Disband old units or not?

[hanterp]

My Civilization is at the beginning of the Medieval ages and I can upgrade some units. Other units, like the old warrior, I cannot upgrade.
I wonder what I should do with them. They are very slow and has no power, compared with the 'modern' units.
Should I still take them to war, just to cause opponents hitpoints or should I disband them?

 

[Gainy]

Neither, use them as military police. If you are a Republic, well... that's your problem
I only ever really use old units like that to 'defend' cities, although in border towns i'll have something better

 

[Theoden]

If you are republic the cost is too great so disband them. In monarchy you have support to your units so keep them as military police. Or sometimes if I don't need military police i send them on suicide missions.

 

[hanterp]

I just turned into a Monarchy.
About that military police: Should I take that literally? I know there is no unit like that.
How should I see that? We only live in the Medieval age

 

[Pounder]

I just turned into a Monarchy.
About that military police: Should I take that literally? I know there is no unit like that.
How should I see that? We only live in the Medieval age

With Monarchy each unit (up to 3 units) will make one citizen happy. They presence of unit act as police and keep the some peace, build temples and other buildings to increase number of happy citizen.

 

[hanterp]

Okay, that's clear
Thank you all...

 

[jst666]

In offence, if you have the time, even the crappiest unit can take 1hp from that defending elite pikemen-unit.

 

[King PJ]

Other units, like the old warrior, I cannot upgrade.
I wonder what I should do with them.

You can't upgrade warriors? I don't know, I never tried. I usually never use warriors except for scouting and fighting barbarians.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Maybe he doesn't have iron to upgrade them to swordsman. Anyway, hanterp, what I do (if I'm in a republic and have lots of old units) is take my old units into a city that is building new units, disband them, and watch the shields go towards the construction of the new ones. That way, it's sort of like upgrading, but without using money.

 

[foods]

I use them as force to prevent culture flips. If that's not needed or upkeep is too high, I disband them in newly conquered cities to gain useful shields there (where corruption might be high).

Nowadays I never use them to "weaken" the enemy, for two reasons: Remember that a unit who has won to battles in one turn will automatically be promoted. So in fact, attacking with "worthless" units might actually just strenghten the enemy. Also, every unit lost adds to the war weariness. I do all I can to prevent unit losses during war, at least when in rep or dem.

Of course you can upgrade your warriors. However, the cost is quite high and it's seldom worth it, imo.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I only upgrade warriors if i want a strong force quickly and i am sure they will be usefull. In fact, i even build warriors to be upgraded for that. This is a common strategy for the beginning.

I never "just" upgrade units because i have them, only if i need the militairy power.

In this case, as said use them for MP if you are monarchy, else disband them inside a city to regain some of the shields. Definately do not fight with them unless you happen to have some elite ones, with those you can kill weakened units to get a chance for a leader.

 

[WarLust]

I'll disband them if they are 2 or more upgrades behind the current available, i.e. I will not upgrade warriors to medieval infantry or pikemen to riflemen, etc. It's too costly. I'll disband them in the city and have them reduce the shields needed for whatever I'm building. If I'm at war, I'll send them along for suicide missions. Sometimes you can take a hp or two off an enemy unit like someone mentioned earlier before they die.

 

[hanterp]

I was wrong about not able to upgrade my worriors. I can, just a mistake.
I see there are a lot of options. I just try out what I like most. Maybe that depends on the situation; I will see.....

 

[HalfBadger]

If you're at war, older units can be good to pillage cities you aren't attacking, kinda like a diversion, so your opponent has to send somewhat powerful units to stop you from destroying their roads, irrigation, mines etc, so then your powerful units will have less resistance when attacking their main cities etc.

Also good to sneak attack and capture workers, other than that I usually upgrade older units, because it's usually cheaper than rushing a new unit.

Sometimes though disbanding is the best choice.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I try to never disband units, i'll just keep them around until i get the money to upgrade them later in the game.

If the unit is super-outdated and im in a money crunch i might disband it, but as a general rule i try to avoid it. Except of course, with Cavalry, because they don't upgrade any further. Once i get tanks i start phasing cavalry out and tanks in.

If you do opt to disband i recomend waiting until you're at war and then using them as cannon fodder or pillagers.

 

[Tomoyo]

A conscript warrior requires just as much maintence as an elite Modern Armor. Therefore I disband.

 

[nameless53]

how come you can not upgrade him to swordsman?

 

[hanterp]

I can; I did rectify that 5 posts above

 

[ChronoReverse]

I disband only if I have enough extra units to replace them (read: rarely). This is because the mass disbanding of even weak units is sometimes enough to convince a neighbor that I'm weak enough to attack.

 

[juballs2001]

I never disband my mighty armies. I have currently built leonardos workshop, mlitary academy, sun tzus art of war, smiths trading co, and wall street. Together these are a lethal combo. I was without saltpeper so all my knights went to waste right...wrong, i just built more guerillas, and infantry put them into armies and got my own source of saltpeper through force...this allowed me to upgrade those wasted knights to clvary. never disband armies that can always be upgraded.

-Juballs