Upgrade veterans, send in the unpromoted unupgraded first. Its good to keep ancient units as emergency reserves, unit costs are really pretty insignificant to me usually. And its kind of comical to send hordes of war elephants to kill stacks of sieged/bombed infantry, just as easy as they kill longbows.
Disband units or upgrade?
- Thread starter IAM
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Having warriors and modern armor existing side by side at the same time looks ridiculous.
When switching between eras, the game should force you to choose between either deleting or upgrading the obsolete units that cannot be produced anymore. If you delete them you could get a small gold or hammer compensation per unit, and if you upgrade the cost could be distributed on a number of rounds (eg 10-50) depending on your income.
When switching between eras, the game should force you to choose between either deleting or upgrading the obsolete units that cannot be produced anymore. If you delete them you could get a small gold or hammer compensation per unit, and if you upgrade the cost could be distributed on a number of rounds (eg 10-50) depending on your income.
Justy
Warlord
I upgrade. I hate wasting a city's production on military hardware if it is not necessary. I'd rather put that time towards a building, missionaries, execs, etc.
I can understand not carrying forward a level 1 when you can churn out 3's or 4's. That works just as well. It's not an either / or situation.
I can understand not carrying forward a level 1 when you can churn out 3's or 4's. That works just as well. It's not an either / or situation.
Is it ok to go 100% gold - 0% tech for a few turns to upgrade an entire army? Sure you lose a few turns but then you become way more powerful than your enemy because they didn't halt teching to upgrade?
That's what I always do. It slows me down in research though but if I can use my new military advantage to kick some ass then I guess it's worth it?
That's what I always do. It slows me down in research though but if I can use my new military advantage to kick some ass then I guess it's worth it?
I find it a great strategy to start building units before the next "tier" is reached only to upgrade them all to have a huge army instantly of the best troops present in the world.
Knights -> Cuirassier -> Cavalry isn't that expensive per unit, same goes for Riflemen -> Infantry, though the Macemen -> Riflemen/Grenadier is kinda expensive you get to have CR on your gunpowder units, which is really nice.
If you are willing to use a GM to get some money via a trade mission this can be accomplished without much loss of teching time, which is probably also one of few ways to do the sword/axemen -> Macemen.
Knights -> Cuirassier -> Cavalry isn't that expensive per unit, same goes for Riflemen -> Infantry, though the Macemen -> Riflemen/Grenadier is kinda expensive you get to have CR on your gunpowder units, which is really nice.
If you are willing to use a GM to get some money via a trade mission this can be accomplished without much loss of teching time, which is probably also one of few ways to do the sword/axemen -> Macemen.
I think it depends on the situation. You can build a stronger army faster via upgrades and sometimes winning a war is all about timing. Not only do you have to wait for the new units to be built but you have to move them into place. Other cheap upgrades are Airship to Fighter (80 per unit) and Trebuchet to Cannon (80 per unit)
BTW, the cost to upgrade a unit is 20+3*(cost in hammers of new unit - cost in hammers of old unit).
BTW, the cost to upgrade a unit is 20+3*(cost in hammers of new unit - cost in hammers of old unit).
I suicide them onto barbarians where possible, like when wanting to destroy a barbarian city. Hold your ground Praetorians, let those warriors go in first! 
Anyways, I'd rather build 5 Macemen and get a new technology than upgrade 5 warriors to macemen. That's why disbanding is better.
Anyways, I'd rather build 5 Macemen and get a new technology than upgrade 5 warriors to macemen. That's why disbanding is better.
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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It can be good or terrible to do this. It's very potent when you're combining past production with current production of a military tech lead, such as building/drafting rifles while upgrading old maces from a HE city. You can amass a lot of troops very quickly this way.
MonRiverMonarch
Oar Master
That's a good idea, I will have to keep that one in mind.
sydhe
King of Kongs
I should have mentioned Impi here. It's nice to have a lot of units with mobility just waiting to be upgraded.
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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IMO the maceman promo to CR rifles is a bit of a niche thing used when you're desperately small and need to focus total empire output on leveraging a military advantage at all costs (exception: aforementioned berserkers).
A lot of people like the CR on rifles, but there's a couple reasons I'm not sold on it:
1. Obviously, if you're relying more on the draft most of your units aren't going to have it.
2. Once defenses are down, rifles have pretty good odds against anything that defends, with the exception of high CG muskets (and same-era things like other rifles or grenadiers with CG or on counterattack).
3. People kind of assume no CR in this era, but it's not entirely true. If you instead go for steel first, you get all the CR you want without upgrades. Anything can finish off units red-lined by cannons, and just some pikes/muskets are all you need to cover them...techs you'll have.
That said, upgrading a bunch of troops may be your only means to come up with enough
quickly enough to actually be fighting longbows rather than rifles on high difficulties, and that trumps any upgrade inefficiency. Nevertheless, even if you burn a merchant this is harder on tech rate than conventional means and even more so than drafting, so use with caution.While the impi is a very nice unit, you render its Mobility promotion useless by upgrading (until MechInf)
It is far better to use the 2-move Impis as supermedics (can get Wood-III) later in the game.
IMO the maceman promo to CR rifles is a bit of a niche thing used when you're desperately small and need to focus total empire output on leveraging a military advantage at all costs (exception: aforementioned berserkers).
A lot of people like the CR on rifles, but there's a couple reasons I'm not sold on it:
1. Obviously, if you're relying more on the draft most of your units aren't going to have it.
2. Once defenses are down, rifles have pretty good odds against anything that defends, with the exception of high CG muskets (and same-era things like other rifles or grenadiers with CG or on counterattack).
3. People kind of assume no CR in this era, but it's not entirely true. If you instead go for steel first, you get all the CR you want without upgrades. Anything can finish off units red-lined by cannons, and just some pikes/muskets are all you need to cover them...techs you'll have.
That said, upgrading a bunch of troops may be your only means to come up with enough
You really like your cannons don't you?
You always seem to ramble on about them.More on topic though, will agree that Macemen -> Riflemen aren't worth it, too costly for what you get. Compared to just drafting/build new Riflemen, and yes Cannons will indeed beat the crap out of anything pre-gunpowder units.
However once you get to Infantry it's nice to have an advantage by having a couple promoted infantry from earlier units. So while upgrading right away but disbanding might not be the thing either.
IAM
Emperor
I thought the impi mobility promotion carried through as upgraded to Pikemen etc. Are you saying it doesn't?
JonathanStrange
PrinceWithA1000Enemies
I usually upgrade based more on what promotion the unit has than on any other consideration. As for the rest?
"Now, in your twilight years, brave warrior Oolak, in honor of your centuries of loyal service to the nation, we, the chiefs, have decided to let you run for it."
"Now, in your twilight years, brave warrior Oolak, in honor of your centuries of loyal service to the nation, we, the chiefs, have decided to let you run for it."
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