Deadly Rifleman

[KMadCandy]

If you use a GG to create a medic 3, then he gets a free autopromote whenever he is eligible.

oh i don't keep him a chariot to save money. i keep him a lowly chariot to protect him. if he's the weakest unit in the stack he's never the defender. he's only there to heal my troops, i don't ever need any more exp on him since he already finished med school. i'd hate to lose my doctor, his support makes the whole war go so much faster.

that's just how i do it. some folks do like to keep getting exp on their medic3 units to get even more promotions on them. but i'm a wuss and i shelter him *giggle*.

$50 - i can't believe i never thought of that! i'm so gonna name my next one that!!!

 

[pigswill]

Back on topic. Building a bunch of cavalry is a good approach if you expect to have a window of opportunity to use them against longbows (faster move and high relative power makes for faster conquest). If its likely that AIs will get to rifling quickly then you're better off going for grenadiers/cannon; its a slower pace but quicker in the long run than having stacks of cavalry annihilated.

 

[Giaur]

Back on topic. Building a bunch of cavalry is a good approach if you expect to have a window of opportunity to use them against longbows (faster move and high relative power makes for faster conquest). If its likely that AIs will get to rifling quickly then you're better off going for grenadiers/cannon; its a slower pace but quicker in the long run than having stacks of cavalry annihilated.

Still found Cavs the best defensive units of that age. And that fact makes these wars more difficult. Cavs promote quickly and can get Pinch quickly. Grenadiers are cannon fodder for cavs. Rifles cannot stand a chance against cavs when pinched. The worst threat arises from enemy's Cavs, but still experienced cavs are better deffenders than drafted rifles, unless you are agressive.

edit: I am talking about defensive abilities in the open ground. Of course when talking about defending cities, rifles rule.

 

[JimT]

Might just be me but CR3 Cannons seem to make mince meat of rifles in cities, once defences are down. In the window before that suicide cats is the only option. Failing that make peace and beeline to cannons.

 

[bardolph]

I have a bad habit of never upgrading my units. Unless the AI lands a stack next to a city or I've got some CR3 Maces and i've learnt Chemistry. I'm usually cruising round the map fighting wars with units like chariots and Axemen in the renaissance age. Probably kills me in units support but it helps to absorb collateral damage.
Some units don't need to be upgraded though like accuracy catapults or a medic chariot.

I do tend to upgrade units "in the field" by parking them in a newly captured city for a turn, but I don't bother upgrading city defenders unless those cities are actually threatened.

Watch out on Coastal cities, however. A couple of Amphibious units can ruin your day.

 

[Skallagrimson]

There is a significant period of time when you can build both Macemen and Grenediers. Give your Macemen city raider promotions and then upgrade them right away to Grenediers. It's costly but it allows you to continue building city raider units.

I do that one, and also, generate Grenadiers with City Defender (usually CD2) to supplement or replace Longbows, and then when Railroad comes along, upgrate to Machine Gunners. A Machine Gunner with CD2 is pretty damn formidable against quite a few industrial-era attackers, to the point that I often don't replace them until I get Robotics.

Apart from those above, the only units I *ever* spend gold on to upgrade are the ones with a higher experience level than what they'd have out the gate in my West Point city. Even then sometimes the gold just isn't there to make it happen, and I gotta field new units, so it's a delete-rebuild process, to my chagrin.