Promotions: The Final Solution...

[TheDS]

A few thoughts...

First, let's not forget the scale of the game. At minimum, a turn takes an entire year. A ship can sail around the world in that time, and it's nothing to assume that a ship that earns a promotion couldn't have sailed home, gotten its upgrade, and then sailed back to its station. (Same for troops marching home and back.) So any suggestion that involves "take your units back to one of your cities every X number of turns" is right out based on that, and we don't even have to stress how utterly annoying that would be to actually have to do it. (Really, guys, if it means that much to you, nothing is stopping you from tracking that in your games and rotating your troops right now. Go ahead and do it. What, too annoying?)

Next, many promotions represent being issued special equipment or training. It doesn't take a lot of sense to drive a ship in a straight line to get more speed out of it, but putting in better engines or redesigning the hull for less drag is a significant investment that increases speed. By the same token, infantry isn't "naturally" able to defeat tanks, but issue them some AT rockets and now they're really darn effective at it. Poof, there's your anti-armor promo.

I can definitely agree that it would "feel" better if certain promotions were granted for certain things. Woodsman promo for units that have traveled through the woods a lot, etc, but there are few enough promos available for a given unit as it is; there's no real choice involved.

The last thing I'll mention for now is that the way the system is currently adds a sub-game to the game. Since earning a promo allows you to heal your unit partially, there's the question of when to use it. Use it now to heal and be strong in case of attack, or hold it and use it later when you know what you're going to need? etc. I don't have a problem with retro-active foresight like this. When I'm GMing a role-playing game, I generally understand that my players can't always think of everything in advance, and I grant them a "grab-bag" advantage. They come to a situation they didn't think of, but that their character might have, and there's a chance their character remembered to bring the climbing rope just in case. I see this much the same way, and I sleep like a baby.

 

[Silurian]

TheDS@

I agree that you should not have to go back to one of your cities when you get a combat promotion. Combat promotions should be availed anywhere.

Training and refitting is a different thing and depend on the circumstances.

When a unit refits or receives training it should be in supply. (IMO within the BFC of Supply Depot Unit or in friendly territory – some times at certain locations.)

Training/refit

When you get the ability to have the “Anti Armour” promo I would assume that Bazookas – LAW – Panzercheck etc are distributed amongst your foot units/ mech infantry. They only get basic training in the field – pull out pin A and B point at tank and pull trigger.
If the unit is in a battle and kills a tank(s) then it gets “Anti Armour 1” promo (or other relevant promo)
If the unit is trained before it goes into battle in “Anti Armour” using dummy tanks, instruction on the best place to hit, tactics etc the more likely it is to survive.
Alternatively you could decide to train a unit with a combat promoted “Anti Armour 1” in “Anti Armour 2” to improve on their skills and teach them what they did not know.


The speed of a ship represents its ability to manoeuvre in battle to a large extent.(IMO - I agree most sailing ships could sail around the world in one year)

The speed of a ship would be improved by:-
Combat experience when they out manoeuvred the enemy ships

Training experience – the more they sail their ships the better they can handle them. They learn to read the sea conditions and learn more about there ship.
Training to use new sails which may not require refitting
So to train for speed you would not have to move your ship just leave it training in the BFC of a friendly city – The ship is sailing around the place but you do not see it because it is boring.

Refitting with more powerful engines as described above

Building with a better hull.
Some improvements could not really be carried out on an existing ship but you could have a tech that gives a “+1 speed” for all ships built afterwards. To up grade a unit would require the building of a new ship and transferring the crew. This is more like up grading a unit from one type to another which should cost a lot more gold.


Up grading a unit from one type to another

When a unit up grades from one type to another it should be in supply.

Some upgrades would have to take place in a city.

When a caravel up grades to a submarine the sailors would have to be trained how to use it for an extended period of time in a place with training facilities. But to go from frigate to ship of the line could be done in the field. A fighter on an aircraft carrier would have to rebase to a city to learn to fly jets and be upgraded. Riflemen could upgrade to Infantry in the field. Etc

Also at present you can up grade from warrior to mech infantry in one turn (with more gold). This should be extended so that you have to spend more turns if you advance from a very old unit.

And when you upgrade to a new type of unit some of the promotions should sometimes be lost. If the crew of very good at handling the sails on their frigate they may not be so good with the steam engine in their new destroyer; but they may learn quicker