Civilization 5 Units Guide
Military Unit Types, Promotions, and Strategies for Brave New World
This Guide covers all Military Unit Types in Civilization 5 Brave New World. UUs are covered elsewhere: Click to learn about Unique Units in Civ 5. All UUs are special variants of these Units, so it is not necessary to cover them in two places.
| Melee | Ranged | Siege | Mounted & Armor | Naval | Aircraft & Missiles |
| War & Peace | Combat Bonuses & Penalties | Fighting Wars & Capturing Cities | Annexing, Razing, & Puppeting |
Mounted and Armor Unit Stats and Strategies - Gunships to Tanks and Giant Death Robots
Back: Anti-Tank Gun, Tank, Helicopter Gunship, Modern Armor, Giant Death Robot
Two paths are covered on this page. First, we have the Horseman to Modern Armor/Giant Death Robot (which are less-often used as people tend to win before they see battle). Second, we'll have the Lancer to Anti-Tank Gun and Helicopter Gunship - these units are specialized in killing the Armored Units.
Mobile Units: Horsemen and Knights to Tanks and Giant Death Robot
All of these Units are highly mobile with solid Combat Strength, but suffer in that early variants get a -33% penalty when attacking Cities. While that penalty is removed by the time you have Landships (the earliest form of Tank), none of these units get Defensive Terrain Bonuses. Therefore, there is no point to putting them on a hill, nor Fort or Citadel (tested by Cheating with Ingame Editor). Thus, it's best to choose Open Terrain bonuses for their Promotions to make the most of their mobility, along with Cover to protect against Ranged Attacks. With 3 ranks in Shock or Drill, they are able to choose Blitz, which will let them attack twice in a single turn.
The Promotion line for Horsemen-Tanks is very similar, and work as the Unit is upgraded throughout the ages. A Horseman or Tank with Shock II is able to pick Charge, which will let them deal +33% more damage to Wounded Units - this is a VERY helpful Promotion when used strategically. Horsemen require Shock/Drill III to get March, which lets them heal every turn, but a Tank can get Repair with only Shock II. This means with a Barracks, Armory, and War Academy you can have a Unit that is only 15XP away from having a +30% CS Bonus in Open Terrain and heals every Turn. It's even better if you get the Brandenburg Gate World Wonder for the additional XP, or take the Autocracy Level 2 Tenet Total War. Also in Autocracy, you can get a Tenet to make Wounded Units deal more damage - with Blitz, this makes for super-powerful Units. You can combine with Repair or March to keep the Unit healed, along with its Pillaging. Blitz, for 2 attacks, is obviously the highlight, but you can also get +1 Visibility Range to let them play spotter for your Bombers or Artillery and +1 Movement, which lets them Pillage yet another tile during a time of War.
The Primary role for these mobile Units is to pick off enemies, respond quickly to threats (they can move very, very far with roads), and Pillage enemy tiles. When in a War, it is smart to cut off the enemy's Luxury and Strategic Resources to give them Combat Penalties - if their Empire is Unhappy or they lack enough of a Strategic Resource for their Units that use them, they can be penalized heavily in combat. You can also cause higher-Population Cities to starve by destroying their best Food Resources. A lone Horseman can pillage at least 2-3 Tiles within Enemy territory in one Turn.
With their movement, it's easy to avoid enemy Zone of Control and hit units in the rear, like Ranged Units and Artillery. You can also run down wounded Units. All of these Units also have the ability to move after attacking, a feature unique to them. You can utilize this well by attacking, taking some damage as a result, then pillaging an enemy tile to get Gold.
Horseman
| Combat Strength: 12 | Range: Melee | Movement: 4 |  |
| Upgrade from: None | Upgrade to: Knight | Upgrade Cost: 100 | |
Cost: 75 or 390 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Classical, Horseback Riding, Horse | ||
Knight
| Combat Strength: 20 | Range: Melee | Movement: 4 |  |
| Upgrade from: Horseman | Upgrade to: Cavalry | Upgrade Cost: 220 | |
| Cost: 120 or 460 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Medieval, Chivalry, Horse | ||
Cavalry
| Combat Strength: 34 | Range: Melee | Movement: 4 |  |
| Upgrade from: Knight | Upgrade to: Landship | Upgrade Cost: 260 | |
| Cost: 225 or 740 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Industrial, Military Science, Horse | ||
Landship
| Combat Strength: 60 | Range: Melee | Movement: 4 |  |
| Upgrade from: Cavalry | Upgrade to: Tank | Upgrade Cost: 60 | |
| Cost: 350 or 1030 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Modern, Combustion, Oil | ||
Tank
| Combat Strength: 70 | Range: Melee | Movement: 5 |  |
| Upgrade from: Landship | Upgrade to: Modern Armor | Upgrade Cost: 110 | |
| Cost: 375 or 1090 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Atomic, Combined Arms, Oil | ||
Modern Armor
| Combat Strength: 100 | Range: Melee | Movement: 5 |  |
| Upgrade from: Tank | Upgrade to: Giant Death Robot | Upgrade Cost: 260 | |
| Cost: 425 or 1190 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Information, Lasers, Aluminum | ||
Giant Death Robot
| Combat Strength: 150 | Range: Melee | Movement: 5 |  |
| Upgrade from: Modern Armor | Upgrade to: None | Upgrade Cost: N/A | |
| Cost: or | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Information, Nuclear Fusion, Uranium | ||
Lancers, Tanks, and the Helicopter Gunship
This continues an Anti-X line that begins with the early Spearman, unlocked with Bronze Working. Lancers are good at killing Mounted Units, and as time goes on change to specialize in killing Armored Units like those listed above. None of these are good against Cities, but if the opponent is fielding many Cavalry or Tanks, making lots of these will help you to crush their army. The Anti-Tank Gun is particularly horrible, but leveling one up has a few major benefits.
When upgrading these units, they keep their specials. The Lancer to Anti-Tank Gun Upgrade results in a Tank Gun that can still do extra damage against Mounted Units, while also being able to move after attacking - particularly helpful if you get +1 Movement from the Lancer as well. There are even better possibilities if you can utilize these units heavily:
Stacking Blitz and Logistics - Three Attacks per Turn
It requires quite a number of Promotions, but you can make a godlike Helicopter Gunship if you start with a Lancer or Anti-Tank Gun and level it to Shock/Drill III to get Blitz. When it is later Upgraded to a Helicopter Gunship, 2 levels in Mobility or Bonus vs Armored (go with Mobility!) will let you then choose Logistics. These two Promotions stack, meaning you can theoretically have Helicopter Gunships that are able to move 8 spaces and attack 3x in a turn. They don't benefit from Roads, but are able to cross all territory except Coast/Ocean Tiles (They embark). With the innate +100% bonus vs Tanks they receive, they can crush those without the bonus to Armored and will perform exceptionally well at defending your territory or going on the offensive.
Helicopter Gunships are actually only really amazing when you DO level them up from Lancers or Anti-Tank guns. They do not receive Open Terrain/Rough Terrain Promotions themselves, but the Promotions from previous incarnations of the Unit do indeed work to boost its Combat Strength. I would use these, along with other advanced Units, for a late-game Domination Win, where you start with a Tall Civ with heavy Research Output. The AI is usually pretty bad about upgrading Units, and tends to have masses of them on higher difficulties such as Emperor and Immortal - plenty of targets for your Gunship to level up and grab Logistics.
To avoid you wasting Upgrades, I will let you know that March and Repair do not stack - March is attainable by Lancers/Anti-Tank Guns and Repair by the Gunship. Only pick one of them, because your healing will not be doubled.
Gunships can be good against Cities, although they are unable to Capture them. Getting the Siege Promotion from Anti-Tank Gun will give them +50% Combat Strength vs Cities, and if they are able to move after attacking, they have plenty of movement to smack the City then fly out of range.
That's the end of my rambling about how great this upgrade line is if you can utilize the earlier Units - ultimately, you have to use some subpar units to get what you want out of it, but it's very fun destroying things with super Helicopter Gunships. Poland's Winged Hussar gets to keep Heavy Charge when upgraded, which can result in massive damage to enemies that cannot move away. One more tip: the Landsknecht from Commerce keeps its no movement cost to Pillage when Upgraded, and ultimately leads to the Helicopter Gunship - so you could theoretically fly about and destroy 6-8 tiles per turn. Fun, fun!
Lancer
| Combat Strength: 25 | Range: Melee | Movement: 4 |  |
| Upgrade from: Pikeman | Upgrade to: Anti-Tank Gun | Upgrade Cost: 240 | |
| Cost: 185 or 640 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Renaissance, Metallurgy, Horse | ||
Anti-Tank Gun
| Combat Strength: 50 | Range: Melee | Movement: 2 |  |
| Upgrade from: Lancer | Upgrade to: Helicopter Gunship | Upgrade Cost: 260 | |
| Cost: 300 or 920 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Atomic, Combined Arms | ||
Helicopter Gunship
| Combat Strength: 60 | Range: Melee | Movement: 6 |  |
| Upgrade from: Anti-Tank Gun | Upgrade to: None | Upgrade Cost: N/A | |
| Cost: 425 or 1190 | Era, Tech, and Resource Reqs: Atomic, Computers, Aluminum | ||
| Melee | Ranged | Siege | Mounted & Armor | Naval | Aircraft & Missiles |
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1Thanks a lot, your guide really helps.
