Your favorite combat Unit(s) ever

[Brian Boru]

my favorite unit ever is the Apocalypse Tank, one of many advances on the original excellent Mammoth Tank. Not only can it fight air, infantry and armor, it can pull back and slowly self-heal!

Tripped over this topic in my other thread just now about Cannon Fodder. Be they assassins, jet fighters, wizards or nukes, which combat unit(s) live on in your memory long after the game is complete?

My AT above is one of a line of similar units from the Command & Conquer series—it really is an army in a can. I used to often base a whole mission strategy around it.
1. Get a couple, one each approach to your base beside a built—and therefore repairable!—defense structure, and you're safe.
2. A squad of 4-6 can almost always own their map sector, self-repair meaning they don't have to return to base. Keep pulling them just behind each other when damaged from concentrated attack, and let the enemy waste themselves in your gauntlet.
3. Great on open maps with few choke points—they're unstoppable only when they can support each other side-by-side. Much less useful in closed terrain.

My other favorite would be an air unit—I always go for air power when available. Something like the Hind Chopper, which is excellent to target any anti-air support infantry so other air units can tackle the armor. Also a major PITA for any isolated unit like a Harvester, as it can stay on attack for a long time before needing to return to reload.

Or the Mig Fighter from C&C 1, excellent at the primary job—hit fast and accurately, and escape quickly. I always felt a lot safer once I got ~4 of them built, no surprise enemy incursion would be unattended for long. Their reload time was really quick too, so you could keep an assault cycle going.

 

[ZedClampet]

Johnny Bags -- Super Mega Baseball 3: Baseball has offense and defense, so it's basically combat. I've hit the cycle twice with him and he always leads the league in HR's. In 430 hours of this game, I've only lost once, and Johnny is a major reason. If I ever lose him from my team at the end of the season, I start over.

Ajax's Companions -- Total War: Troy: The most dominating infantry unit in any Total War game that I can remember. They don't start great, but their stats become unbelievable when maxed.

Star Dragons -- Total War: Warhammer: My favorite flying unit. They have a devastating breath attack and are brutal in melee. They are fast and are flanking machines. That is, when they are done killing the enemy general a couple of minutes into the battle. In custom battles I've even defeated the a doom stack of Dread Saurians with them.

XCOM -- Civilization 5: The most advanced infantry unit, and it can basically fly and drop in where you want it.

 

[Johnway]

No surprises, the super units in RTS games are obviously my fav. But for more ordinary units siege and long range units are probably my preferred units. Once i get them the tables turn and i can actually attack an enemy proper.

 

[Sarafan]

It's hard to pick. I'd say my biggest sympathy goes to Protoss Carrier from Starcraft 1. It's durable (shields plus armor) and devastating in larger groups. Can take all sorts of units and buildings and often stays far away from threat by deploying smaller crafts which take the enemy fire on themselves. Basically it doesn't have any weaker points unless you're planning to use only one or two at the same time.

Special place goes also for the Ion Cannon Control Center from C&C3 (it's a building, I know), which allows to fire the destructive Ion Cannon on your enemies. I always thought the Ion Cannon from C&C3 as the most entertaining mass destruction weapon in history of RTSs. It's really cool to use it. I spent countless hours playing skirmishes in this game just to launch another salvo on the enemy.

 

[Zloth]

Hmmm, the Tyrannodon of Age of Wonders: Planetfall? A nasty looking dinosaur with armor and laser guns is hard to beat. Unfortunately, I've only gotten to use it a few times.

Oh, and one from Alpha Centauri! You could design your own units in that game. I made a colonizer unit with parachutes. They could launch from an airport and plop down in all sorts of hard-to-reach places - islands being a favorite. Plus, I love the idea of farmers, barn animals, fast food cooks, carpenters, and phone sanitizers all parachuting onto some unsuspecting meadow.

XCOM -- Civilization 5: The most advanced infantry unit, and it can basically fly and drop in where you want it.

WHAT!? Firaxis!!!

 

[ZedClampet]

WHAT!? Firaxis!!!

One of the victory conditions is to build an advanced spacecraft, and when you win the game this way, it asks you if you want to continue your game in Galactic Civilizations II. If you answer "yes" it opens up that game and ports your save information to it.

 

[Zloth]

One of the victory conditions is to build an advanced spacecraft, and when you win the game this way, it asks you if you want to continue your game in Galactic Civilizations II. If you answer "yes" it opens up that game and ports your save information to it.

That would be cool - and surprising! Can we also change Gal Civ 2 so, when a battle happens, it starts up Homeworld to handle the fight?

 

[Pifanjr]

Age of Empires 2: The Woad Raider - Fast, cheap and does bonus damage against buildings. Really the only thing you need to build, just be careful there's no onagers around.

Total War: Warhammer 2: Irondrakes - Warhammer 2 has a lot of fun units, but none of them so far have been as satisfying to me as dwarves with flamethrowers.

XCOM: Snipers - I'm pretty sure my two snipers made about 80% of the kills in my last campaign.

Homeworld: Cataclysm: The Beast Cruise Missile - A one-shot missile that can infect its target, allowing you to take control of it. Any unit that can convert other units is always fun and this one is quite effective, at least vs. the AI.

 

[Zloth]

XCOM: Snipers - I'm pretty sure my two snipers made about 80% of the kills in my last campaign.

Yeah, they were a bit much in XCOM1. XCOM2 nerfed them back to sanity. XCOM2 + Long War let's you give them the Run & Gun skill, though, which can sure be fun!

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