Sadly you gradually lose less and less as resistance crumbles and the final stages are truly a time consuming and dreary experience.

But I'm afraid it can't be said that they are useless.

I love bribing barb ships of all kinds - one of my best games was kick started by a lucky barb trireme that turned up just when I had built my first diplo and had a bit of hut money on hand, boy did the big routes go in quick in that game - but a frigate bribe has got to be my favourite. They sometimes appear quite early and you may be some way off that tech yourself. For a while they rule the seas and can carry your caravans in almost complete safety. And if you get lucky you decimate the A1's shipping. OK they don't seem to carry the punch of the ironclad when bombarding but they can still cut lines of communication to coastal cities so during the short time they rule they support invasion well.

Otherwise, they are a lot of units I do not build, but it does not mean I find them 'worthless':

Nukes and Missiles:
I never build them, and when I get them - they come with the city I bribed - I disband them, so I can rush (re)build the wall/SAM/SDI.

Legions, Marines, Battleships, Fregates, Catapults, Partisans.
I find them too expensive to build, but I am really very happy to get/buy them to hut/ennemy/barbarians.

Elephants, Ironclads, Canons, ... (here I think I forget some...):
I would like to build them, but usually they are obsolete so soon, I have no real time to build much of them.

Exploring is one of the more enjoyable parts of the game (perhaps why I live in the marches...), and my civ always has several explorers in service until later in the game.

Even after all has been discovered, they are useful for leading your troops into enemy territory. He moves ahead to scout; Your army knows where to safely go without risk of surprizing a camp of enemy bad guys.

1. Virtually never lose him;

2. Give up tipping huts any other way.

I described a method in a thread a while back so won't repeat it but if you just try using the three units together it starts being obvious what to do very quickly. Clear the fog away on each continent first, then methodically tip the huts, exploiting the coastline or the inland terrain to keep safe. If you ran into a continent comprising flatlands and nothing with many huts more than two squares from the coast you might need a second diplo for full security. But on ordinarily mixed terrain the three movement points of the explorer and the two movement and bribe ability of the dip will keep them secure.

You get to want some barb outcomes so that you can keep up the stream of good NONE units being sent home.

And when all exploring is finally done his three square movement and ignoring ZOC is still useful.

quote: Originally posted by Blaupanzer on 05-07-2001 02:43 PM Dry, I'm surprised that battleships make your list.

First, sorry for late answer, but I am not here every day.

Yes, battleships are on my list, because the window of usefulness for those queens of the seas is small. Yes, when cruise missiles comes, they cannot exit the harbour anymore. Aegis to escort? yes, but when you got Aegis, why do you need battleship anymore?
I found battleships usefull for:
- costal bombardement. Once the ennemy has coastal defense, they become useless for it, and Aegis can do as good in not harbour hexes.
- sink other battleship. Why should I do that? The AI suicide his battleships against my Alpine troop behind coastal defense.
- sink cruisers. An vet Aegis or a sub can do this as well.

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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

quote: Originally posted by Scouse Gits on 05-11-2001 02:55 PM EOL - your AI is permitted battleships! - Mine have not had a port city since shortly after I discovered Steam Engine!

If I'm player a peaceful planet guardian style game .

EOL