What happens when America makes minuteman in a city with Alhambra?

Since the Minuteman already comes with Drill I, does the Alhambra grant Drill II or become obsolete in this matter?

Also what do you think of the minuteman in general? Seeing that it is more suited for rough terrain combat, would that make it more of an offensive unit than a defensive one?

Pretty sure it makes Alhambra obsolete in this case, but haven't tested.

In many ways, Drill is as much a defensive promotion as an offensive one. Seeing how rough terrain gives you defense bonus, there's obviously a synergy to be used there. When that's said, the promotion that gives points towards golden age on killing units gives this unit an overall strong offensive inclination imo.

But you would agree that it is more suited towards defense than offense? That's how I feel about rough terrain bonuses in general. It's too bad, because with America's extra sight and B17 I could almost justify them as a well-suited domination civ. The rough terrain bonus is better than none for sure, but as I said it's probably suited more for defense.

It's great for both. It helps improve the damage against units on rough terrain, who without drill can be annoying to deal with. I prefer drill in most cases because you already start at a disadvantage fighting somebody on rough terrain when you don't inherently have any disadvantage in damage against one on flat.

Minutemen shine in the late game when they upgrade to Mechanized Infantry which ignore terrain movement and have better sight range.

Best part of the Drill 1 promotion is you can get to March Promotion at 60 experience points which is pretty easy to do.

Drill 1 will only be applied once to the same unit. The game only applies the specific promotion specified within the XML-code for the Alhambra wonder. So, no, Alhambra won't give you Drill 2 when you create a Minuteman in the city with Alhambra.

If you are playing as America and have constructed Alhambra you still get the Drill 1 promotion applied to Mounted, Armor, and not-Minuteman Gunpowder units coming as a direct effect of Alhamra in that city, so I wouldn't consider it as having been made 'obsolete'. While Drill 1 is also applied to Melee units, by the time you can build Minuteman, those Melee units cannot be contructed anymore).

It is however a consideration as to whether you will get enough benefit from the free Castle and the other units that can be given the free Drill 1 to make putting the effort into constructing Alhambra worthwhile in terms of Rerturn On Investment.

If your playstyle is not to construct many Mounted units, then for that period of the game when Minutemen can be built Alhambra becomes less valuable, but the value returns after you discover Rifling and cannot build Minutemen any more.

Note: I am using the 'technical' definitions of Melee, Mounted, Gunpowder, and Armored units as it is used in the game's code, which is not the same thing as is often used in 'idiomatic' terms in discussion. Minutemen belong to the UNITCOMBAT_GUN designation, and not the UNITCOMBAT_MELEE designation.

Minutemen are nice mobile cover sponge units. Not a game changer but useful.