Mercenary Armies?

[Jon the Bastard]

Greetings all - I have noticed something strange happening in my games and I'm not entirely sure how it is happening. Basically, I'm curious as to whether or not any of you have seen it in your games or if any of you know what the heck is going on. Also, if this has been discussed elsewhere, feel free to point me in that direction.

There have been several times where one civilization will magically have the special unit of another civilization in its army composition. The three instances that have happened recently are:
The Netherlands having a whole contingent of Siamese Naresuan Elephant in their army.
The French having several of the Ottoman Sipahi in their army (this one was especially strange, seeing as how the Ottomans weren't even on the map.)
Finally, Japan having American Minutemen in their army... just a couple though. (Here again, America wasn't on the map.)

Does anyone have any idea what is happening here?

 

[Liegence]

Gifted from military CS

 

[Jon the Bastard]

Gifted from military CS

City-States can gift the unique units of civilizations that aren't even on the map?

 

[Quineloe]

City-States can gift the unique units of civilizations that aren't even on the map?

Mouse-over the "militaristic" on interface and it will tell you which UU the city state knows and it will gift that unit to allies. I even saw Panzer once. That was hilarious.

 

[Jon the Bastard]

Mouse-over the "militaristic" on interface and it will tell you which UU the city state knows and it will gift that unit to allies. I even saw Panzer once. That was hilarious.

Huh... I had no idea. Thanks for the responses!

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

With the exception of Foreign Legion, the Militaristic UU is ALWAYS that of a non-active civilization. which is actually a very helpful way of finding out Who isn't in your game

If you see a Panzer you know you know Germany isn't in, if you see a Legion, you know Rome isn'ti n the game, when you see a Hoplite (which, I don't think is actually possbile) you know you can win a diplomatic victory.

 

[Jon the Bastard]

With the exception of Foreign Legion, the Militaristic UU is ALWAYS that of a non-active civilization. which is actually a very helpful way of finding out Who isn't in your game

If you see a Panzer you know you know Germany isn't in, if you see a Legion, you know Rome isn'ti n the game, when you see a Hoplite (which, I don't think is actually possbile) you know you can win a diplomatic victory.

Ah, yes, yes. That's very useful indeed.

I'm a bit embarrassed that I've gone so long without knowing this.

 

[Quineloe]

With the exception of Foreign Legion, the Militaristic UU is ALWAYS that of a non-active civilization. which is actually a very helpful way of finding out Who isn't in your game

If you see a Panzer you know you know Germany isn't in, if you see a Legion, you know Rome isn'ti n the game, when you see a Hoplite (which, I don't think is actually possbile) you know you can win a diplomatic victory.

IIRC, Ancient Era units are excluded.

 

[redwings1340]

With the exception of Foreign Legion, the Militaristic UU is ALWAYS that of a non-active civilization. which is actually a very helpful way of finding out Who isn't in your game

If you see a Panzer you know you know Germany isn't in, if you see a Legion, you know Rome isn'ti n the game, when you see a Hoplite (which, I don't think is actually possbile) you know you can win a diplomatic victory.

If you see a Panzer from another civ and don't already know Germany isn't in the game, something is very wrong, especially with the world congress in play

Still though, yeah, that's basically right. You're about the 500th person to post this question in the threads (this should be in an FAQ section somewhere), but I suppose each one didn't realize how it worked, so that's ok.

If you pay attention to which city state gives what, you can make your military pretty powerful. I got China longbows once. That game was pretty awesome!