Ranged units lose promotions when upgraded to gunpowder?

[Lordevan83]

Hey, do ranged units lose the usefulness of their promotions when upgraded to gunpowder units?

 

[Show]

Depends on what promotion, obviously things that apply to ranged unites only (like range +1 or something like that) won't be kept as it would make no sense but everything else is, for exemple chu ko nu keeps the double attack.

 

[Thalassicus]

I think he's referring to the rough/clear terrain bonuses. The wording does indicate they become worthless.

IMO it'd be better to eliminate the ranged-specific promotions and simply have shock/drill for all units, but would only apply to attack for ranged units.

 

[Setis]

The wording seems to indicate it would become worthless, but I'm pretty sure when I used one of my gunpowder units that had promoted from an archery unit, the mouse-over battle odds showed me still getting the terrain bonuses from my promotions.

 

[better days]

I had a few crazy-good crossbowmen (double xp social policy ftw!) and when I upgraded them to riflemen, they didnt keep the +60% ranged attack nor did they get to keep the +1 range. Firing twice, however, was kept.

Actually, they did keep the promotions, it showed up under the units, but they were useless (they couldnt shoot 2 tiles etc)

Although, a 2 tile ranged firing twice riflemen with bonuses would be waaaay overpowered.

On a semi-related note, although not realistic, why can't crossbowmen upgrade to cannons? From a gameplay perspective, makes sense, ranged to ranged.

 

[bhavv]

On a semi-related note, although not realistic, why can't crossbowmen upgrade to cannons? From a gameplay perspective, makes sense, ranged to ranged.

I've been discussing this on 2K forums, and there are plenty of realistic upgrades that they could recieve:

Arbalest
Grenadier (IRL, they wouldnt have as much range as a bow, but this is a game, not real life)
Mortar.

I find it incredibly silly that crossbows cant be upgraded. Greg said that you can use Artillery in the modern era, but that still means losing all your crossbow / archer promotions, and having to retrain a load of siege weapons.

Plus, siege weapons arent as flexible as they need to be set up. Ranged units are meant to be able to 'shoot on the run', but they are weaker than siege.