Disband Or Upgrade?

[ainwood]

As far as I see it, it is worth thinking about your current situation before you (blindly) go about upgrading your units, or alternatively disbanding them.

Some units can't be upgraded, some are pointless to upgrade in modern times. Sometimes if you have lots of production and no money, disbanding is better. Other times you may have lots of money and no production, so upgrading is better.

I was wondering how many people just always upgrade or always disband?

 

[eyrei]

If I am not currently at war, I will generally build new units in cities with barracks to replace the older ones that are regular, and then disband the old ones. Sometimes you need them fast, so you have to upgrade regular units as well.

 

[Sam_Catchem]

Yeah..managing money is key. I never just disband. I do love the upgrade option though! It really is pretty nice..it frees up your cit to continue producing something else.

 

[Richard III]

I follow a fairly set strategy on this: in earlier turns I almost always upgrade with $$$, but I almost always disband in the mid-to late part of the game. The reason, simply, is that at a later date, I consider it more urgent to build up the second and third tier of improvements, particularly factories for the productivity bonus.

So all the cash goes for improvements, and new production from two or three highly productive "military cities" covers the overall military upgrade. Generally, the shift occurs round about the musket-to-rifleman phase.

 

[tetley]

It's like this: Hurrying stuff costs 4 gold/shield. Upgrading (without Leo) costs 2 gold/shield. For example, upgrading catapult (20 shields) to artillery (80 shields) costs 120 gold. 80 shields - 20 shields is 60, times 2 is 120. Or, Hoplite(20) to Infantry(90): 140 gold. "Hurrying" stuff at 50% off (or 75% with Leo) is just too good of a deal to pass up--that's like saving on half the SHIELDS it takes to build a replacement Infantry. In the case of Hoplite to Infantry (70 shields difference), that's saving 35 shields! Remember, the shields you spend building that infantry could have been spent building an improvement, so that's a fair comparison.

You can factor in maintenance costs if you want, but it doesn't really change the result: At one gold maintenance/turn, that's (35-4)*4 = 124 turns of that Hoplite sitting around doing nothing--even as a deterrent--before it becomes cheaper to disband & build infantry later. Not gonna happen. Makes you want to get Leo and cut off all your roads to Rubber, doesn't it?

 

[Polonius]

Is disbanding much use for rush building things? I have a situation at the moment where I'm trying to build a space-ship (never tried before) but before I get all the bits a 100,000 point culture victory cuts in. So I've decided to reload a few years back and sell off a bunch of Temples etc. Of course I"ll need to be careful as some of those improvements are also helping my science research, so removing them will slow down the ship, and perhaps get back back to the 100,000 again, but just more slowly.

So I need some kind of other change too. I believe that the disbanding shield gain is modest compared to e.g, building a wonder, but it might just push my last parts over the line if it gets close at the finish. It's a risky tactic, but the situation is pretty peaceful, I have a big points lead and my culture will still be awing everybody. It will be interesting to see if all my "good mates" go for the throat if I flog off my entire army!!

 

[Sam_Catchem]

It helps a little building basic building but not wonders and spaceship parts or palaces.

 

[Polonius]

Thanks Sam, I feared it might be so! I'll try it anyway and see how much I reap.

"Army for sale. Excellent condition, never used. Some units still in original wrappers. All offers c/o Polonius, Chief Meddler to her supreme Highness Cleopatra of Egypt."