Heavy chariot advice?

[Ninox]

Can I get some pointers or can someone explain why they are a unit at all when literally EVERY other unit in the game can beat them?

I'm in classic era everyone else hardly has swordsmen and bowmen, yet literally everything beats the Heavy chariot; spearmen(obviously), swordsmen, bowmen(in melee combat), light cavalry... the chariot literally cannot kill anything and moves slower than the light cavalry so what is the point of EVER getting one?

[tempest.of.emptiness]

1) The base defense strength of your cities is associated with the strength of the strongest unit you have ever trained. Training a heavy chariot is possible rather early in the game, and is a way to improve the defense of all of your cities. Naturally, training a swordsman or horseman will also boost your city defense, and boost it more, but those units are available later - perhaps too late if you are under attack.

2) The defense strength of a city can be boosted if there is a strong unit in the city. Having a heavy chariot in a city early on can boost the defense significantly. For example, if you've never built a heavy chariot (or any unit stronger than a warrior or an archer), then archers can be a serious threat to your cities. However, if you build a heavy chariot and fortify it in a city then the damage that an archer will do to that city will be very minor. Essentially, just building that one unit can derail an entire war against you (in the right circumstances).

3) Heavy chariots promote on the heavy cavalry tree, so civs that plan to rely upon heavy cavalry may find it beneficial to build some of those units early, so that they can start accumulating experience. As your enemies begin to field superior units you will need to support your heavy chariots, or even pull them back from combat until you've researched an upgrade for them. This isn't a flaw with heavy chariots; you may need to do that for any of your units at one time or another, unless you have a very strong tech advantage.

4) In areas of mostly flat terrain, the movement speed and strength of a heavy chariot is a big advantage over warriors and archers, which are the units that you are most likely to see in an enemy rush. So, building heavy chariots can be a useful tool in countering a rush.

[Lemurian1972]

1) the Heavy Cavalry line is generally one of the most effective in the game. I'm willing to forgive them if they have one unit that feels like a dud just because of the pacing of the tech tree.

2) Heavy Chariot- 65 Hammers, no horses. Horseman- 80 Hammers, 20 horses. That's before you consider the doubled maint cost of a Horseman. Did I mention they don't require horses?

They may obsolete quickly, but if you time it right they can get a couple quick promotions early and then sit around comfortably until you can make them Knights.