Do you ever rebuild units?

[Onionsoilder]

Alright, so say you have a bunch of archaic units, and you just discovered Rifling. Obviously you would want Riflemen over whatever you currently have, since they are so much more powerful. The only problem? Upgrading is expensive! Even if you blew all of the gold in your treasury, you still wouldn't have upgraded all of them. So, what do you do?

Do you set your cities to produce Gold so you can earn enough money to upgrade them? What about turning down your science slider? Do you just build new units to replace the old ones?

EDIT: In case I wasn't clear earlier, by rebuilding units I mean building a Rifleman, and deleting a Maceman(to keep down unit maintenance). This obviously works better if you have something like West Point/Great Instructors and can build units that start with roughly the same amount of EXP as the ones you're deleting already have. The point of this is it can cost, say, 90 to build a new unit, and 115 to upgrade an existing one.

 

[hexem3117]

If all is going according to plan, I have a lot of macemen with level 2 or 3 CR on them and a good amount of gold saved up from war/expansion. I've used most of my generals on the Macemen and upgrade as many as I can to Riflemens. Then I destroy. Pretty efficient really.

I tend to keep most other units as they are; sometimes I upgrade archers to longbowmen for the early d, but usually I just let my units sit around. I voted for choice 2 but really I'm kind of a combo of 2 and 3.

 

[BTSFanRandy]

I upgrade all units if I have the money, otherwise I keep them obsolete.

 

[Mchempstein]

The only time I ever delete a unit is if my economy is falling hard and/or headed for a strike.

 

[eastsidebagel]

The only time I ever delete a unit is if my economy is falling hard and/or headed for a strike.

Same for me. I'm also just upgrading those units with a lot promotions.

 

[bestbrian]

I upgrade the highly experienced units from my field armies. Obsolete units are kept to garrison rear areas (and new conquests that will soon be rear areas).

 

[Joshua368]

Obsolete units that aren't worth upgrading due to low promotions make for great fodder to increase the odds of the units I actually want to keep.

Don't want to do it too much due to weariness but its better than just deleting them.

 

[Rusty Edge]

It's a mix. I'm more likely to gift obslete units to my vassal, or the enemy of my enemy than I am to delete them outright.

 

[Supr49er]

I upgrade my units in harm's way first.
New units are built and rotated in before I delete the older ones.

 

[6K Man]

I upgrade some. Usually those with promos I can't build anymore (e.g. CR macemen to grenadiers), or those at exactly 10 xp.

I've never had enough money to upgrade everything. Besides, there's usually no point in upgrading anything with fewer XP than your military pump city can crank out.

 

[Kenjister]

I upgrade my experienced ones and then build more of the newer units, but still keep the obsolete ones around anyways. I just rebuild my invasion forces, and upgrade defenders if something unexpected happens.
Plus, I never really have the money to upgrade most of my units anyways.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Upgrading is so expensive... It should only be done when the promotions are valuable to the upgraded unit.

Obsolete units can be useful for mop up duties, where they will pull in more xp than using your new troops.

 

[Cashew]

I do a couple things with old units: kill them off by taking enemy cities, upgrading, and using them for happiness in cities via Hereditary rule. I always try to get them killed off first, and upgrade whatever is left. The stragglers get sent to cities that need happiness. Trying to sink in too much gold for +40 units is just stupid. A core of around 25 units that you upgrade is more than sufficient to keep a continually dangerous and usable army that can be added to easily via production.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I upgrade virtually every unit in my empire. It's a pretty decent price, 3 gold for every hammer difference in building cost between the old and the new unit. That's the same cost as gold rushing in Universal Suffrage where you get a starting amount of hammers equal to the old unit costs. It's also great for your Power graph. I always play with the aggressive AI setting and then you need some Power to avoid being attacking by whomever thinks you're a tasty snack.

 

[Gooblah]

Just run Merchants or build Wealth until you have <2000 gold (turn the slider down too), and you'll have enough gold.

I rarely delete units, since they serve the purpose of Siege in later battles.

 

[6K Man]

Just run Merchants or build Wealth until you have <2000 gold (turn the slider down too), and you'll have enough gold.

I rarely delete units, since they serve the purpose of Siege in later battles.

I'd rather run Scientists and instead of upgrading all my 2-4 xp melee units to Riflemen, I'll have Infantry a few turns sooner.

And building wealth??? Why not just build Riflemen from scratch? That's got to be a better deal.

 

[Joshua368]

I'd rather run Scientists and instead of upgrading all my 2-4 xp melee units to Riflemen, I'll have Infantry a few turns sooner.

And building wealth??? Why not just build Riflemen from scratch? That's got to be a better deal.

Reason 1 - With upgrading my entire army can be ready and at the front lines after just two or three turns after learning the Rifling tech, giving me much higher chances of attacking with a tech advantage rather than waiting for the AI to catch up while my army is built from scratch.

Usually I'll build up a large army of trebuchets in anticipation to a cannon war, so I can upgrade and attack as soon as I research Steel and the medieval defenses of my opponents don't stand a chance.

Reason 2 - Promotions, without a super military pump it's hard to get units with more than two promotions out the bat, my upgraded veterans are much stronger. Plus city raider riflemen are great to have so you may want to upgrade just for that.

I never build wealth though (or research actually), I just drop the slider to 0% for a few turns or trade outdated techs for cash. Sometimes I will sell an expensive non-military tech to my target because I know he won't need it anymore, his cash will pay for his demise!

 

[3 EMS]

A cross between hexem3117 and Joshua368. I love those city raider riflemen and I will sacrifice otherwise worthless units to increase the odds of better ones. I've even used low level units on badly injured enemy units to see if I can get them promotions and then upgrade them.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Rarely is it cost effective to upgrade. CR gunpowder is kind of the exception. The other exception is small empires that hit a big tech lead and need the power ASAP. They build units ahead of time and use a merchant and tech sale to blow up an enemy or two, grabbing more land.

 

[lightsedge]

If I'm going to war, I'll upgrade the ones with lots of exp, and use the rest for garrisons so I don't have to build any. Even a warrior is fine if I think the city is safe. If attacked, I can upgrade the garrison.

If I have a commerce-heavy economy, then I'll upgrade too. 1 turn of 100% gold can often upgrade many units with good commerce production.