Different promotions are available to different categories of units. When a unit is upgraded its earned XP is cut back to 10 points, but it retains its level and promotions. Therefore, by making use of the points where an upgrade crosses categories you can create some very interesting units.
For example, city raider is not available to gunpowder units. It is however available to all melee units, which may all be upgraded to gunpowder later. A swordsman with 10/17 is level three and could potentialy have city raider 3 for a total of +75% vs city and +10% vs gunpowder. Upon upgrading to a rifleman, you would retain all of these upgrades. Such a rifleman is much better on city attack than any built rifleman with only the gunpowder promotions available at the same total xp.
Here is a quick illustration of each VS annother rifleman dug into a city which has had its walls brought down first. The defender is level 2 and has taken city defense promotion.
1) Sword->Mace->Rifle, 10/17 xp, city raider I,II,II
Attacker is 14 str, no bonuses.
Defender is 14 str, +25% fortify, +20% from city def, -75% from city raider, -10% from city raider III's gunpowder component
14 vs 8.4, better than 3-2 in favor of attacker.
2) Rifle, 10/17 xp Combat I,II, Pinch
Attacker is 14 str, +20% combat
Defender is 14 str, +25% fortify, +20% city def, -25% attacker's pinch
16.8 vs 16.8, 50-50 an even match.
So as you can see from this, the rifleman created from an ancient melee unit with some simple promotions is far more effective at tearing down a city than a newer gunpowder unit with the best combat promotions available to it. Even better, as you fight the upgraded one can ALSO pick up the gunpowder's promotions, but the constructed rifleman can never go back and get city raider.
There are other interesting places where units cross category boundries. For example, a melee unit upgraded to a grenadier may be later upgraded to a machine gun. The unit has gone melee->gunpowder->seige weapon at that point. Machine guns do not get the Barrrage promotions of other siege units, but they do get the Accuracy promotion. Catch is you need either city raider I or barrage I promotion to buy it. A melee unit with raider I, upgraded to a grenadier, and then later upgraded to a machine gun, may buy the Accuracy promotion and gain -10% city bombard.
Hard to earn xp with a machine gun, granted, but unspent xp IS saved up to 10 points when you upgrade. So you can simply park such a melee unit back home as a city defender with his level 4 promotion unused and then upgrade him to a machine gun and buy accuracy. Now you have a very strong defensive unit to move with the rest of your infantry, who will also be able to bombard down defenses. Later you can upgrade to SAM infantry and have a dual use support unit for your offensive armies.
It is also possible to create first strike in a gunpowder unit that follows the archer->gunpowder upgrade path. With four promotions (17 xp) you have 3-6 first strike chances. Even if you stop at 10 xp for drill III, that is still 1-4 chances. The only real downside to creating a drill IV gunpowder unit is that your unit will be level 5 and so 17/26, but then cut back to 10/26 when it is upgraded. Thats a lot of lost xp to make up for. That said, a couple first strike gunpowder units make excelent 'clean up' crews in any army since they can kill any unit they have at least a 1.58:1 advantage against in only four hits, which they will almost always be able to dish out entirely in the first strike round!
And on a final note, the agressive trait hands out combat I to all gunpowder/melee units, regardless of what they started as. An archer with drill IV upgraded to a rifleman picks up combat I in the process, and a grenadier upgraded to a machine gun keeps his combat I even though a newly constructed machine gun would not get the benifit. However, if you pick up combat I with an archer you do NOT gain combat II for free when upgrading to gunpowder.
Please post with any other usefull or interesting promotion tricks you've found, I would love to learn some new ones.
For example, city raider is not available to gunpowder units. It is however available to all melee units, which may all be upgraded to gunpowder later. A swordsman with 10/17 is level three and could potentialy have city raider 3 for a total of +75% vs city and +10% vs gunpowder. Upon upgrading to a rifleman, you would retain all of these upgrades. Such a rifleman is much better on city attack than any built rifleman with only the gunpowder promotions available at the same total xp.
Here is a quick illustration of each VS annother rifleman dug into a city which has had its walls brought down first. The defender is level 2 and has taken city defense promotion.
1) Sword->Mace->Rifle, 10/17 xp, city raider I,II,II
Attacker is 14 str, no bonuses.
Defender is 14 str, +25% fortify, +20% from city def, -75% from city raider, -10% from city raider III's gunpowder component
14 vs 8.4, better than 3-2 in favor of attacker.
2) Rifle, 10/17 xp Combat I,II, Pinch
Attacker is 14 str, +20% combat
Defender is 14 str, +25% fortify, +20% city def, -25% attacker's pinch
16.8 vs 16.8, 50-50 an even match.
So as you can see from this, the rifleman created from an ancient melee unit with some simple promotions is far more effective at tearing down a city than a newer gunpowder unit with the best combat promotions available to it. Even better, as you fight the upgraded one can ALSO pick up the gunpowder's promotions, but the constructed rifleman can never go back and get city raider.
There are other interesting places where units cross category boundries. For example, a melee unit upgraded to a grenadier may be later upgraded to a machine gun. The unit has gone melee->gunpowder->seige weapon at that point. Machine guns do not get the Barrrage promotions of other siege units, but they do get the Accuracy promotion. Catch is you need either city raider I or barrage I promotion to buy it. A melee unit with raider I, upgraded to a grenadier, and then later upgraded to a machine gun, may buy the Accuracy promotion and gain -10% city bombard.
Hard to earn xp with a machine gun, granted, but unspent xp IS saved up to 10 points when you upgrade. So you can simply park such a melee unit back home as a city defender with his level 4 promotion unused and then upgrade him to a machine gun and buy accuracy. Now you have a very strong defensive unit to move with the rest of your infantry, who will also be able to bombard down defenses. Later you can upgrade to SAM infantry and have a dual use support unit for your offensive armies.
It is also possible to create first strike in a gunpowder unit that follows the archer->gunpowder upgrade path. With four promotions (17 xp) you have 3-6 first strike chances. Even if you stop at 10 xp for drill III, that is still 1-4 chances. The only real downside to creating a drill IV gunpowder unit is that your unit will be level 5 and so 17/26, but then cut back to 10/26 when it is upgraded. Thats a lot of lost xp to make up for. That said, a couple first strike gunpowder units make excelent 'clean up' crews in any army since they can kill any unit they have at least a 1.58:1 advantage against in only four hits, which they will almost always be able to dish out entirely in the first strike round!
And on a final note, the agressive trait hands out combat I to all gunpowder/melee units, regardless of what they started as. An archer with drill IV upgraded to a rifleman picks up combat I in the process, and a grenadier upgraded to a machine gun keeps his combat I even though a newly constructed machine gun would not get the benifit. However, if you pick up combat I with an archer you do NOT gain combat II for free when upgrading to gunpowder.
Please post with any other usefull or interesting promotion tricks you've found, I would love to learn some new ones.
But sorry, I don't understand this point. Accuracy is available only for siege weapons, and needs barrage 1, which is available for siege and armored units. Grenadier is gunpowder, so how can it gain barrage?
