Cyclops: a community unit analysis

By Many-Named; original research by ManticoreKiller · retold

An adapted Retold discussion of the Cyclops, its battlefield role, special attack and practical limitations.

DISCLAIMER

This guide was originally posted by ManticoreKiller all the way back in 2004. I had to heavily change the guide in most parts in order to make it useful for Retold. Credit goes to both ManticoreKiller for his or her awesome work back then myself for the edit job and additions.

This guide should also be considered a WORK in PROGRESS for now. Please add comments or help, I will credit you as a contributor if you bring anything significant. Ty :)

The Mythic Unit

Cyclops (Greek Classical age MU) Melee MU with superb capability against buildings, high HP for a unit this early and a super fun gimmick. In Retold the unit is more of a meatshield from the get go than it was (when the guide came out the unit had only 600 hp). The upgrade lets it get an added area of effect to its attack while increasing its throwing bounce area of effect, in order to keep it -somewhat- relevant in the later ages.

Major aspects of the MU:

Big and slow guy.
Has one big scary eye though it also sports a horn and a big club also a horn to probably (over)compensate for its single eye.
Son of Poseidon but probably takes more from mom.
Likes to eat people, but not before cooking them, preferably Greek men in pairs of 2.
Big and slow. Did I say big and slow?
Cannot spell Hawaii because it needs two i's.

Available to Greek players who choose Ares (Poseidon/Hades)

Cost: 175 Food, 18 Favour and 3 pop

(Stats are without upgrades right now)

Stats: (Classical/Heroic/Mythic) HP: 720/840/960 Hack Damage: 16/19/22 Crush Damage: 20/24/28 Hack Armour: 30% Pierce Armour: 50% Crush Armour: 80% Speed: 3.50 Rate of Fire: 1.4 LoS: 16 Bonus vs Myth: x2 vs Hero: x 0.5 Training time (at Temple): 20seconds

Special: Picks up any human unit (even elephants which is HILARIOUS) and throws them a distance (between 8 and 14 meters - edit: not sure how many cells that makes...) causing splash damage where they land. The amount of splash damage depends on the unit's hitpoints (well done ES!). Values I got were between 37 hack damage (for a hoplite) to over 70 (for a war elephant). If the poor unit's corpse bounces (ugh!), the damage is multiplied per bounce. Typically, they bounce 2-3 times. This is very inconsistent but inconsistency is this unit's middle name as we shall see later. Recharges in 20 seconds. Some important points to note are:

The throw is generally in the direction it was pointing when it lifted the unit up but not always. Keep in mind that in Retold you can micro where the throw goes by clicking on the unit you want to aim for. The Cyc can also be turn by clicking another direction.
It takes 5 seconds to act. The cyclops takes damage while it is up. As all mythic units do, as there is no invulnerable animations for most units in the game. This is a big minus as the
The range has nothing to do with the size of the unit. It throws a War Elephant farther than an Arcus! (Really!!)
The AI works such that without any micro, a cyclops will grab the closest enemy and may re-target if the enemy is out of reach or the cyclops is stuck. This is a major improvement over the older versions (and one of the many reasons why MU were almost extinct later in the meta; pathfinding + MU sizes made for a bad combo at high level)
The Area of effect of the special is only a small circular area around each place the flying corpse bounces.
Buildings and heroes do not get damaged.
MUs take 2x damage (here ManticoreKiller states 3x but I am assuming it was changed to 2x based on the anti MU unit bonus which is also 2x) if hit by a flying corpse even though they cannot be lifted by the Cyclops

Can be upgraded to the Elder Cyclops by researching the Will of Kronos 200G 15Fv 40 seconds training time on Temple. Note that the Elder Cyclops tech only affects the attack, adding an area of effect damage (3 cells wide which is equivalent to a wall plus one additional section of a wall if attacking, pretty decent area, especially vs small units.) and increasing the throw damage.

Looking at the stats you might be forgiven for thinking this was a heroic age MU. It isn't though it acts and costs as much as one. With the reduced cost in Food (vs older versions) plus the free Cyclops you get upon Age-ing up you should be able to see more of them roaming the battlefields and often more than one. However, in absolute terms as a unit, this looks good even if you compare it to the heroic and even some Mythic MUs. It's also really, really slow and being this big it stands out but then that's what a meatshield normally does, it should also attract attention. For now, let's see how it does in the tests. For the tests, I have usually considered an unupgraded Cyclops because of a few factors that make using the upgrade in classical next to impossible. Firstly, the Cyclops is quite expensive in all aspects that getting the upgrade could be delaying your heroic age with all that implies, unless you put some decent pressure on the enemy. However in Retold the upgrade only costs gold. The changes in Retold make this unit a bit more viable as it has a more diverse distribution of needed resources. The Cyclops also has become more of a meatshield as its hp went from 600 in earlier versions of AOM to 720 in Retold. Add to that the fact that you get one for free in retold and a Cyclopes pressure is definitely doable but archers and heroes (especially when they are both like it can be the case for Atlanteans!) are still your main enemy. Another scenario where I I see a need for this upgrade is if you choose Apollo in heroic and need a big, powerful meatshield for your Toxotes and Manticores, the added area of effects making it a unit that your enemy doesn't want to ignore in any case. However should you go for the Nemean Lion, the Cyclopes become basically obsolete as the Nemean Lions are a superb unit that can more than hold its place in a battle, is much faster and doesn't rely on a gimmicky (if super fun) mechanic such as the throw.

Because you see, the throw is a major flaw imo in this unit, as may wastes precious time hurling a hoplite or some similar human unit, since the special only works on non heroic human units, including villagers. In some very specific scenarios, the player may want to disable the special altogether as it just gets the Cyc killed more easily by focus fire or another effect.

If used as such you should expect to field a few cyclops but still not rely too much on them, because the enemy in all likeness will have a counter up their sleeves as they are hard to miss. Their slow speed is another major disadvantage as they will never be able to run away from battles and will slow your main forces which need to stay in formation with a sub 4 speed unit. This may prove fatal on larger maps or when caught out of position. In all other cases, you get all round better MUs in heroic which will do the same job much better, so short of using it as an early pressure MU, favour is probably best kept for manticores or other -still- better later ages MU such as the Nemean Lion which, as I said above, is a much better unit all around.

Testing the Mythic Unit

MAJOR DISCLAIMER:

ALL of the tests in this section are outdated, I have included them as a placeholder for now as they formed a major part of the original guide, but they are all outdated and should be disregarded for now.

Tests Note: all human units have full classical upgrades (Medium All and Copper All)

vs Infantry - 1 Zeus Hoplite (126hp 10 hack damage 41% hack armour)l: First of all, the Cyclops normal attack takes two forms. First, it has an underarm swing of the club which it does about once a second. Second, it has an overhead swat which it does once every two seconds. Which shot it uses is random and though they might do varying amounts of damage per shot, they will do the same damage on a per second basis. To cut a long story short the cyclops kills the hoplite in 15 seconds finishing with 570hp. For an Elder Cyclops, the story is the same- only shorter. It takes just 10 seconds to kill the hoplite with 600 hp left. I disabled the special for this test, as in Retold the Cyclops basically just grabs the hoplite and then throws it, basically insta killing it.
vs a Town Center (2800 hp) In this test, I hope to show you that a Cyclops can be used as a rush unit to take down a town center (undefended). I used two normal cyclopes (unupgraded) costing a total of 500 Food, 40 Favour and 8 pop slots. You can take down the town center unassisted in 95 seconds losing one cyclops in the process. In comparison, using one Elder Cyclops (costing with the upgrade- 450 Food 45 Favour and 4 pop slots) only results in leaving the TC with 1600 hp left. This could be a viable strat for an early greek rush particularly for Hades players using a supporting force of toxotes to keep heroes away. You could advance to classical early and build an academy (or a stable for poseidon players) and an archery range. Build another cyclops to add to the free one you get with the age advancement. Rush your opponents base using your archers to keep away heroes and take down the TC with your cyclops. Cast pestilence on his rax/LH only well into your attack so that he loses any units he queued. Use your hoplites or hippkons to attack his/her houses and rax. Once the TC goes down move your toxotes to take out those villies that are left and use your remaining cyclops to take out his remaining buildings. It's just a suggestion but I think it should work.
vs a Mountain Giant (1200 hp 20 hack damage 25 crush damage 50% hack armour x1.5 bonus vs MUs): I decided on the Mountain Giant to demonstrate how this unit rules vs MUs. Not only does the Cyclops get an uber bonus but it also does a huge amount of crush damage which MUs are more suceptible to. The MG is almost like a bigger, badder Cyclops. True, it does not have the Cyclops' bonus against MUs but it still does reasonably well. I used an Elder Cyclops for this one coz the MG is a heroic MU. The Elder Cyclops does between 39-51 damage to the MG per shot (two attack styles). The MG does between 15-26 damage per shot (two attack styles as well- the kick and the swat). Net result- the Elder Cyclops kills the Mountain Giant in 42 seconds with 75 hitpoints left. In general-

The Elder Cyclops beats all classical MUs except the Bull Minotaur (it's special does 180 hp worth of damage to the Cyclops) The Elder Cyclops aso beats the following fully upgraded Heroic MUs- Nemean Lion Mountain Giant Manticore Satyr Petsuchos Battle Boar It loses to all other MUs not mentioned

What about the normal Cyclops- more likely to get into a fight with a classical MU It beats all classical MUs except the Bull Minotaur and the Giant Killer Einherjar (without its delaying horn blast)

The Cylops is affected by all special attacks including the Minotaur's throw, the Battle Boar's spinning kick and the Hekagigantes' ground pound which usually do not effect other MUs.

3 Cyclopes vs 10 Medium Hoplites (126 hp, 10 hack damge, 41% hack armour) supported by 5 Medium Toxotes: You must be thinking that I just lost my marbles. This is no contest- the Cyclopes will win. Well, they didn't. The pathing is so bad that two of the three spent almost 15 seconds going round in circles after particular units. In the end the three Cyclopes were all killed with 5 hoplites and 2 toxotes surviving in 65 seconds (Many-Named's note: This needs to be retested as the unit pathing and formations are much better in Retold)

These tests prove that the Cyclops is an exceptional combat unit which has a few problems with pathing without which it would be even better. While it all looks very impressive, in all honesty, I found the cyclops a very slow unit, almost too slow to be useful. Ranged units would be able to eat them alive by adopting a shoot- move- shoot strategy.

Suggested Use & Conclusion

Suggested Usage:

The early rush described earlier can be sucessfully used vs all civs except the Egyptians.

vs Greeks- Great to use a few against the greeks' expensive military buildings in classical. If properly microed, the special can also take out key greek units like hippkons and the UUs later on.

vs Norse- Not advisable because of the Hersirs you are sure to encounter. Still, with weak buildings, its a better choice than the Minotaur. One of the few classical MUs with no problems agianst Jarls.

vs Egyptians- Rather not. With their priests and pharohs, they can take out a Cyclops in no time at all. If you really want to use it, this unit is a successful counter to the war elephant but that's only post heroic.

vs Atlanteans- Weak Attie buildings makes this a temptation to use this against them. The only problem is that this unit is very easy to kill with Turmae which can shoot- move- shoot with no problem as the Cyclops is one of the slowest units in the game. This is even more pronounced when valor is used on the Turmae.

Conclusion First of all, let's look at the overall Ares package. The techs are very useful and the GP can be a superb foil for an attack. This is a great unit per se. The only problem is that it can be prohibitively expensive to use in Classical. Poseidon players are definitely better off going in for Hermes who has a better overall package with an all important cavalry tech. Hades players however, would do well to go with Ares as Athena is a weak package overall, the excellent Minotaur notwithstanding. Hades players can also use the upgraded Cyclops as a weaker substitute for the Hydra in heroic given they can't take Dionosyus. However if Hades players want to take Aphrodite in heroic, the Nemean Lion is a better all round unit so the Cyclops would not be much use in that case. After that long technical discourse- let's come to the unit. There is no denying that as a unit- it's awesome. It has a few minor weaknesses, but nothing to deflect from its near invincibility one on one. The problem is that it is so costly that a player is unlikely to have more than two or three Cyclopes until the later ages where it will be largely outmatched by stronger later age MUs. As a unit, I will admit that I struggled to find a use for this one. True, it is great against buildings but so are almost all the Greek MUs. In addition, both Hades and Poseidon get great building killing UUs in Mythic which add to the already formidable Petrobulos and Heliopolis seige capability. What is worse is that the Cyclops quickly becomes redundant unless you are a Hades player planning to take Apollo. Even by Heroic standards, it is a very expensive unit. The only viable strategy I could think of for the Cyclops is to use it for a rush in classical which I have described before. Barring that, I cannot repeat enough how costly this is for a Classical MU. Food is the most important resource in Classical and Heroic. This is because not only do you need it for an age up, but you also need a lot of it for infantry and cavalry. Most important of all is the fact that you need 50 food for a villager. It is my conclusion that using more than a couple of Cyclopes in classical will not only set you back for your Heroic advancement, but it will also wreck your economy by denying you the food for more villies as well as weakening your human unit force which is quite frankly, still the most important component of any army. In short, the Cyclops is a self contradictory unit. It is awesome, but is impossible to use when it really has its edge. It has one of the best upgrades in the game, but it is almost impossible to research it when it counts. It is a great unit, but it is not something anyone can use to its full potential.

Source: Many-Named · Steam Community guide “Cyclops MU unit Analysis”