Unit promotions

[Hyronymus]

How do we decide which promotion a unit should get?
Do we poll unit promotions or do we leave unit promotions to the Office of the Warlord?

Do we stop the game until we decided upon a promotion for a unit? If we play on we might need the promotion we decide upon after finishing the game session. On the other side, stopping the game each time a unit earns a promotion breaks the game up.

Should we consider standard promotions for unit classes?
If we standardise promotion procedures we can safe ourselves time. Let's look at Archer for instance. If we standardise the promotion to be Drill I first and then Combat I we make life easier.

 

[grant2004]

If we can come up with standard plans those would be good in some cases. However I think promotions should be generally left up to the warlord so that he can make the decisions he needs to when a war is on.

 

[ordinaryguy]

It depends on the situation the game is in. Promotions for warring would defer from promotions during peace.

For example, archers should get city garrison promotions if defending in cities. Or guerrilla if used as a fog-busting unit. (applies to peace and war times)

Also, axemen usually get combat promotions during peace time, and city raider promotions during war time (assuming we use them to attack cities).

Generally, I think that we should be able to come up with some standard procedure. However, I do not feel that the game should be stopped just to decide whether or not to promote a single unit.

 

[Hyronymus]

I don't feel like stopping the game for every promotion either but it struck me that this hasn't been discussed yet.

 

[Joe Harker]

Give the job to the warlord, it will take too long to decide every promotion

 

[dutchfire]

This is one of those things the DP is perfectly able to handle in most situations.

 

[ordinaryguy]

This is one of those things the DP is perfectly able to handle in most situations.

True, we could leave it to the DP and the Warlord. I mean, promoting a unit can't be such a major issue right?

 

[730195]

Is there any advantage to giving a promotion before the unit actually needs it? Archers defending a city could defer their promotion until we are at war and an enemy is in range to attack them. That would leave open the option of repositioning them (say to a wooded hilltop) and picking a more appropriate promotion. The only downside I'm aware of is all the blue glowing units gets annoying after a while, but that's minor. Any better reason not to wait?

 

[dutchfire]

Is there any advantage to giving a promotion before the unit actually needs it? Archers defending a city could defer their promotion until we are at war and an enemy is in range to attack them. That would leave open the option of repositioning them (say to a wooded hilltop) and picking a more appropriate promotion. The only downside I'm aware of is all the blue glowing units gets annoying after a while, but that's minor. Any better reason not to wait?

No, it's generally considered best to promote units just before you need it.

 

[ori]

Any better reason not to wait?

I am not sure about the following:
When promoting a unit is awakened - I am not sure if this means that it looses its fortification bonus...
Now this would of course only be an issue for units that are used as (city-)defenders.
In any case I am all for leaving this up to the DP, unless we decide on a very specific thing like: lets build a Medic2 Chariot for our attack stack...

 

[GeorgeOP]

Leave it to the Warlord and DP. If the unit is expected to be in combat during the TC, the DP should have the ability to decide what the best promotion would be. If there isn't a pressing need for a promotion, the DP can just leave it. The Warlord can include any promotions in their instructions. We should treat promotions like we treat other micromanagement decisions. Let the Warlord/DP decide exactally what spaces to be on, what order to attack, etc. The people should give broad objectives like "build this unit" or "take this city" or "destroy this civilization".

 

[Falcon02]

I say it's up to the Warlord and DP.

Warlord gets first priority, ie. in instruction thread (ie. "give any Archers the next level of City Garrison should they get promoted")

If the Warlord does not state what promotion he would like, it will be left up to the DP.

 

[Hyronymus]

It seems like we're all on the same wavelenght here but does it require confirmation by a poll nonetheless?

 

[GeorgeOP]

I don't think we need to poll it or write an amendment. Who has the ability to give promotions? The DP. If the Warlord didn't post instructions, we all agree the DP should have the power to use his judgement. If the Warlord does post instructions, the DP doing something else breaks another one of our laws. I don't like having extra laws, so I suggest no laws or votes be made about this.

 

[Hyronymus]

The I suggest the Warlord gives a summary of his powers in his Office once it's established.

 

[Joe Harker]

I agree with keeping a record of promotions

 

[Indagator]

I wonder if perhaps we might do something similar to the way promotions are done in the real world: we could let the warlord have full rein with lower level promotions (lvl 1,2,maybe 3), but then all promotions from lvl 4 or above must be confirmed by the rest of the community, where the Warlord presents his suggestions and we vote on them by poll. If a promotion fails for pass, the citizens can either specify the promotion the unit should have, or in the case that a consensus doesn't exist, return it to the warlord to make another decision.

 

[Falcon02]

Personally, I feel voting on promotions (even high level ones) is a bit much. It can really bog down the process, especially given combat situations.

Say we're at war during a game session, and on turn 1 we get a soldier to reach level 5 (or whatever we determine is the cap). The Designated Player has 2 options, delay that promotion until the game session ends (meaning approx. 9 turns with unit in combat lacking an advantage it could otherwise have), or end the turnchat right there for discussion and polling. And quite frankly I don't feel promotions are important enough to have them polled, particularly since polls could get rather repedative.

 

[DaveShack]

Promotions can be planned for ahead of time. How's that, you ask, when we don't know which units will win battles and gain enough experience? We should plan for force compositions, not details. If we're facing a civ with mostly archers, then we need to prioritize cover. In the gunpower age, pinch is the key. At some point we'll want to push a unit through the medic levels. Catapults should be a mixture of bombard and the one which increases collateral damage (whatever it's called).

So the Warlord should plan our force structure and get approval if the people want a voice. Details of which promotion to which unit should be at the DP level.

 

[ordinaryguy]

Catapults should be a mixture of bombard and the one which increases collateral damage (whatever it's called).

Its the accuracy and barrage promotions.