Most of the Chronicles UTs are pretty weak with some notable exceptions.
Achaemenids
Sparabaras
- Spearman give +1 pierce armour to nearby units.
This sounds kind off ok but they are missing the last armour upgrade. So with this UT they have -1/-1 armour compared to fully upgraded Spearman.
The +1 to nearby units is also not that useful when it comes from a unit that takes bonus damage from almost every Archer unit (ironically not from Immortals).
Reed Arrows
- Bowman, Cavalry Archers, ranged Immortals and Galleys fire 25% faster
This is a huge bonus especially because they have Bracer and Thumb Ring too.
This is basically a buffed up version of the Ethiopian civ bonus plus the Mongol civ bonus for Cavalry Archers plus the Saracene civ bonus for Galleys.
You are missing the last archer armour upgrade but so are the Mongols and no one considers them a weak civ.
Scythed Chariots
- War Chariots have +60% trample radius
Pretty solid upgrade to an already strong unit.
Karada
- Infantry and foot Archers +15% hit points.
15% is not much for units that already have low HP and on top of that you are missing both the last Archer and Infantry armour upgrade.
Vikings and Vietnamese get +20% and they have all armour upgrades. Both of those bonuses are not considered all that strong.
Athenians
Taxiarchs
- Strategoi give an additional +1 attack to nearby melee units, and their aura is 33% larger.
This one is decent. +1 attack is not that much (Aztecs get +4! Malians effectively +3) but the +33% aura range also helps buffing archers where the +1 matters more.
Iphicratean Tactics
- Skirmishers receive a +4 charge attack on their projectiles.
This allows Skirmishers to do damage against units that usually only take 1 damage from them. But the recharge time is long.
Not a bad technology for trash wars.
Eisphora
- 33% of the Hoplite gold cost is replaced with an additional food cost.
it costs 750 Gold and reduces the Gold cost of Hoplites by 10. You have to train 75 Hoplites to get your money back. That’s a lot.
And then you pay more food too on top of the 600 Food cost of the technology.
This probably almost never pays off.
Malay are just missing Gambeson and Champion and they get the whole Gold cost turned into Food cost.
Poles get -60% Gold cost without additional Food cost on their knights and they are just missing Paladin and the last armour upgrade.
Delian League
- Bowman and Gastraphetoroi move 10% faster
Faster Archers is pretty good. That allows you to micro them a lot better, especially vs. Infantry but also vs. Knights.
Spartans
Helot Levies
- Spearman, Skirmisher and Villager train 50% faster
This is actually a pretty decent eco bonus on top of a trash war bonus.
It also allows you to react to the enemy army composition faster since it affects the main counter units.
Xyphos
- Hoplits and Monoremes +1 attack for every 10 nearby enemy military units (max +3)
This sounds good on paper but there are 2 issues:
- Hoplites lose their speed charge (they can sprint towards the enemy in short range)
- It also just seems to not work at all according to bug reports
Krypteria
- Infantry receive -33% bonus damage.
This is essentially a much worse version of the Sicilian bonus that applies to all units.
Infantry is mostly countered by other units being stronger, especially archers and not by bonus damage. Especially considering that Sicilians used to get -50% bonus damage at some point.
Both Athenians and Achaemenids have some units with bonus damage vs. Infantry but just reducing that bonus damage by 33% is really not that much.
Peleponnesian League
- Warships train 50% faster and Forts slowly generate gold.
Forts generate 20 Gold per Minute. The technology costs 400 Gold so it takes 20 Minutes to pay of with one Fort.
Even with 4 Forts it takes 5 minutes
One Relic gives you 30 Gold per Minute btw.
The faster warship bonus is useful on water maps though.
Summery
A lot of UTs are pretty weak. Some even feel like Red Herrings (they are just there to make the other option look better).
This is kinda sad considering that mutually exclusive UTs are one of the central features of Chronicles.
I think some of the UTs just need to be buffed to be viable.
Sparabaras could give +2 pierce armour which would at last make up for the missing armour upgrade.
Karda should probably give +25% HP to be worth it.
Eisphora should cost less and not add additional food and maybe even reduce the Gold cost by -50% (-15).
Xyphos probably just needs to be fixed. Maybe it should cap at a higher number and/or require less enemies. Like +1 for every 5 enemies with a max of 5.
Krypteia needs to reduce the bonus damage by at last -50% to be worth it.
Peleponnesian League should cost less and/or give more gold. Maybe as much as a relic for each Fort so +50% gold. Still half as much as a Feitoria that also generates all other resources.