Best Unit in the Game... Any thoughts?

[Taqwus]

Most spells, esp. most summons, are described in your manual.

The 'Slave to Unreason' is quite an interesting character.

[quantum_mechani]

Taqwus said:
Most spells, esp. most summons, are described in your manual.

The 'Slave to Unreason' is quite an interesting character.

Good catch, I totally forgot about doom horrors since they are so impractical to employ in MP. My personal favorite is the maker of ruins.

[Saxon]

I think the best unit in the game has to be a mage who casts buffs on an army and globals. Pick your choice of magic paths, though a high level death mage with Utterdark, Burden of Time and some fun combat spells looks tasty to me. They have more potential to win a game than even a great SC.

[mathusalem]

Devourer of Souls of course

[Edratman]

I found that this is like a paper/rock/scissors game. Whenever I think I've found the best unit, it usually gets chopped up at some point by a counter strategy that I was oblivious to.

So how can you truly judge a unit? Some are merely good by themselves, but really trick up well with buffing.

Personally I love the rare, but strong independent mages that cover magic paths that I don't have. That may because you cannot tuly buy or make them, you have to get lucky and stumble upon them.

But think the correct way to answer your question would categorize the units as:
1. Very strong
2. Good
3. poor
4. Too expensive for what you get
Even with this, units change relative strength from early to late game. A prime example of this are mages. Without much magic research, most of them do not contribute much early and what they can do requires mundane troops to keep them out of melee. However, by the late game 4 or 5 of the right mages and the right spells can devestate a 500+ army.

[Shovah32]

Heavily equipped seraphs and doom horrors(equipped or unequipped) are probably some of the best. Specially built pretenders could over-take seraphs and maybe some of the doom horrors.
Gift of reason is a spell that turns regular units into commanders(even wishing for a commander gives you it as a unit) and so is required if you wish for a seraph.

[SlipperyJim]

I like my GoR-ed Tarrasque, empowered to S4 so she can Gateway her buddies in Team Tarrasque all over the map.

The original question is a bit off, though. As Edratman wrote, it's really hard to pin down the "best" unit in a game this complex. Best at what? Best thug? Best mage? Best support unit? And even if you manage to narrow down your terms, you'll find that someone has a counter-tactic that will leave your uber-unit crying for mercy.

So, yeah, there is no "best" unit in Dom3. Certainly, any of the unique summons are very powerful. For example, the King of Banefires makes a fantastic supercombatant. Air Queens can use the Cloud Trapeeze - Staff of Storms - Wrathful Skies trick to wreck entire armies. Arch Devils can lead a powerful raiding force behind enemy lines. Etcetera....

In a different line of reasoning, I also like units that are reasonably powerful, versatile, and easily available. According to that standard, I like the Barbarian Heavy Horseman from Late-Age TC. Those guys are great! You can buy them in any fort, they have a strategic move of 2 (yay, horses!), and they'll grind up nearly any mundane army into dust. Just set them to "Hold & Attack (whatever)": they'll send three volleys of composite-bow arrows at the closest enemy, which will then be followed by a devastating charge. They have good defense and adequate armor, so they're reasonably survivable. Yeah, I'm a cavalry fanatic.

[Shovah32]

A big group of them set to hold and attack closest(with a small screen of tower shield infantry to catch stray arrows) with two flanking groups of W9N4 ancestor vessels has always served me well(with the ancestor vessels being costly and less easily availiable but having more punch) but could be similarly effective with just the barbarian cavalry. The barbarian horsemen(and ancestor vessels) are pretty much what make LA Tien Chi a viable nation as they are very versatile and powerful.

[Gandalf Parker]

Best for what? I tend to think of best supporting units but
Standalone fighter I am guessing. IN that case Terrasque would seem to have been put in the game to be that altho eater of the dead is also a good choice

Inst there also an eater of heroes and eater of gods?

[tibbs]

There's a Hunter of Heroes.