So how does this work?

[Twiglet]

Warlords (2.08), Monarch, Pangaea. Just me and Cyrus left alive. I beat him to Gunpowder, and immediately research Chemistry. When I finish it he has Gunpowder (but not Chemistry). First wave of grenadiers completes and assembles ready to invade. Before it can get to the frontier, Cyrus shows up with Rifles and Cavalry....an awful lot of Cavalry...I have nothing to beat them back with and duly get chewed to pieces..."Grrrrrrr" doesn't begin to describe it...

I did have a stack of axes/maces/spears/pikes/cats/trebs - but nowhere near the 2000+ gold I'd have needed to upgrade them all to grenadiers when Chemistry came out. I was staggered by how fast he got large waves of cavalry assembled given that I beat him to Gunpowder (and was feeling all smug about it...) He had a few knights before, I'm guessing he also had a stash of gold, somehow got all the techs, and mass-upgraded... I had no knights (but was 6 techs off military tradition anyway).

Back to the drawing board...

 

[terriFyer]

sucks when that happens

 

[50_dollar_bag]

The AI upgrades troops for a lot cheaper than human players can, something in the order of 90% or something, depending on the difficulty level.

Oh by the way, bummer.

 

[LlamaCat]

You can lower your research rate down to 0 for a turn or even several turns and instantly crank out a lot of cash, then spend it on upgrading units right away. This is an effective strategy sometimes. Yes, your research is now going nowhere, but if you got the tech you needed to wage war or defend yourself from extinction, who cares? those axes and spears should have been upgraded

 

[cabert]

the AI has a 75% upgrade discount.
So he just needs the tech and bam here are the cavs.
Still, you did wrong. Should have attacked with musketmen +catapults
+ gunpowder is not the most expensive tech on this line. Nationalism + military tradition are bigger.

 

[Twiglet]

You know, I never do that (go with muskets/cats) - I always wait "just one more tech..." cos grenadiers rock (bring on your puny rifles...). Muskets always strike me as a weak unit (except when you roll a Pro leader when they're very useful for defending cities with). Perhaps I should revisit that and try using them for a little rock'n'roll...

 

[bippukt]

You can lower your research rate down to 0 for a turn or even several turns and instantly crank out a lot of cash, then spend it on upgrading units right away. This is an effective strategy sometimes. Yes, your research is now going nowhere, but if you got the tech you needed to wage war or defend yourself from extinction, who cares? those axes and spears should have been upgraded

This is exactly what I love to do. Why wait for dozens of turns to produce new units when you can upgrade your existing ones and get loads of advanced units very fast. Of course, if the experience level is too different (eg level 1 vs new level 4 units), then the situation might change. But I don't hesitate to sacrifice a few turns of research to win a critical war fast.