Units seldom used.

[Tricon]

Slingers are good patrolers.
Not a very redeeming use, I know... but at least they serve some purpose.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
Abyssia - Humanbreds and Salamanders. The former is simply a lite Version of the basic troops and the latter is way expensive for it's punch.

Humanbreds still have a good use: fire-resistant strat move 2 bodyguards for your mages.

Caelum Return of the Raptors - Raptor and Ravenguard have so far failed to prove why I should ever buy these units instead of the basic troops.

The Raven Guards are expensive but have more punch than any other Caelum flier and aren't cold dependant. I find them useful.

C'Tis - Militia, Falchioneers, Slave and Elite Warriors.

Berserked falchioneers are rather good and deal serious damage. Elite Warriors are excellent with Mass Protection. Both have dual attacks and are the C'tissian regular troops I use the most.

Jotunheim - Jotun Huskarls and Hurlers.

I find Hurlers very adequate to crush knights with their boulders. You just have to very careful when deploying them.

Marignon - You get three units with increasingly longer weapons. I can see the use of only one of them. What am I missing here?

Flexibility and countermeasures. Greatswords vs heavily protected swordsmen (best of the 3 to deal with Einheres). Pikes vs low-prot spearmen (eg, Reef Warriors). Halberds if you need punch vs tough enemy with range 3-4 weapons (eg, Ulm's battleaxe infantry). And halberdiers are good at defending castles.

Summons - Soulless, when you can get longdeads that actually hit something?

More often than not you aren't given the choice. Eg, reanimation after battles or popkilling events raise Soulless only. And Soulless have 15+ hitpoints and Last longer than basic longdeads in a meatshield role. So if your ability to deal damage comes from another source than your lowly undead troops, Soulless may be better.

[PDF]

All nations : unprotected/badly protected light Inf (Cardaces, Satyrs, ...). Except as arrow catchers :eek ...
All nations : Lt Cav. Too expensive for its -limited- usefulness (even for patrolling)
Arco : "Heavy" Cav, not that heavy, no lance and expensive...
Pythium : Velites. Get something better, it's only marginally more expensive. Hastati : why get them when you can have Principes for 3 gold more ?

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Hurlers cost the same amount of gold as spearmen (while only half the resources) but their 10 protection (vs. 18 for the spearmen) and pathetic 5 defense means that you'll waste all that gold very quickly if the hurlers ever get in melee. They are simply a bad investment.

They're a good investment if you use them only for what they're good at. Spearmen have serious problems dealing with high defense high damage units, like knights. OTOH a single boulder can crush a knight flat.

[Norfleet]

I think it's a testimony to the raw niftiness of Dominions II that anytime somebody thinks something is useless, somebody else disagrees with their own reasons for what they use them for.

[Wauthan]

Seems I finally managed to create a somewhat interesting topic. Thanks for all the comments so far.

Good to hear that C'Tis Falchioneer and Elite Warrior got their uses. If a bit more specialised one then I hoped for. C'Tis is my favorite nation after Atlantis. Trouble is that I get a lot more power for my gold by simply going for heavy infantery and a morale boosting priest than using these two units. Can you give me some tips for proper deployment since the problem I have is that they die far faster then I can accept. Elite warriors can be kept on hold and attack rearmost to make a flanking manouver I guess.

I must have really bad luck with Jotun Hurlers. I would never imagine these guys Lasting one combat turn against heavy cavalery. They either get swarmed, since they walk so close to melee range, or they toss their boulders into the backs of their fellow giants (nothing new but these missiles are way too dangerous to allow friendly fire).

Thanks for the revelation that Preatorian Guards don't always come with an affliction. I must have been unlucky the first few times I checked them and assumed they always came crippled.

I'm sorry Fahdiz but I don't agree. Spider Riders are too lightly armored to Last very long. They are essentially basic Machaka archers with the bonus of turning into Giant Spiders when they die (though archer deployment means they will rarely reach their foes before the battle is decided). In theory good but since I can not replace the archer I get a Giant Spider, whose a melee fighter. It's not that the unit doesn't have its use. It's the fact that the Spider Knight unit renders it obsolete in my eyes.

I'm glad you found Revelers useful. Trouble is that when I group them with Satyrs myself what happens is that the nonrevelers rout leaving the berserkers alone to be slaughtered. But then again that means the enemy is distracted long enough for the other satyrs to make good their escape.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
Abyssia - Humanbreds and Salamanders. The former is simply a lite Version of the basic troops and the latter is way expensive for it's punch. They're sole saving grace is a two point move but what's the point of being speedy if you can't actually beat anything you catch up with?

Salamanders are useless with their current price / stats, IMO. More HP and NP or a lower price would be nice. Humanbreds are decent... a bit pricey, but good arrow bait (tower shields) / flankers (faster than Abysians) for Abysia, and good commander guards (2 strat move). I don't build many of them, but I always build some.

Arcosephale - Slingers and Light Cavalery. Slingers are waste of gold, which explains why they make out your PD. Even with spellsupport shortbow archers beat the snot out of them. Light Cavalery is expensive, fragile and inaccurate. Even if they get around the infantery they can not take down the commanders.

Slingers are vastly overpriced, but decent for patrolling and fodder for mind bLast / hellbind heart / extra targets versus "fire archers" orders. But archers are better in all those roles. Slingers should be 5 gold.

Atlantis - Spearmen. Sure they are cheap but I rather buy 5 reefwarriors over 10 spearmen. The former might Last the battle atleast.

Unshielded spearmen are useless, IMO. Shielded ones are nice... reef warriors do not have shields. I only buy Coral Guard or shielded spearmen, never Reef Warriors.

Caelum Return of the Raptors - Raptor and Ravenguard have so far failed to prove why I should ever buy these units instead of the basic troops. Even when modding I could not come up with a balanced idea to "save" them.

Make them -2 gold, and other units +1 gold.

C'Tis - Militia, Falchioneers, Slave and Elite Warriors. Militia suffers from the ordinary quantity does not beat quality problem. Falchioneers die far too fast and kill far too little, much like the Slave and Elite Warriors. The other C'Tis troops are remarkably more useful than these.

I find the elite warriors very powerful. As for falchioneers... I suggest you use my "PrePatch" bugfix mod; their ambidextrity is insufficient otherwise. The bugfix mod only gives them +1 attack, though - +2 would be (arguably) acceptable.

Jotunheim - Jotun Huskarls and Hurlers. 1 point better morale verus 3 points lower protection. If I'm short on gold and resources I'll go for javelintossers (who got the range of a bow). Hurlers do a lot of damage yes? But the range is so short they are usually enter melee before throwing boulders and if they do those highdamage stones knocks down your own troops at an alarming rate. Again I go for Javelineers. Or the coolest unit ever created, the Mooseriders.

Huskarls are indefensibly worthless. They cost more and are worse than the 'non-handpicked' Jotuns. 33 gold, +1 attack, +1 HP, and a jotun sword instead of an axe would make them useful.

Machaka - Milita and Spider Riders. Spider Riders are not worth the price of 5 regular archers nor do they have anything like the staying power of a Spider Knight. When do you build these?

They are too expensive, but nice skirmish units... set them on "fire closest" and they can web a big group of melee units. Keep your own units out of the way.

Man - Militia and Slingers.

Fine, just not cost effective, and need to be rebalanced (-2 gold).

Marignon - You get three units with increasingly longer weapons. I can see the use of only one of them. What am I missing here?

Which one? Swordsmen and pikemen are both quite good...

Pangea - When do you build Revelers? I never found their use.

Pan's only buyable footsoldiers that don't run away when wounded=)

Summons - Soulless, when you can get longdeads that actually hit something? Corpse Construct, you get a really expensive Soulless for those precious airgems.

Soulless are good fodder, as you get more of them than longdead. Against vastly more powerful elite units, both longdead and soulless are powerless... and thus, soulless (higher hp AND you generally get more of them) use up more enemy fatigue.

Corpse constructs are useless, IMO, though I've never used one (except in the combat sim). Regeneration and/or triple HP would be interesting, but right now, they're similar to Soulless Giants, except not free.

Iron Pigs, well they're cute and all but a size three trampler isn't really worth the magic.

I don't know... backed by fanatacism or berserk, they could destroy most human-sized armies. Remember, they have ironskin in addition to trample, so are mainly vulnerable to morale loss. But that's theoretical; I haven't used them.