What is the single most powerful promotion?

[Stylesrj]

I never get ships up to Blitz. The AI never sends enough Naval Units at me and I spend my XP on Navigation.

It's funny how the only time they send ships out when you got Privateers near their ports. I had 2 of them one time. It got Caravel rushed and destroyed. I tried retreating them on the same tile as my Destroyer. Nope, didn't work, they ignored my Destroyer as I wasn't at war and they hit my Privateer. I tried hiding them in my own ports. Never saw them since, never got a focus on the battle, never heard a loss. They didn't get upgraded, I know that as I only had 1 Destroyer

 

[Jaja]

I usually play on archipelago (tiny islands too) so for me personally Navigation is teh vital promotion. If you can outrun your opponents ships, it doesn't matter if you're kindof outpowered. One of my favourite moves have to be to calculate excactly how far the AI can see from their city, and then charge in, pillage everything and escape as far as I can. Of course, if you only have wooden ships against destroyers, you're burned anyway.

ANYHUU! That wasn't quite the topic here, was it. The most allaround useful promotion has to go to the Drill line. It can both be used if you're outteching a enemy who's outnumbering you, and the other way around. Works okay in between too.

 

[Wodan]

I tend to promote transports (galleons etc) to get the extra movement. This presumes that my specialist city for making units will be making my naval combat units.

Privateers go up the Combat line, period. Nothing else. The only even dubious option is to get a medic in each Privateer group.

One privateer gets a GG, but only if I don't already have a GG unit on land. That is, if I've got a peaceful game going.

Wodan

 

[Roxlimn]

Shock/Cover is arguably the best promotion because it helps your troops to punch through Archer/Axeman and Longbow/Maceman defenses, and also aids in stack to stack combat. Its ultra-early availability for Aggressive is arguably the main benefit of that trait.

After that, my vote goes for Pinch, possibly the most used promotion (in my games) for almost all troop types from the late Medieval up until the Industrial Age and beyond.

After that, Blitz. Blitz Cavalry are like mini-Tanks. Tanks themselves are so godly because they start off with Blitz. Blitz Gunships are crazy-good.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

"Most powerful" depends on what your goals are in that stretch of the game, so I voted the one that benefits me most often, City Raider III. I like leadership, but rarely get to leverage it as far as I like (standard game speed = fewer promotions overall).