Upgrading & Activating same type units

[papa1001]

Does anybody know if it is possible to upgrade all units of the same type in one go? At the moment I am going to each city in turn and it is killing me. Also is it possible to wake all units of the same type at one time? The military screen seems to only show you were units are located although my laptop seems to have problems running Civ4 so I may be lossing some of the functionality!

Finally, can anyone explain how unit grouping works? I went to move a unit out of a city that was being attacked and all my defensive units went with it! I didnt group them! I see the icon for splitting the groups but how did they group in the first place?
Cheers

 

[wertyguy]

There is an option to hold down "ALT" while clicking the upgrade button and it will upgrade all units of that type to the new one. When moving your units just make sure that no other units are selected too. Then they aren't grouped. You might have clicked the group button by accident or something. If you don't have more than like 8 units in a city you can always tell if one is grouped or not. If one is just click on the specific unit you want to move.

 

[Bard]

If you hold down "alt" and move a unit, all units in that space will group with it.
If you hold down "ctrl" and move a unit, all units of that type will group with it.
And you can hold down "shift" and select each unit you want in a group.

 

[Meffy]

Note that if you haven't enough cash to upgrade all the units of that type, the one you selected might not be among the lucky ones that get upgraded that turn. So if you really need that unit where your attention is focussed, but you're short of dosh, the thing do do is upgrade the unit or units that are right there (presumably near a threat) first. Then do the "upgrade all" on another unit of that type.

[this is true of 1.0; dunno about 1.09]

 

[Zhahz]

The mass upgrade thing is one thing I miss about the military advisor screen from Civ 3 even though I'd hardly ever use it in Civ IV due to upgrade costs. If I save up a big stack of gold it'll usually be to upgrade attackers who are grouped somewhere...or I upgrade defenders as needed. I don't think I've ever had the gold to just upgrade because it was a nice thing to do with all my extra gold!

I love Civ IV but the military advisor screen is pathetic compared to the one from Civ3 - either that or I'm missing something major in how to use it. The advisor screens in general are a BIG step back, probably because they used a 3rd party interface system that simply doesn't let them provide the same level of functionality that they had in their custom interfaces in Civ 3. Fortunately I find that I want to use the advisor screens far less in Civ IV.

 

[Steelsmith]

I love Civ IV but the military advisor screen is pathetic compared to the one from Civ3 - either that or I'm missing something major in how to use it.

I had the same reaction at first, though now I'm coming to like it more. The old one showed you all units by type, but not their locations, or by city, which (iirc) didn't include units not in cities. The new one shows you how many of each type you have, and when you click on that type, it shows their locations. You can then click the mini-map in the military screen to zoom in on the tile where that unit is located.

You can also select multiple types at one, and it will show you where they all are. So you can see at a glance where all your Melee units are, regardless of whether they're swordmen, axemen or macemen, for example. I find this very useful before a war, when I want to move certain units toward the front, and right after the war, when I re-distribute my troops around my empire for either defense or the next invasion.

It also shows enemy units, which is obviously very useful. You can see where your neighbor's chariots or knights are, for example, and notice if they seem to be massing near your border or someone else's.

I usually use the military screen to compare my forces to an enemy's, or to re-distribute troops, or to find troops I want to upgrade. And for these things, I actually find the new screen more useful than the old one.