General Combat Upgrades Better Than Specific Ones

[DarkSchneider]

I have come to believe that the general combat upgrades (Combat 1-5) are better than the ones vs specific units. At any given point in history, it seems like there are three unit types in active use. In the beginning, we have archers, melee and mounted, later we have gunpowder and armor, but almost always 3 at any given time. Now lets say you used your first 3 upgrades for combats 1-3. You would have a +30% bonus against all units. If instead, you got each of the specific upgrades, you would only have 25%. Also, when you are attacking, the defender gets to choose who blocks, so if you unit happens to be strong vs a particular type, it is unlikely he will get that type to attack.

Any thoughts, the only specific upgrades I get are the city based ones and occasionally gunpowder during that portion of the game.

 

[DaEezT]

Theoretically, in terms of long term effect the best thing would probably be to take Combat I-III and then the unit specific promotions because when you upgrade a unit it is demoted back to 10XP which means promotions 4+ are gone and you can repick.

But from experiance that's not really practical because a) gunpowder units will be the main defenders (and important attackers) for quite some time. Remember: Mobile Infantry = Gunpowder unit.
and b) artillery units are also ever present.

The only real epoch specific promotions are mounted, melee and archer, but since the first epoch is a very important time they are still worth it. The AI also seems awfully fond of the "generic" promotions but that usually doesn't help against macemen with shock/cover

 

[Vizzini]

4 Gunships
1 Transport
Combat I + Combat II + Amphibeous

Hmmm. Gunship Carriers

Also do not discount the bonus to movement upgrades. (Can't remember the names) In certain terrain you could have melee units operating faster than mounted or even armored units.

 

[phoulishwan]

Also do not discount the bonus to movement upgrades. (Can't remember the names) In certain terrain you could have melee units operating faster than mounted or even armored units.

Even on my City Defense 2 Archers, I like to get them a Hillsmen 1 if they plan on defending a city on a hill. That's a huge cumulative defensive bonus, that in most cases is more than enough to hold off even upgraded Praetorians.

 

[Dorkus]

You don't get all the specialist upgrades. You get one and have that unit specialize in fighting, e.g. cav.

 

[Minsc]

I usually take the city attack/defence upgrages first since almost all of my warfare seems to be centered on cities.

What do people think of the fast healing upgrades? I usually try to have one or two units in my army have it to help out with healing.

 

[Mujadaddy]

Ahhh, so many choices

 

[Khaim]

If you can reasonably get to three promotions, I like combat I/Medic/March. March is an amazing promotion in general. I usually go this route with my mounted units and city raider with my swordsmen. Also, there's a period where you don't have any units to build that can take city raider, which is kind of a problem. (Between musketmen and tanks.) So far my solution has been to not fight any wars then, but that's not the best idea.

 

[APushkin]

Are promos really lost when you upgrade? I thought that units only loose XP... Could it be that units loose only those promotions that they can't have?

 

[DarkSchneider]

Are promos really lost when you upgrade? I thought that units only loose XP... Could it be that units loose only those promotions that they can't have?

No, as mentioned in an earlier post, you keep the upgrades, but you go back to 10 experience and your level up requirement is the same. That means your next promotion might not be for awhile... I had some units with their next promotion at 50, which means they will have to fight 20~ battles before they can be promoted again.