Do you upgrade your obsolete units?

[snipafist]

Really depends on my immediate needs. It can be very much worth it to upgrade all your newly-obsolete units up to the best troop type. For instance, converting hordes of musketmen up to riflemen if you grab rifling early is pretty much a game over for any civ next to you, where it would normally take many many turns to produce riflemen the old-fashioned way, at which point the AI may have caught up and produced riflemen of their own. Alternatively, it's good to upgrade defensive units in difficult circumstances. If, on the other hand, I'm not too pressed for time, I usually prefer to just produce the units normally and keep the science slider running full blast.

 

[Aramil799]

Gold in Civ4 is pretty useless, imo... if you don't have enough to upgrade to the next level of science, it usually just sits there, unless you can trade for something with the AI. Of course in BtS a gold reserve is nice for events, but you still end up accumulating a lot. So there's often times when I'll have gold, not yet be at a rush-buying point, and need to spend it... I may as well upgrade units.

 

[Jabarto]

I almost never upgrade unless someone catches me off guard (which happens a lot), but I will upgrade units with 3+ promotions if I suspect combat is likely to occur.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I think the poll should also have included the alternative: "Yes, but I only upgrade units with some kind of promotion, unless I'm in acute need of troops to throw into the affray."

 

[sveint]

Only upgrade experienced units and never ancient era units

 

[Robovski]

I usually have plenty of cash, but there is often something to build so I upgrade, preferring the experienced frontline troops over poor quality backbenchers when having to choose.

 

[axident]

I almost never upgrade unless someone catches me off guard (which happens a lot), but I will upgrade units with 3+ promotions if I suspect combat is likely to occur.

So you almost never do X, except when Y happens, and Y happens a lot, which means you do X a lot?

I'm just joking, I play the same way--I will upgrade in emergencies but that's usually it.

 

[Jabarto]

So you almost never do X, except when Y happens, and Y happens a lot, which means you do X a lot?

I'm just joking, I play the same way--I will upgrade in emergencies but that's usually it.

Exactly. You'd think I'd learn after the 47th time, but...

 

[Kark]

You said you wanted realism though--so maybe that's reason enough to plant reasonably powerful troops in core cities!

Realism is that people in the centre of a big empire don’t need a Rambo-style sheriff to feel safe, they’re satisfied with an unarmed English bobby. (Well, maybe unless we’re talking about the American empire.)

 

[Bluetooth]

If I'm playing an aggressive leader I upgrade most of my units. Usually I save one or two of my best units so I can attach them to a Great General later on.

Otherwise I tend to disable my old units when I switch to Vassalage/Theocracy and can build new stronger units.

 

[Morty]

Interesting thread!

i do find that I've got to say they 1950's happen to look at my oldest cities and find that I've still got warriors and archers sitting in them!!

I then think - "ah well, they're not doing any harm there are they...I'll leave them there".

but of course they're costing me money aren't they!??

memo to self - I must pay more attention to obsolete units.

 

[Soneji]

I field a massive army.

My whole millitary strategy is to keep an edge, be the first to get macemen. Too long to build a huge army of these, so upgrade all previous melee and swords.

Again, I spend my money upgrading all my gunpowder units... all except for musketmen. I do not build these, instead going from Riflemen onwards. I will not upgrade all my macemen to riflemen due to the high costs, other than free upgrades on Generals and my high XP and promoted mace.

 

[Soneji]

Although I would like to moan about one thing.

If I have older units like macemen, I upgrade them and my military costs do not change. However, if I build a rifleman and delete the old macemen... my economy improves by several gold.

Why am I penalised in this way?

 

[torsoboy]

Since gunpowder units can't get City Raider (unless I'm mistaken), I upgrade units that have CR to riflemen when I can. The rest I send in a big stack to go try conquer something or die trying. Also, the aforementioned offering galleys to privateers... since it doesn't change war/peace status.

Other than that, I find that building a unit is easier than getting the cash to do it. At a certain point I'll have built the infrastructure I want, and those cities go on unit training mode. Also, I tend not to have a lot of cash since I up the science slider if I get "too much money".

 

[hoopsnerd]

Usually, I have so much commerce production in my empire that the technologies come quicker than the cities can build the buildings that I'd like them to have. So, because I have a relative shortage of hammers, I like to use gold (from commerce) to improve my military instead of hammers. It is important to have a power rating that is comparable to the AI's powerrating if you don't want to be attacked.

I voted the top option which says that I always upgrade my military. That's not entirely true as I will sometimes disband a few of my troops which are extremely inexperienced compared to the troops that I build. But the options didn't allow such a detailed answer.

Yeah, this describes what I do pretty well, except that I have never disbanded anything ever.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Whenever I discover a major military tech like feudalism, rifling, advanced flight or the CS + Machinery combo, I immediately put my gold slider to 100% and start upgrading everything that can be upgraded. After that, it's back to science.

 

[sydhe]

I generally upgrade after I start accumulating lots of cash, which is after Spiral Minaret. One of my favorite tricks is to build Macemen, give them City Raider II, then upgrade them to Grenadiers.

I don't generally do what I did in Civ III which is to send the non-upgraded warriors and archers on the special World Tour of the Boondocks. I.e. Explore the world until you get knocked off by the barbarians.

 

[pirke]

I upgrade when I have the money, and when in an emergency...

Question: are jet fighters supposed to loose often from regular fighters? I've noticed that they take 50% damage very often while shooting down "sitting ducks", that's not very realistic in my opinion...

 

[Sephlock]

but some of us also stated that gifting to vassals for their discount bonuses is another use for obsolete units

Discount bonuses? What?

Yeah, this describes what I do pretty well, except that I have never disbanded anything ever.

Not even your Caravel after circumnavigating the globe (or failing to do so first)? Sometimes I'll just put it on auto explore, but generally doing so is pretty useless, IMHO.

Question: are jet fighters supposed to loose often from regular fighters? I've noticed that they take 50% damage very often while shooting down "sitting ducks", that's not very realistic in my opinion...

'nuff said.


Oh, and btw, does anyone know if upgrading your units produces an uptick in your ranking on the power graph? I mean, does it make the AI think twice about attacking you, or is it just volume that counts when it comes to units' deterring attacks?

 

[axident]

Discount bonuses? What?

Especially on higher difficulty levels (maybe also lower but I am not sure), AI civs get to upgrade their units for lower gold than the human player doing the same kind of upgrade.