Most Useless Unit in C&C?

[Volkovich]

What is in your opinion the most pointless or feckless unit among C&C??

I mean I know that dude on Youtube did a thing on these years ago but I'd love to get a discussion going on this subject and can include any unit from any game in the C&C Series.

For me unless you're camping artillery at your defense I must say I feel units that are pointless are the likes of The Mechanic in Red Alert Aftermath, Saboteur in Generals for the GLA and obviously the Technician in the first few Command & Conquer Series

[ore_truck]

Technician in all C&C games except Renegade.

[Volkovich]

4 minutes ago, ore_truck said:

Technician in all C&C games except Renegade.

But the Technician is a lovable rubbish unit nothing beats hording an army of them trying to take on 5 infantry units to their peril

[Rampastring]

In Red Alert, everything aside from the Medium tank, Heavy tank and V2 Launcher.

In Tiberian Sun, every single Nod vehicle aside from the Artillery and Subterranean APC. GDI also has some fairly pointless units, like the Wolverine.

[X3M]

Any unit in C&C4.

But if I where to pick one form the games that I played. I pick on from Tiberian Sun. Where indeed most units show a lot of uselessness.
And the number 1 useless unit there would be the Nod Buggy. I prefer using the devils tongue or other infantry, for dealing with infantry.
Why the Nod Buggy? As said before, there is a better choice for its purpose. The limpet drone is more useful to me too (I play with fog of war)

Now, regarding the RA series. The thief. I don't play noobs that store a lot of money.

And regarding the Dune series. It is obviously the Saboteur. Since in 3 out of the 3 games. It sucks.

[Ford (retired)]

Thieves are actually very good on high money gem maps like HJK and V3-Rashodown, or Aftermath in the later stages of the game since you cannot spend all your money as fast.

5 hours ago, Volkovich said:

For me unless you're camping artillery at your defense I must say I feel units that are pointless are the likes of The Mechanic in Red Alert Aftermath, Saboteur in Generals for the GLA and obviously the Technician in the first few Command & Conquer Series

Mechanics are a very cost effective way to fix allied tanks and choppers in aftermath.

[TaxOwlbear]

I like Mechanics. It's nice it have them hang around landing pads or other buildings and heal units passively. I don't count the Technician, since it's a unit you cannot build (without modding the game).

Against the AI, certain units have no effect, like the Radar Jammer or the Mobile Shroud Generator. Even against a human, the MSG makes it IMO easier to notice things on the radar.

Limpet Drones are pretty infamous. They make okay scouts, though, as they can float over water. I'd never build them, though. The Wolverine is just terrible compared to the Buggy.

[Volkovich]

41 minutes ago, AndrewFord said:

Thieves are actually very good on high money gem maps like HJK and V3-Rashodown, or Aftermath in the later stages of the game since you cannot spend all your money as fast.

Mechanics are a very cost effective way to fix allied tanks and choppers in aftermath.

I can see your point about Mechanics and I do use them from time to time especially when using vehicles to scout/harass however they are way too micro intense when it comes to larger groups of vehicles. 

Also Medics, Mobile Gap Generators are the opposite they reveal on a map you're hiding a small force of tanks and also Radar Jammers! Really!? When have these ever come in handy?

[Nyerguds]

Hmm?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYbfmSSVpo

20 hours ago, Volkovich said:

The Mechanic in Red Alert Aftermath

Really? He's basically a mobile repair bay that does repairs for free...

[ore_truck]

5 hours ago, Volkovich said:

Radar Jammers! Really!? When have these ever come in handy?

Jamming the enemy radar isn't really useful but not entirely useless because you can render their minimap useless for a while. They are kinda cheap too. I think sending 30 tanks + 1 MRJ to the enemy base (if they have radar dome) is more annoying than sending 31 tanks.

The mobile gap generator is meant to be a gap generator to save power or place outside your buildable range (such as ore fields to cover miners). But I find their shroud radius isn't worth it. Personally, I rarely build those.

Field mechanics or medics can be useful to keep your forces alive longer only if you have the effort to micro them. Usually, we're too lazy and ignore their use. Technicians are meant to be useless joke units. Still, I wished they had more firepower so I can make fun at someone if I killed an infantry with the techy.

I wouldn't say most Tiberian Sun units useless. They're just not cost-effective and there are better units to fulfill their role.

 

[X3M]

Mobile Stealth generators are 10 times more usefull. You simply don't know their location.
Perhaps if the shroud remained, while the gap generator is on the move. That would be really annoying to enemies.

[tomsons26]

On 4/17/2017 at 7:38 PM, ore_truck said:

Technician in all C&C games except Renegade.

This. Discussion over. 

They are in all Westwood C&Cs(including Ren http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Technician_(Renegade) ) and save for Ren's they are equally useless.

[TaxOwlbear]

On 18/04/2017 at 7:54 PM, X3M said:

Mobile Stealth generators are 10 times more usefull. You simply don't know their location.
Perhaps if the shroud remained, while the gap generator is on the move. That would be really annoying to enemies.

That'd be awesome! Like playing Snake with the shroud.

 

On 19/04/2017 at 5:17 PM, tomsons26 said:

This. Discussion over. 

They are in all Westwood C&Cs(including Ren http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Technician_(Renegade) ) and save for Ren's they are equally useless.

Technicians aren't even a unit you can build, but I'd give them an honourable mention.

[Ferret]

I'd have to say the Radar Jammer from RA1.

[Jacko]

RA1's Mobile Gap Generator tbh.

You can't even hack Rules.ini to make a proper unit out of it, it still does its dumb effects.

At least you can do it with the Radar Jammer

[dkeeton]

I can't believe this is even a topic worth commenting on. The limpet drone is the most useless unit. Anything else that you can't build isn't important (Technician/librarian/preacher). The mobile gap generator can be meta-gamed, but, just a reminder, limpet drone was advertised as a unit that should be used to infiltrate enemy harvesters but it CANNOT deploy in Tiberium.

Oh wait, I figured out how this topic is interesting... we're ranking the 2nd most useless unit that can be made/trained/built/constructed/bought.

... Makes sense. Carry on.

 

[X3M]

Just like Berserker/Ranger sight range upgrade. The limpet drone has its uses in fog of war. Only then you use it.
If fog of war is disabled. Than it is indeed the most useless unit around.

[XXxPrePxX]

I can only speak of ra2/yr, but the most useless units in ra2/yr are the "special" units for the teams that never get used because their special units suck: Tank Destroyers and Tesla Tanks namely. Awful units!

Of the original units that are involved in every game, it is hard to pick 1 as almost all other units serve a purpose. Off the top of my head, Robot tanks and Apocalypse tanks are (suprisingly) the most useless units I can think of. Robot tanks probably take #1 over apocs as they require base power and an entire new building (robot tech center) to build/be useful. They rarely ever get used.

Apoc tanks are actually useful in very unique situations, but in most games, they are borderline useless past 1-2 of them for fun.

[fir3w0rx]

All NAVAL units on LAND maps (except for amphibious ones), and all LAND-based units on water maps. And also DEAD units, you can't really do much with them.

Campaign - units you have to rescue such as Dr. Mobious, Einstein, Tratos...

Multiplayer - The Medic maybe? At least the Technician has a gun, and is free!

 

[Plokite_Wolf]

On 19. 04. 2017. at 6:17 PM, tomsons26 said:

They are in all Westwood C&Cs(including Ren http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Technician_(Renegade) ) and save for Ren's they are equally useless.

Well, in RA1 they can damage V2s, and in RA2 they can actually deal some damage

 

Tiberian Dawn - APC (except when full of Engis). A weak machine gun with not-so-good armour? We've got Humvees for that.

Red Alert 1 -  Thief. There's a reason they were merged with the Spy in the sequel.

Tiberian Sun - Attack Bike. Why would they not attack aircraft except when elite? To give Rocket Infantry the only reason to be trained in non-Firestorm games?

Firestorm - Limpet Drone. Obviously.

Red Alert 2 - Terrorist. Too fragile and needs to be adjacent to his target to detonate. Crazy Ivan isn't far off, but at least he does more damage and is amusing.

Yuri's Revenge - Brute. Unless you can really be sure you're about to engage tanks and nothing more, these are worthless.

Renegade - didn't play MP yet (for shame!)

Generals / Zero Hour / Tiberium Alliances - no idea, don't care much for them.

Tiberium Wars - Mothership. While it packs quite a punch, it's too slow and tough to get where it needs to be, plus you have to consider friendly fire.

Kane's Wrath - Ravager. As much as I love their idea, they're too expensive for an anti-infantry infantry unit with an ability that requires them to approach a likely guarded Tiberium field.

Red Alert 3 - Striker-VX/Chopper-VX. A 50% more expensive inverted Tengu, no thanks.

Uprising - didn't play much, but I'd go for the Mortar Cycle, everything about it seems redundant, and the Soviets got the weakest additions when the others got weapons of Kill Map Now.

Tiberian Twilight - the entire game

[ore_truck]

If expansion pack units count, then...

C&C1: Mobile HQ - these things only has 1 function: making all your structures and units blow up and instantly lose.

RA1: Demo truck - $2400 for a single-use unit that takes ages to build, deals very little damage to armor(enemy should probably have 30+ tanks by the time demo trucks available) and always die before reaching an intended target is not worth it. If you're using it to attack vulnerable parts of a base, you're better off sneaking a Tanya or a flamethrower squad in. The only time I build these is when I destroyed all my opponent's key buildings and they sell their base, massing infantry (if they choose not to abort, that is).

C&C2/FS: Limpet drones - Almost useless outside of fog of war games and the tratos assassination mission. LIMPET DRONE SUCKS (always wanted to say that).

RA2/YR: Terrorist - Useless without transport. Build a few, they'll barely do any damage. Build a lot, your investment will be a waste if one dies, they'll blow each other up.

Sole Survivor: If I could remember, it's one of those dinosaurs.

Renegade: Never played online (the original version), but I'm leaning more on of those GDI characters.

Generals: None. But I find China Tank Generals MiG is the least used unit for me whenever I'm playing on LAN.

C&C3: Attack bike, except giving the mech a stealth detector. Rarely played as GDI or Scrin.

RA3: No idea about allies and japan since I rarely play those in multiplayer but the soviets has a lot of worthless stuffs like conscripts (barely does any damage, only the molotov attack to clear garrisons is useful) and all ground vehicles except apocalypse and non-combat vehicles (sputnik, MCV, collector).

Never played C&C4.

 

[Nyerguds]

11 hours ago, Plokite_Wolf said:

Tiberian Dawn - APC (except when full of Engis). A weak machine gun with not-so-good armour? We've got Humvees for that.

APCs are both faster and better armoured than humvees though (they just turn a bit slower). They make excellent scouts and infiltrators. Fill it with practically any kind of unit and it'll take down a building, unless flamethrowers get involved.

 

8 hours ago, ore_truck said:

C&C1: Mobile HQ - these things only has 1 function: making all your structures and units blow up and instantly lose.

Um. You clearly don't know what they were meant for. It's a "mobile flag' for multiplayer CTF games without a base 

So in the only context you can have it in the game itself

• you never have structures, so it can't blow them up
• you can't build or choose to have or not have it, making it rather useless to mention in a list like this anyway. It's part of the game mode, just like starting with an MCV or a flag.
• it has the use that killing those of your enemies makes you win. Y'know, because everyone has one in that game mode. Pretty useful if you ask me. 

I mean, you might as well say "the flag is a useless unit".

 

Besides, in mission scripting it's an insanely useful unit

[Plokite_Wolf]

5 hours ago, ore_truck said:

C&C3: Attack bike, except giving the mech a stealth detector. Rarely played as GDI or Scrin.

Bikes are particularly useful for, and are indeed used in multiplayer for, Harvester harassment, same as GDI Pitbulls.

[AchromicWhite]

Chemical Warrior from C&C95.
It's not that it's unusable, but it's pretty much just an insanely high teched expensive flamer infantry. And the flame infantry comes from naked infantry production.
I think it's the only unit that we haven't ever used and said "well, that unit actually worked out really well". I just see no real point of playing so much more for something which is already around, and requires higher tech.

[Jacko]

I've used Chem warriors on rare occasions.

They have some uses on those stupid high-tib maps in Nod vs Nod at the very least, to hit bikes.