Can't build West Point

[Buccadhu]

hi - long-time lurker, but finally needed to register for a question I can't find an answer to with Search....

I actually got as far as some level6 units this game but I still couldn't build West Point anywhere - I checked numbers of National Wonders (only 1 in the city), and I could see West Point as a shaded-out option in my build menu but it still said "need level 6 unit" - have I misunderstood Level 6 unit? I had a Berserker with six promotions.

Am guessing it's probably really obvious but would be grateful if anyone can point out what I'm missing !

Thanks.

 

[Polobo]

Since Ragnar is aggressive he gets the Combat I AND Amphibious promotions for free. Those free promotions do NOT count toward the level 6 requirement. You need 27XP on a unit regardless of how many promotions they have.

 

[Buccadhu]

aha, that makes sense, thanks!

 

[joncnunn]

Normally I have to have had a Great General born to meet the criteria for West Point; giving all 20 XP to the same unit; one of the ones that had the most XP already.

 

[Supr49er]

If you click on a unit you will see what level it is.

Welcome to the Forums Buccadhu.

 

[DigitalBoy]

You need 27XP on a unit regardless of how many promotions they have.

If you're Charismatic, you only need 21XP.

 

[omnimutant]

Keep your starting warrior alive all game and have him hunt barbs early. That might do the trick

 

[Roland Johansen]

Since Ragnar is aggressive he gets the Combat I AND Amphibious promotions for free. Those free promotions do NOT count toward the level 6 requirement. You need 27XP on a unit regardless of how many promotions they have.

If you're Charismatic, you only need 21XP.

It's 26 xp for non-charismatic leaders and 20 xp for charismatic leaders.

(formulas:

normal: level n requires n^2 +1 xp
charismatic: level n requires [ 0.75 * (n^2 +1) ] where [ term ] means that the term needs to be rounded up )

It's very hard to get that much experience without using a great general on a single unit. It is possible, but you need a long war or several wars where you are very careful with one of your units (and a bit lucky). Each time you upgrade a unit, its experience is reset to 10, so you can't upgrade the unit that you're using to get to sixth level until you get to that level. The level of the unit is one of the various statistics mentioned in the lower left corner of the screen when you select it (as already mentioned by Supr49er).

 

[PibbZ]

Normally I have to have had a Great General born to meet the criteria for West Point; giving all 20 XP to the same unit; one of the ones that had the most XP already.

What difficulty are you playing? Personally i have no problem reaching level 6 for a unit, on monarch and higher. Early cavalry (Horse archer / knights) on a defensive duty, picking off enemy invading stacks that suffered catapult bombardment. Easy XP, and you can sometimes farm the XP into one or two units without any risk.

Needs to be said, im not a warmonger at all. I prefer playing defensive wars.

 

[joncnunn]

Currently Prince but going to move up to Monarch after my curent game ends; now 1960s in what should be the last war of the game.

I managed to reach Demigod level in Civ III Conquests (w Agricultural civs only) before Civ IV came out. (As for Civ II & SMAC I had beaten those games on their highest difficulty levels).

Anyway my own prefered war style is sneak attack a neighboring opponent already at war; often at the time one of those players request it, but at others I'm willing to jump in earlier And this is after I have Fedualism.
This results in very little actual fighting before the victim surrenders to me.

But in any case the only level 6+ units I ever get were in the same tile as a warlord when he assigned points. I do get a lot of level 5 units. This is all playing leaders who are NOT charismatic.

The defensive war your talking about is something that only happens to me when the AI unexpectly declares war on me.

What difficulty are you playing? Personally i have no problem reaching level 6 for a unit, on monarch and higher. Early cavalry (Horse archer / knights) on a defensive duty, picking off enemy invading stacks that suffered catapult bombardment. Easy XP, and you can sometimes farm the XP into one or two units without any risk.

Needs to be said, im not a warmonger at all. I prefer playing defensive wars.

 

[Buccadhu]

thanks for all the advice - finally used a GG to upgrade a rifeman whilst smashing the Egyptians and then built West Point (unfortunately after the war was over, but I'll plan better next time )

Oh, and cheers for the beer Supr49er!