First warriors, first promotion

[King_Course]

So you start up a game and you play as you mean business. You put out an extra warrior or two, and go out to see if you can take the fight to the barbarians.

Knock Knock style:
Who's ther....-WHAM!

Soon you will get your first promotions, but what do you take? I often end up taking the bonus to combat in rough terrain, because at first sign of trouble I will park myself on a hill and see what they do. But other times I take the open land promotion, because I always end up attacking on open land.

But then you get in a war and must maneouver, if you are attacked on open land, they get a bonus to their attack against you, and your open land promotion just offsets that, so your troop is not really at any advantage at all and will likely get killed standing out in the open asking for a fight. Try and take the fight into a forest you bog down your movement and end up giving chase... in open land...

Then again, when you have to attack his city, you will very likely be standing mostly on open land.

Seems to me, I end up with different units having different promotions, leaning to either one side or the other.But whatever I do, it turns out I should have done the opposite .

One thing I can agree with myself on, is to get the Medic promotion. Allright, I put of logistics and two attacks pr round, but this never seems like a good promotion to me on infantry anyway. They attack once, and take damage and must start healing to tank city damage. And let other units continue the attack. So that makes Medic more usefull on these troops alltogether.

What is your promotional strategies with the first units?

 

[aatami]

I choose the promotions based on what type of land my starting location is, since those first warriors usually end up to be defenders after getting rid of nearby barbarians.

 

[Bob_]

I most often take rough terrain, reasons:

- Usually i end my turn on rough terrain because of defense bonus --> more defense bonus
- Usually the enemy ends his turn on rough terrain because of defense bonus --> attack bonus
- In case the enemy ends his turn on open terrain he is still manageable to be killed with rough terrain upgrade (easier than if u have open terrain bonus and he is on rough terrain)

Still there is use for open terrain promotion tho, because in every campaign against the ai you need units which dont take that much damage when they are cought on open terrain. Of course one has to adjust the promotions to the environment. If there is a lot of open terrian: take more open terrian upgrade

Medic upgrade is very necessary too, but in general its important to get doubled attack as quickly as possible.

 

[Babri]

If I want to send the warrior for scouting, then I usually upgrade it to Rough Terrain Promotion since many barbarian camps are found on hills & are difficult to take down with a single unit. If I want to defend, then I use open terrain earlier in the game since most of the improvements are on plains & grassland. It also depends on the geographical location though.

 

[eris]

I am pretty sure it is contrary to everyone else's approach but I take smooth terrrain path most of the time. My units get stuck on smooth terrain at key moments too often. Also, they all think they are city invaders and cities are mostly on flat land. And, as has been mentioned beginning warriors often become my city Garrisons later on and those cities are on flat land, too. I do take a couple along rough terrain just in case, but they are seldom in the right place at the right time.

 

[mike1117112]

I just promote based on what is happening. If I beat a barb on a hill, then rough attack, if it's flat, then open ground, etc. Ships are the same, if they get promoted taking out land units, then that's what I give it. If it get promoted sinking ships, then it gets the naval bonus.
I don't know why, I've just always done that. What I don't like though is capping experience at two promotions. I don't war monger, but usually have a big enough army that I don't get attacked either, so I don't get a lot of "elite" units.

 

[DemonMaster]

If I plan to have horses early I go for the rough bonus because I use the horses to "clean" up the flat terrain. Otherwise I usually go for the flat terrain bonus, perhaps not for all units but most.

 

[TPQ]

If there's no real need for something specific I just get 1st promo rough, 2nd promo open on 3 or 4 billion year old terrain. 5 billion there is more need for open 1st and possibly even open second too.

On anything other than 5 billion terrain, rough is the best first promo imo as you should always finish movement in dangerous areas on a hill (for sight and def) or forest/jungle (for def) and the rough promo gives you extra def in these circumstances.

Also, rough helps overcome enemies on rough terrain and most (all?) units get a def hit on open terrain anyway so attacking enemies on open is inherently easier.

I do sometimes get two rough promos (especially on 3 billion year old terrain), but I like units to be able to mitigate the open def penalty so they are less vulnerable if forced to finish movement in open terrain, so second promo is usually open unless there's specific call for rough.

 

[jtb1127]

Rough terrain sounds best