One disappointing point for many about Return of Rome is the absence of unique units. There never was any and despite being a staple of AOE2 since AOK, they still aren’t here. Which limits how unique each civ will feel.
So this topic aims at giving unique units for existing civs. Due to the fact that the tech tree is already quite restricted but puts heavy bonuses for core units, some might be unique upgrades.
Romans :
scorpion : a field scorpion lighter than the ballista, intended to be used as fire support for the legions
corvus quinquereme : a warship that causes heavy melee attack while crippling its target’s speed, locking itself on it while legionaries board the ship
Chang
chu-ko-nu. Yes, it’s back ! It was apparently invented around the 5th century ACN and improved by Zunge Liang in the 2nd century AD, and to no one’s surprise it’s a fast firing archer
Assyrians
siege tower. The Assyrians were excellent at sieging so please make it less useless than in AOE2
Macedonians
phalangist. A replacement of the hoplite with a range of 1 like the kamayuk, making macedonian phalanxes exceptionally strong
Greeks
spartan hoplite : a stronger hoplite with regeneration
athenian trireme : give it a melee charge attack (like the coustillier) to be a ramming attack
Carthaginians
numidian cavalry. A faster light cavalry with a cavalry bonus
Carthage used elephants a lot against Rome…various reports of battles using them and the shock to the Romans at seeing an elephant for the first time. There should be a different single unit elephant or more bonuses for elephants.
Elephants of Carthage were possibly forest elephants (or an equivalent subspecies already extinct today), therefore they should have less life and be more agile than a Persian elephant, because the elephants of Carthage were smaller and lighter.
Only Commander Hannibal’s elephant was of a different species, his elephant being much larger and heavier than the others. It is believed that Hannibal’s elephant was a Syrian elephant (which was larger than the Indian elephant). This Syrian elephant was extinct in ancient times, possibly the last ones to use the Syrian elephant were the Persians or maybe the Seleucids still had the last ones.
Only question where it will be researched, Government Center or new building like Citadel, which would be castle like building and available only from Iron Age.
