getting to level 6 experience for west point

[johncross21]

I want to get a level 6 unit early so i can build west point asap

this is proving harder than I first thought because the number of experience points increase for each level

I understand the odds - to get promotions you have to expose yourself to risk. I try not to use my elite unit with odds under 89% - they give 2 exp per win - it means the chances of winning ten fight times are 34% - thats what you need to do with a unit built in barracks.

build three such units and the odds are more or less even one will survive

any tips ?

people say use GG. how does that help ?

what are the best units for promotion - whats the best order of promotion

 

[sinaarrgghh]

At a guess (I've never made it a priority) the GG would help as it can provide 20? xp to other units on the square. Just move your GG and your elite unit to a square on their own and use this ability to get to level 6.

 

[Heffling]

Keep in mind that your units start at level 1, so your xp cost is (without charismatic)
2 xp for lvl 2
5 for 3
10 for 4
17 for 5
26 for 6

So, if you get a barracks unit to 6 xp then you put the unit on a single tile with a general, bam, 26 xp. West Point ready.

 

[weimingshi]

You don't need waste a GG to create a warlord to get their. The trick to get 27 exp for a lvl 6 unit is to plan early. Starting from warriors, concentrate lvling up 2 to 3 units. you can get to 10xp from barbs, after that upgrade them to axe or swordsman, then let them do the finishing blows to accumulate xp, but whatever you do, DO NOT UPGRADE THEM AGAIN BEFORE THEY REACH LVL 6. if you do upgrade past 10xp, they still retain their lvl, but xp is dropped to 0. Use them to fight severly injured units to get them to 27xp.

 

[DarkFyre99]

As others have said, the two best ways of getting to level six are:

1) Nurse a level five unit to level 6. It's fairly easy to get a unit to level 5. At level 5, you need only 9 XP more to get to level six, which means you could allow the level 5 unit to finish off wounded units in order to not risk it.

A level 5 mounted unit, for example, can get Combat III + Blitz, so it could finish off the last two defenders of a city on a single turn.

Another strategy would be to go with a level 5 archery unit with Drill IV. Since XP is actually calculated from the ratio of the attacker's strength to the defender's strength, Drill IV, with 3-6 first strikes, could generate more XP while still having an excellent chance of winning.

2) Use a Great General to create a Warlord with a single unit. When a Warlord is created, 20XP is divided among all the units in the tile. If there's only one unit in the tile, it gets all 20XP. As long as that unit has at least 6XP, it will reach level 6. This is by far the most common method, since it also allows the creation of the proverbial "Great Medic," which rapidly heals units nearby. A city with barracks and a stable, when running Feudalism or Theology, can easily produce a chariot with 7XP, ideal for your Civ's MASH unit. A barb hunting chariot would also be quite useful.

Note that a under a Charismatic leader, a unit only needs 20XP for level 6.

 

[xanadux]

Drill promoted privateers get 2 exp against caravels, and IIRC, are about 95% to win unpromoted, and get over 99% with drill 3. The exp rate doesn't go down with promotions as long as you keep taking drill. Make a stack of 4 privateers, make one a medic, and go sink some caravels. Doesn't take long, and you don't have to be at war. You have to have a tech lead though and probably will need chemistry a minimum of 30 turns before the AI for this to work. As soon as an AI gets chemistry and astronomy, it will make frigates and hunt down the privateers. Doable on Emperor and below, don't know about the top 2 levels, but I doubt it.

 

[weregamer]

Yup, three main ways to get the L6 unit.

Warlord - easiest, you can always manage this one way or another.

Privateers - you have to get them before many civs have Frigates, and use them mercilessly but I've had them with 50+ xp in several games.

Careful hoarding and nurturing of units, sacrificing others to weaken things so your chosen one gets the killing blow - you can do this in almost any game too, and in fact its probably easier on harder difficulties with the early streams of barbarians, but it takes a lot of work.

 

[xanadux]

You can also kill one wolf then pop 5 huts for experience with your initial warrior.

 

[SenhorDaGuerra]

i settled 11GG's in one city and got 24 exp per unit built in that city (without vassalage or theocracy). it was sweet. obviously it took me a lot of warmongering to get 11GG's so probably not good for early level 6 unit.

 

[r_rolo1]

There is a somewhat cheesy way of getting a level 6 unit easily:
-Beeline construction
-Make catapults
-Find a civ with archers as main defense
-Attack with the catapults. Some may die, but when they reach the no kill limit, they'll just retreat and gain 1 XP
-Rinse and repeat

I told you it was cheesy.....

A related "strategy" is to use barb cities to get lvl 3 cats out of barb cities...

 

[madscientist]

My favorite way is to use the first GG on a unit with 6 XP to a get a medic III unit for healing.

For the longest time I tried to get units up to level 6 via warfare promotions, which took forever, and to be honest I would not have a level 6 unit by military tradition anyway.

Ironicall, since I have used the GGs for a medic III unit I get ALOT of highly promoted units, mostly because the medic is saving the better units with faster healing.

Also, Once I get medic III I next take the leadership promotion for faster XPs and will not hesitate to use the medicc III unit in battle with high percentage odds. Much musted be risked in war!

 

[johncross21]

lots of good ideas here (thanks all)

I upgrade my warrior to axeman and maceman. I tend to go for Combat 1, City Raider I and II to begin with.

I don't upgrade after 10 exp because upgrades automatically reduce exp to 10
I use catapult to weaken defenders in cities until the odds for the first wave elite troop are around 95%. If its a well defended city that might mean launching the main bombard attacking with rifles, and then softening up the remaining defenders with even more catapults before using macemen to clear up

if I have a big stack i always send attackers in to fight at about 95%. I would prefer to use an archer and fight at 95% than a rifle and win with 99% because you get more exp point - promotions are helpful - need to make the most of exp.

However there is still a high mortality rate for elite units - and its tough getting 26 exp - so I will look at other strategies here.

 

[manu-fan]

Use your first GG on a Medic chariot. Along with giving it level 3 healing, give it the promotion where it gets double experience. Then have it in your main attackgin stack. You may think that he would never fight, but the chariot can mop up really badly wounded defenders etc. and gain lots of xp doing it (and healing like crazy). BTW: When you get Military Tradiition, free upgrade to Cavalry and go crazy (but make sure he's not left out on his own.

By the time I usually get Cavaly, I've usually got 2 MASH chariots, and 1 strength Chariot that I upgrade to Cavalry, that will end up being my Super Gunships.

BTW: I'm takling Warlords.

Cheers.

 

[Quechua]

If you don't want to use a GG, one quick way is to fight a war against an opponent with mounted units. Use spearmen (or even better elephants) as active defense, they will have excellent survival odds from the very beginning. Once they get March (after combat III), they will have no downtime if they are stacked with a medic, and you can get 1 or 2 xp per turn with minimal risk.