digger army. It may not be a top tier unit, but it's definitely alot better than you're giving it credit for.
Thanks! I’m expecting Unique Buildings, Improvements, and Districts next, hope they come out soon lol
unique districts: all Tier S except Brazil's in Tier A or B
John Lu I would probably say that the Seowon is much better than the observatory, and the Zulu one (I can’t remember) also isn’t that amazing if I remember correctly.
@Der Panda True.
@@Connor-iu5wk The Ikanda however is crucial for the Zulu's playstyle. Training corps without military academies is amazing.
Do unique districts take up a district slot?
There should be a separate S tier for Pitati Archers. Horrifically strong and early, extra movement point is game changing, and fits with the meta of how you play the early game to begin with.
John Cole honestly, Nubia in general is broken overpowered. I dont play multiplayer though so i dont really care lol
@@claymathews8814 Everything else about Nubia seems fair. The pyramid tile improvement is situationally decent, and their mine buff is strong. But Pitatis make them ungodly strong. And the power spike continues, since your Pitati swarm is far more likely to produce some quad promoted CBows or Field Cannons, which is a huge deal. My first Deity win was with Nubia, and it didn't feel fair. I mean, Colombia even less so, but still
@Celtic Phoenix Classy.
@Celtic Phoenix Cringe
They are the only true S tier unit
S tier should be only broken units that are arguably not even healthy for the game
I think the Spanish Conquistador deserves a B tier simply because converting captured cities to your religion gives them increased loyalty.
and also easy age point because it convert city before you capture it.
It's a nightmare unit. Someone previously commented that they can have combat strength near GDRs.
But then they go back down a tier because you can't make a formation with religious units and have to micromanage them all.
When building a strategy around the Conquistadors they should easily be S Tier. Combining the Oliargy legacy card, great general, crusade belief and a relegious unit sums up to +29 combat strenght. Not even taking into account the support, flanking and promotion bonusses. Imagine having to fight them with +40 extra CS on offensive and +45 on defence...
Not to mention, you can easily acquire a religious victory if you're feeling like war is your thing.
I love how you segmented the video. I lost attention a few times but the timestamps told me exactly who you were talking about.
Still working on the segmenting.
35:50 Pike and Shots are even outclassed by their mere purpose of existence: Industrial Era Cavalry.
I wish the devs buffed the weapon to be stronger or something. I think 65 Melee Strength might make it better.
@@thesmm2311 That would be too much for a cheap unit on a very easy military tech with no resource cost. Maybe something like 58/59 with an equal buff on the musketman. Or the Cavalry/Cuirassier duo may need a nerf, just like the Courser/Knight duo, though this would be really painful to me if it actually happened.
@@XenophonSoulis 60 might be good enough. But i don't think the Musketman needs that buff because it can still deal +5 damage against the Pike and Shot.
Or just make it so it does +5 extra damage against cavalry.
@@thesmm2311 Units that are cheap and don't require resources are not meant to be that good anyway and the musketman is meant to really beat them. So I insist on something like 58. This would put its damage in regards to Cavalry and Cuirassiers on the same level as the damage of Pikemen in regards to Coursers and Knights. This would be a good enough balance, since a musketman would beat them by 7 (swordsmen beat pikemen by 5 only, but they are two tech-tree-rows earlier, while the musketman is one tech-tree-row earlier than the pike and shot). Given that they are so much cheaper than Cavalry and Cuirassiers and that they require no resources, it's a good enough balance.
@@XenophonSoulis Alright.
Potato: "The Diggers are trash"
*'Australia has declared war'*
Great way to dodge the 100% production boost if you ask me ^^
not requiring oil i think makes them very powerful!
wait thats illegal
RELEASE THE MAGPIES!
@@mtgamesnmore Release the EMUS!!
1. REALLY appreciate the bookmarks! Not only does this serve as a primer video, the bookmarks make it a wonderful in-game reference tool. You can very quickly remind yourself of how you should be leveraging your UUs strengths! Similarly, you can get expert intel on your enemies' UUs before they ROFLstomp you.
2. What do you think about giving the Australian Digger a single Builder/Engineer charge? Fortifications, trenches/canals and (rail)roads seem appropriate within their historical context.
When are we getting a tier list of your tier lists?
The Meta Tier list will be done in future
@@PotatoMcWhiskey I guess you do need more tier lists in order to populate the meta tier list 🤔
Calm down Charlie Kaufman.
Impossible to do this without an English tier item to give an F
oh snap, that's some Inception shit right there- a tier list WITHIN a tier list
"Turn your forests into an army of angry Roman Men."
- Laughed so hard I subscribed.
Dude, looking back at this tier list now, they actually did a pretty good job of ballancing things all around. They actually listened to community thoughts.
Toa and Roman legion are so great because of that double dip on era score, Toa, Pa, and Roman Legion and fort
The fort doesn't give era score I think unfortunately
I recognise that username from Reddit! Do you by any chance frequent r/soccer and r/NFL?
@Celtic Phoenix I'm conflicted about GS nerfing Legions by adding an Iron requirement- like, yeah, it makes sense to nerf Legions a little bit since having no resource requirement made them pretty OP... but otoh, Trajan has no other domination-oriented bonuses (I guess the amenity from their unique aqueduct is sort of relevant to domination, but that hardly counts), so having a really strong early UU actually makes sense for balancing the civ overall, even if the unit itself is a little unbalanced at the time you get it. If its the main thing that's going to set you up for the entire rest of the game with few other bonuses, then it SHOULD be really powerful. Look at Sumer: he doesn't have really any relevant mid or late game bonuses, but you don't need any, because the massive empire you acquired with your War Carts is already a big enough advantage.
* and its not like Legions are weak now, but I've had games where I had no feasible source of iron and so basically my entire domination strategy was screwed for that game... so making them contingent on RNG makes it a pretty big risk/reward issue rather than a reliable strategy (neither Sumer nor Nubia need to worry about not being able to make any of their UUs, for instance)
Informative video as always, thanks!
@39:27 - Janissaries' need for Niter is counteracted by the Ottomans' unique building Grand Bazaar in that you get one more strategic resource gain in the city that has Niter, so it really synergizes well in its power window
War cart is S tier... you may pass this time potato
“Let them move after they shoot” Civ 5 Flashbacks to where that mechanic was on a unique unit and made it ridiculously strong
@PotatoMcWhiskey Finally someone that sees how the Brazilian Battleship is S tier. Rushing them was my easiest Deity win. I just blasted away every costal city on the map while the other civs even though ahead on tech were fighting with Frigates. Even when the other civs caugh up with my navy by then my Battleships were fully upgraded double attack 4 range monsters. Easiest deity win I had.
The thing about the unique scout units that are later on (Inca and Scotland UUs) is that you don't build them. You build a lot of scouts early on, try to get them as many promotions as you can and preserve them, and upgrade them. Normally one regards scouts as disposable, but if you keep them around with these civs you can have a probably not that large but nonetheless potent force later.
I suck at naval gameplay so I basically sit out on scouts after scouting main continent until I get the way to cross ocean tiles and get map open even way later... yeah that's not for pangea maps.
You buff the Crouching Tiger cannon by making it a Chu-ko-nu like Civ5.
Civ4 Chu-ko-nu 😳
Plase rank city-states per victory type!
Edit: Oh my god yes, I have been waiting for this my entire life.
Btw, It would be ranking on a tier list with 5 columns per victory type and placing every cs on each column each time. Or do whatever you want lol. Nice vid of course!
What if they made it such that Crouching Tiger cannons get +1 range when in defensible districts or the Great Wall? (not Forts tho, since that would allow them to be used offensively)
I actually like this idea quite a bit as it's somewhat historically accurate. The Crouching Tiger saw a lot of use for defensive purposes and in particular was deployed to the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty making the Great Wall extra range an interesting idea.
Another option: since Crouching Tigers were primitive cannons, they should have no district damage penalty.
Station a Crouching Tiger either within the Great Wall or an Encampment and it'd basically act as a weaker Bombard that could also hold its own when being attacked because it's inside defensive terrain.
I like that idea. If they are to make China a defensive builder civ, then make their defensive unit actually worth building other than getting the era score & cranking up city combat strength
Ancient era units in general should also get a bump from the fact that they help get the era score for the first golden age, which is by far the hardest/most crucial to get.
It’s also important to view units from the civ’s victory conditions. For example, hoplite, although not very useful offensively, is perfect in a Culture game to defend both from ai and horse barb attacks.
Actually I find on harder difficulties that's actually a disadvantage for ancient era uniques, as even with that era score bump you'll be unlikely to manage a classical era golden age...its often better to get a classical dark age (which is why that era score actually hurts more than it helps), pick up monasticism dark age, then aim for a medieval heroic age. For this reason I tend to rate classical era uniques quite highly personally.
If Norway units isn't S tier, thumbs down...😏
30 seconds in and he's already talking about snowballs so.....
aged like milk
ironically, considering his norway playthrough, he's definitely eating crow on norway's units
Paradox knew what they were doing with Norway.
Just by adding Norway to the game, they instantly pleased the norwegian playerbase.
The Longship might be situational, the Berserkers weaker than fresh Lutefisk and the Stave church almost makes you happy to be pillaged, but...
Norway was mentioned! We as a nation are content.
Potato is talking about Barbary corsair where he says "when you combine it with the raid card, The Great Lighthouse and a great admiral you basically get the equivalent of an anime super villian teleporting behind people's coastal improvements printing stupid amounts of gold and faith for you" that comment was so hilarious I'm still laughing whenevet it comes to my mind. Great work buddy!
Then the Winged Hussars arrived!
Coming down they turned the tide!
Coming down the mountainside !
Thought this was Eckhart for a second
You need only ask the Ottomans about the Winged Hussars...
Thought you were EckhartsLadder
To fix
Horse archer: ignore zone of control, can move and attack in the same turn.
Berserker: ignore zone of control, start with a promotion.
Crouching tiger: Plus 10 combat strength when in a defensive improvement or district.
Samurai: plus 5 combat strength when defending.
Highlander: plus 1 range, double experience.
Rough Rider: plus 1 range.
shit i would actually use rangers for once if highlander had 2 range
war cart: disable in multiplayer
The longship is my favorite unit in the game just for the ability to coastal raid. Playing a fractal map or archipelago map is a blast using the longship. It especially helps in wars, being able to pillage that many tiles early on is so useful in a war. It's not a bad idea to just declare war with a civ early without even wanting to fight them just so you can pillage them with one or two long ships.
My issue with Civ - all the way back to the first one - is that fighting a war is so costly in production (and how much it drops you behind orher Civs) that the fun of battle barely exists for me. I always just avoid wars and fight a big one at the end.
The only way I can kinda enjoy warring is on a lower difficulty setting and then it's far too easy.
My tactic is to only attack if you have a clear advantage. i.e. a timing attack after beelining research to unlock a key unit early, counter attack after a succesful defense or ganging up on someone who is already at war. This works quite well on deity as well.
I always thought that having separate production slots in each city (or in cities with an encampment/harbor) exclusively for building military units would be great. And maybe add a manpower mechanic that's determined by your population + government type, policy cards, etc to keep army sizes from getting too crazy with this.
I'll normally have 1-2 cities dedicated heavily to unit production, and then just slam down some money/faith when I really need a specific building there. Then when war is done, I'll rush them back up and rarely have much trouble.
@@Links741 Cheers. I'm trying different strategies. Just started Civ 6 after many years of cold turkey with the series.
See I find quite the opposite. I'm a bit of a warmonger who takes things personally when someone declares war on me. If you attack me, I obliterate your civilization. I just finished a high seas map where I chose only civilizations that had a naval bias. I was Norway, and I was at war literally from like turn 6 all the way through a domination victory. I have yet to play on Deity, but that was on Immortal.
Every Civ iteration (besides the first) has always had the Zulus spamming Impi zerg rush style.
You said this took you ages and that our responses to the others put you in a "very happy time" and so I just wanted to say thanks a ton for making these!! I find the insights super handy and Civ 6 has quickly become my most-played, and a part of that is definitely thanks to your content! Keep it up man 😊😊
I think a roman war bonus that often gets overlooked is their instant roads. Conquer the first border city, and from then on your invasion speeds up. Perhaps this should be mentioned in mistakes or something?
Thats true, but in this case it wouldn't really affect their rating.
When playing Sumeria I don't even go for scouts (1 at most and bought if I can). Simply build 2-3 War Carts and go barb hunting. In barb heavy maps, the investment return is _insane_ .
Your "Minas Geraes" was actually pretty good, except the G ssounds more like the J in Janissary
Eh, se ele não tivesse silenciado o "r" teria sido melhor.
Is a Leader tier list coming up? I’d like to see your take on that. The roasting of Tamar’s gonna be great
And entirely deserved lmao, she's easily the worst civ ever
Faed1ng there are worse ones
@@viamer1554 who?
Georgia feels like playing a civ with no bonuses
I think she looks already roasted XD. Georgians are white Firaxis.
The diggers of the great nation of Australia will defeat any enemies in their path they are unstoppable
the Russian Cossacks should be higher. If it's used in the right hands it can eliminate any Nation right next to you it has similar abilities to the unique ability of Gran Colombia. It definitely doesn't deserve to be on the same rank as the British Redcoat
there needs to be a religious unique unit, like a unique apostle or missionary
A televangelist. Siphons gold when it wins a combat or converts a city. Double gold for converting a city you own. -1 amenity for the city it's built in.
No one expects the Spanish inquisition !
Not really a UU but I've had some success with Warrior Monks. They're cheap and if you have a lot of religion credits you can spam out a LOT of them and overwhelm your enemy. They're also pretty fast, with three movement points.
When you play Spain you need to make your entire game plan based on the conquistador. You can give them 83 combat strength which will almost one shot everything else around you. 55 base +10 from a missionary +10 from crusader religious perk +4 from facing a civ with a different religion and the policy card that does the same for an additional+4 puts the conquistador stronger than tanks. I know that sounds impossible to achieve but I've done it in multiple games relatively easy. Just focus on religion and science and turtle up until you're ready to kill everything in your way. Convert like 2 or 3 cities but make sure your opponent stays a majority different religion or you won't get the plus 8. You can conquer half a continent in like 25 turns with just 6 conquistadors
That’s even without corps’s and armies
" You can conquer half a continent in like 25 turns with just 6 conquistadors"
Historically accurate Hernan Cortes strategy.
@@Tadziomencel For real
You better be careful potato. Harald knows your seas are unprotected and will show you how good a Berserker can be.
I've really enjoyed your tier videos. Thanks for all the time you put into them. On future lists I would love to see tougher rating scales. When 40% of the units/wonders/civs are S or A tier, then it's hard to judge their relative power level. A tougher scale would give a more normalized distribution.
S tier: ~4 units/wonders/civs
A tier: ~7 units/wonders/civs
B tier: ~9 units/wonders/civs
C tier: ~10 units/wonders/civs
D tier: ~9 units/wonders/civs
E tier: ~7 units/wonders/civs
F tier: ~4 units/wonders/civs
Cheers! :)
Warakaq is honestly one of my favorite units BY FAR, its so fun to try to get your 1-3 early game scouts to level up and promote and survive and really value them, so that you can then upgrade them into warakaqs.
I love Inca in the first place for their unique playstyle and once you have 2 or even just 1 warakaq with the ambush promotion it will DESTROY literally ANYTHING it sees, NOT a single unit from the era and not a single unit even from the industrial era stands a chance against this.. it is LITERALLY a 120!! Combat strengths unit at this point that does not take any damage when attacking! And even without the promotion it is still a 80 Combat strength unit. Used right it is very much the definiton of an OP unit.
Personally, I would swap the Immortal and the Legion, the Immortal is just SO unique (the next non-recon unit capable of both melee and ranged attack in the giant death robot) that I can't place the Immortal anywhere but S tier.
I wouldn't swap, but put both in S tier, the Legion is the only unit that can chop (?) out itself without destroying important things (Toa), so it's incredibly good
I think the same. They're the giant death robots of the ancient era
Just put them both at S tier
Only thing about Immortals I don’t like is they cannot take a city.
TheMilkman I heard that was a bug that has been since patched.
Every body gangster until naval raider steals minas something or other
The version of the Civilopedia is a little bit outdated. I have noticed that when I was trying to find the profiles for some units. For example, pikemen now cost 180 production in GS instead of 200.
Thank you for posting this list, hope to see more.
My favorite thing about the Immortal is that, as a melee unit, it exerts zone of control This means you can besiege cities in an early war while dealing ranged damage, and therefore not taking damage yourself.
And later conquer the city with it!
as someone who plays on king difficulty and intentionally avoids going to war, i have no idea why i’m watching this, but it’s VERY informative
the warak'aq are just amazing. i understand that you don't really use them, but tried conquering with them once and it was amazing. you basically get a crossbowman that shoots twice a turn and have no penalty towards districts. i used 6 warak'aqs and a warrior to conquer my big rival with a much bigger army in something like 20 turns. they are just awsome.
I feel it would better if recon units had a +1 range bonus.
@@XenophonSoulis the warak'aq would just be over powered. i mean, crossbowman are already a strong unit, now give it another shot, no district penalty AND its cheaper.
The Inka Skirmisher can get the double recon unite experience bonus from however that Millitary card was called. Let me tell you, having 60 combat strength units that can move up 2 tiles through hills, shoot twice and then move back is pretty funny in the medievel era. Also pretty easy to get them to ambush when fighting a defensive war, they get 14-16 experience a turn when double shooting when combined with the double experience card and a Barracks.
They can't move after they shoot even once anymore
@@houndofculann1793 moving after shooting is a promotion they get before ambush
This really helped, appreciate it a lot🤩
And, as a sidenote, dear goodness the Jannisary is OP, i have Steamrolled people, combined with a siege tower this thing is really good
And another sidenote, i am really unhappy with the Seadog, i think there could be a better choice like, as an example, longbowmen as like a replacement for crossbowmen or something, but that might just be my opinion.
I think siege towers only grant their Bonus to anti-kav ^^
Ship of the line are way better imo
@@sauronsmundwinkel no i think it applies to melee and anti cav, but i am not 100% sure🤷🏻♂️
@@rivaldealer__ or like the p51 for america england can have the spitfire or hurricane🤔🤷🏻♂️
Longbow men would be lit
The Warak'aq is clearly A or even S tier. It's strong enough (two shots at 40 is usually enough to kill your prey, so the weak defense is less of an issue), quick leveling enough (two shots means twice as much xp, which also means hp faster) that Ambush is realistic to get (especially if you can get hold of Kabul), and with that, you will have a 40/60, double shooting combat unit that is faster and more mobile than the crossbowman, slightly cheaper than the crossbowman and can withdraw after shooting to make up for the disadvantage of only having one range.
Recon units get a bad rep, but consider how strong the upgrade tree is before discounting them.
Honestly it seems like the lion's share of the weight you give is based on the base unit and how important it is to overall game: how it's unlocked, cost, strength relative to era, expected time period of usefulness, promotion class, etc. And I can't really argue with that, since any non-ridiculous unique unit buffs on bad base units is the quintessential example of "polishing a turd."
It'd be a crowded field (circa 50 total), but a tier list for base units might be a good resource for new players, and leads to some fun discussion of overall game shape and some little technical pleasures like promotion choices and different mixed military compositions.
I.E. knight S, crossbowman S, Scout S, heavy chariot D, horseman B, archer A, slinger C, catapult D, Bombard S, swordsman A, Musketman B, spearman E, ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC
hahaha jk spearman F-
OK I DID IT FOR FUN
Scout S+ Skirmisher F Ranger F SpecO C
Warrior B Swordsman A Musketman C Inf D Mechanized Inf E
Slinger C Archer A Crossbow S Field Cannon C Machine Gun F
Spearman F Pikeman F P+S F AT F Modern AT F
Horseman A Courser C Cav C Helecopter E
Chariot C Knight S Cuirasser B Tank C Modern Arm A
Catapult C Bombard S Artillery B Rocket Art A
Galley C Caravel C Ironclad E Destroyer D
Quadrireme B Frigate A Battleship C Missile Cruiser B
Privateer E Sub F Nuclear Sub D
Carrier C
Biplane B Figher S Jet Fighter S
Bomber B Jet Bomb A
Thank you for the time to making this list, altho with a lot of hours in Civ you get sort of a feeling for the unique units and their worth its nice to see them all in comparison to each other and even learn a few more things. I never valued the Basilian ship before, I may be able to get use out of it in the future.
More to the violent nature of Gengis and Shaka than to my own preferences on the Corean Playstile I was forced into a couple of wars recently as Korea, including a Havacha Push and I have to say they make decent support and siege Units in an offensive War. They still do a decent amount of damage against walls, especially with a couple of promotions and general support. In my situation a total lifesaver because of no niter.
The squishiness and the no attack after moving debuff makes them very venerable to City attack focus which often means sacrificing one or two. But there amazing attack as well as their decent melee defense still makes them a good offensive Unit. The cheap prices of the sevons allow Korea to have time to focus on war economic as well. If you would rush an AI early with those things they will easily thair down walls and units, altho Bombard support would be still adequate if possible.
In my opinion B-Tier
Suggestion for future videos. Could you have the name of the thing you're talking about at the top? I keep having to go back to hear what its called
If you put your pointer on the time bar at the bottom the name of the unit will come up underneath the little display preview.
I remember one of my most recent games, I went full Waraq'aq, and moved on to try and punch Genghis Khan for an emergency. Deleted his melee units and crossbowmen, got some good promotions in. Suffered a couple losses due to cavalry and obliterated them the turn after. Then I moved to his city to actually do something useful, and my host of unique units went *ping* against those walls before getting one-shot, making me lose most of the rest of my army in what turned out to be one of my costliest military losses.
Fun times
I've never seen the timeline bar have named separators. It certainly makes it easier to find the specific units in this video, but it stopped sectioning at the Ottoman Barbary Corsair. Is that a production error, or something on UA-cam's end?
Its me, I didn't realise it was a feature and it takes time to make it work.
Money where my mouth is, I'd pay 1.99 a month for one of these a month, please continue the teir lists man they are incredible content
Can we just appreciate this has timestamps for all the units?
Love the video
One thing Potato never even mentions about the Roman Legion is that it can also repair forever if it has a build charge. So you can pillage, and then repair it with the same unit.
Don’t know if you’ve done one before but would love to see a tier list on all the Civs
Writing this before I watch just to tell you how excited I get when I see you upload these teir lists. I immediately saved what I was doing grabbed my dog and ran to my bed to watch this under the covers for maximum focus. Keep doing what you do man you have genuine fans beacuse of it
Woot! Less than a minute since you posted. Glad I saw it. This is a video I've been hoping you'd make.
Is worth pointing out that both Greece (Gorgo) and Rome get UAs that give them lots of early culture, helping you get to Agoge and Oligarchy much more quickly, which syncs well with boosting their units
New idea for the Cossack: +1000 combat strength when fighting in the winter
That'd be nice if Civ6 had seasons. Instead, do blizzards as those exist.
New russian unique bonus: +10 combat strength in snow and tundra and +15 additional and invisibility in blizzards
I think cossacks should be able to settle cities, as i believe they were used to settle Siberia and the steppe.
Guys do you know about the winter war? You wouldn't be telling such a nonsense if you knew about russian performance in Finland or even about what means being a cossack. Russian cossacks are cossacks to the same extent as Russia being the third Rome
my favourite strategy with the Jong is to get Crusade, use the Jong to move your melee units to the place your killing, which gives your Jong an extra 15 combat strength, and you will literally MELT walls
Me: wondering why this video took so long
Also Me: 50 MINUTES!
Thank you very much Mr Potato to invest a lot of time and effort to give this tier list to the Warmongers and the people (like me) that barely builds an army if not just for mere defense purposes. We appreciate this analysis and, again, thank you SO MUCH for this :)
It was a shame that Ethiopia wasn't release yet so we could have their unique unit in the tier list too
Anyone remember the XCOM squads from Civ 5? I wish those were in Civ 6
agreed
Yeah but it was mostly a reference to beyond earth, but they’d be cool future era units
The360Mlg Noscoper True
Lord of Hunger could compliment the GDR in being cool future thing with a wierd promotion scheme
The360Mlg Noscoper Yeah they need to expand the future era, I feel like there isn’t too much there for me to do after GDR’s
That explanation about the snowball effect and how units useability depends on how early into the game they come... this explains why archers are SO POWERFUL.
3:13 when you play on archipelago map the bireme easly becomes A-S tier. You can create a lot of them in early game and they can easly defeat naval cities. (It's bonus is useless though)
I had literally not understood the value/worthlessness of any of these units in a year of playing Civ 6. Your videos are amazing. Never stop.
Hey spud. I love these lists
I love your way of doing the voice-overs. As an Impi-fan you made me sit on the edge of my seat here. But yeah.. Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi ImpiImpi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi Impi ;)
Since I found your channel I've been playing Civ 6 almost non-stop, and improving way more quickly than I did before! Thank you so much!
Your beginner's guide videos really helped me out. By video 3 I was lost but I think that's on me, not you.
Might be older content, but I’m just getting in to civ6 and civ in general do all of your analysis is invaluable for me. Thanks for the great content!
I just realized that there is only ONE aircraft unique unit in the game - surprising! And also no unique tank units...
JFD's custom mods have perhaps 3 unique tank units LOL
I think every faction should have unique units per era. If they didn't exist in said era, give them the vanilla units instead.
German panzer would be LIT
@@userjay4 iirc that was in Civ V
I love how the heavy bomber is just called a jet bomber when it's CLEARLY a B-52. Have your engineers build two forward airfields, buy 6 bombers with that strong economy you've built, and you can start steamrolling across the world. AI doesn't use air defenses.
20:50 Ireland truly is a land of poets.
How you put Legion in S tier but Immortals in A tier blows my mind
Legions have the chop and higher combat str.
@@PotatoMcWhiskey I guess it's just personal preference but for me the efficiency of being able to take out units and cities with just ranged attacks without losing health is just so nice. Also I don't need chops when you can just use the monumentality perk with a Golden Age and if you rush pyramids or the governor who gets builders extta charges then boom, buy a 5 or 7 charge builder with faith starting from the classic age
came for the content, stayed for the timeline chapter marks. So much work! Thanks for putting out these great videos
47:12 oh dear no don’t let them hear you say that
Too late.
As someone who’s played 30 hours of civ in the last two weeks, thank you for these videos.
Can you do a civ comparison next? Because that would be amazing for civ players especially for beginners.
Next civ game needs to have wide rivers that naval units can travel down, while also serving as “railroads” making travel much faster. Rivers are a huge deal in civilizations in real life.
Question in your opinion, what makes fighters useful? I find that the AI is typically very bad at defending against air power even on deity so bombers are typically all that are necessary. Maybe one fighter to provide vision, but that's about it. I'd rather spend my oil on one more bomber or tank than on a fighter.
Fighters for vision and killing units.
Last time I came this early my girlfriend broke up with me
Righty broke up with you? I'm sorry man.
@@KellingtonDorkswafer Me to man now your stuck with lefty
Took me 5 seconds to get the joke
Hahaha, like you had one that isn't called your right hand...
You gotta learn that controlled breathing, bro