What to do with promotions, anyway?

[MenacingVitamin]

Man, I almost wish they didn't include promotions of units, because half the time I can't decide what to do with them--there are sooo many options! It's great that you can customise your units to a certain extent, but I usually wind up saving the promotions until I go to war and then utilizing them. Problem with that is, I have to wake a unit to promote it and it loses its fortification bonus.

For example, I'm not sure what a particular archer will be used for in the future, so I fortify him in a city. Later on, that city gets attacked, so I wake the archer to give him a city defense bonus, but he then loses the 25% fortification he built up for being fortified for five turns. If I give him city defense and then fortify him, I may find out that I need him defending a hill later on. And that's only the tip of the iceburg. There's so many different promotions, I never know what to do with them all!

Do I want this guy stronger, or wait maybe I need him defending a hill...against melee units..no wait, against mounted units!...umm, no, I want this guy to roll with a stack as a medic...hmm...no...he's going to attack a city! no, wait...AAAAAAARGH

 

[Qienchi]

Are you sure that you lose fortification bonus? Units are not suppose to lose it unless they move or attack (which is a move anyway).

At any case, if you click on a fortified unit to promote it, I'm sure you don't lose the fortification bonus. In fact, when you click on a unit, you don't 'wake' it up, you have to click on the 'eye' icon to actually wake it up.

I like to delay promoting my units as well, especially since archers can be a decent city attacker with crossbowmen.

 

[SlayerofDeitys]

He's right. If you promote a fortified unit it "wakes up". I have the same problem you do.

 

[Dog of Justice]

I think "wake up" on promotion does a lot to make promotion decisions more interesting. There needs to be some significant advantage to throwing away so many future tactical options and those instant heals.

 

[Gogf]

Just have specialized units. You should be using archers pretty much only for defending cities. Usually by the time you get them, you'll have more powerful units for doing things other than defending cities. The city defense bonus is powerful, but it does not make the archer the spearman of Civ3.

For example, if I need to defend a hill, I'll probably use an axeman.

When in doubt, use the Combat line of promotions.

 

[ZombieNation]

Can't you fortify the unit again on the same turn as the promotion? I know I've promoted units that were out of movement points before.

I usually save mine until they can be used for situational advantage, unless the unit is damaged and I want the little bit of healing that the promotion gives to get them back in battle again faster.

 

[mossmonster]

You do not have to take the unit promotion the moment your unit is eligible for it. If you aren't certain what to do, don't take anything. Possible uses:

1. For healing. Whenever your unit is promoted a significant amount of damage (50%?) is instantly healed. The medic promotion is great for stacks, but what about the solo unit in hostile lands? Saving one promotion to take as emergency healing may mean the difference between death and living to fight another day.

2. If/when you know what your opponent will be go ahead at that time and take the promotion that best fits your circumstances. Enemy stack is archers? Take the 'cover' promotion. Enemy is axemen take 'shock'. Horsemen coming at you? No point in taking that 'drill' promotion for the extra first strike you aren't allowed. Plan to sack your pesky neighbor's city? Glad you saved a promotion you can now use for 'city raider', etc.

3. Medic unit specialization. If you wait to take your promotions you can make sure that one unit in the stack does have the 'medic I' and 'medic II'. More than one unit is a redundant waste, and to not have a medic for a large group is poor planning. Double promote one of your weaker units before setting off on a campaign just to have them tag along and heal everyone. They may be too obsolete and weak to help any in combat, but if you saved their promotions they can provide great help as stack healers that may be just the thing to tip a large crucial battle in your favor. It would be a shame to see your monster stack just barely lose the assault on the enemy capitol and be decimated all because you didn't bring a warrior double promoted as a medic along.

 

[ombak]

Can't you fortify the unit again on the same turn as the promotion? I know I've promoted units that were out of movement points before.

Yes, but the fortification bonus is 5% per turn (max 5 turns or 25%).

 

[Stuporstar]

I tend to use my old scouts as healers rather than disbanding them. They get such easy promotions from animals in the early exploration phase. I always use weaker units in any case because they're always the last to fight (and possibly die) in a stack.

 

[Divi Filus]

When in doubt always promote to the strength of the unit:
Bronze Age:
Archers: City Garrison
Swordsman: City Raider
Axemen/Warrior: Woodsman (until the barbys are gone), then Com + Cover (anti-archers)

Middle Age:
Later in the game try to have a defensive force of
Knights/Calvary with -->Com I + Com II + Charge/Formation
Grenadiers --> Com I + Pinch/Medic
Offensively - Tailer to your oppoents strength; usually knights

The promotions are vital to a quick war - switch to theocracy+vasslage for max effect (third promotion 1 battle away)
Last game my 4 swordsman City Raider III (stength 10.2) made VERY short work of 3 greek phalanx Com1 defending a walled city on a hill (strength 9.25), I was very impressed.

 

[Ace4nyC]

Man, I almost wish they didn't include promotions of units, because half the time I can't decide what to do with them--there are sooo many options! It's great that you can customise your units to a certain extent, but I usually wind up saving the promotions until I go to war and then utilizing them. Problem with that is, I have to wake a unit to promote it and it loses its fortification bonus.

For example, I'm not sure what a particular archer will be used for in the future, so I fortify him in a city. Later on, that city gets attacked, so I wake the archer to give him a city defense bonus, but he then loses the 25% fortification he built up for being fortified for five turns. If I give him city defense and then fortify him, I may find out that I need him defending a hill later on. And that's only the tip of the iceburg. There's so many different promotions, I never know what to do with them all!

Do I want this guy stronger, or wait maybe I need him defending a hill...against melee units..no wait, against mounted units!...umm, no, I want this guy to roll with a stack as a medic...hmm...no...he's going to attack a city! no, wait...AAAAAAARGH

i promote my units like this offensive units like cavalry at early tech levels i do +strength in gunpowder age do + to vs gunpowder units, archers/rifleman i do + to city defense

you get the idea oh btw medic units are awesome for an offense they heal other units faster in your stack

 

[SlayerofDeitys]

That reminds me, does anyone know with absolute certainty that the medic bonus does not stack if you have other medics in your group? I assumed it did so I would have 2 or 3 units with medic so if it does not that would be very nice to know.

 

[Ephor]

I like to have one unit promoted purely for city defense fortified indefinitely and keep the rest of my promotions free. For one, it's worth the versatility to give up the fortified bonus on secondary defenders; for two, it's often best to go on the offense when under siege since your units gain more experience and you can still heal afterwords, in which case you're giving up the fortify bonus anyway.

 

[Good Omens]

And, remember, if you're really not sure you can always just give the unit the basic Combat promotion. It's not as powerful as some others, but it works in every situation. This game does seem to promote the use of specialized units, but it doesn't hurt to have a few all-arounders handy.

 

[ytsejam02]

Just have specialized units.

When in doubt, use the Combat line of promotions.

I agree. Make a few city raiders, make a few stronger vs. melee, or archers, or mounted, etc. etc. In this way, when it comes time to fight, you'll notice you have the ability to make whatever military moves you want.

 

[xenikos]

That reminds me, does anyone know with absolute certainty that the medic bonus does not stack if you have other medics in your group? I assumed it did so I would have 2 or 3 units with medic so if it does not that would be very nice to know.

Yes, it has been confirmed that a given unit can only benefit from one medic bonus per turn, you can't have 3 in a stack.

 

[mrjepson]

I prefer a mix of different promotions, that way your more veratile. If your units are waiting to get promotions because you saved them then they aren't as strong as they could be so when the AI does its calculation of whether they can take a city (equivalent of a player holding hovering over a city with move stack selected) it reads that you are weak and can be taken. Once the war has started it doesn't matter if your units become stronger as the pillaging and rep damage will still get done even though you hold the city.

 

[dh_epic]

Sometimes you use a promotion to boost your strengths to the point of ridiculous. Swords are great at attacking cities, so you boost that and make them your ultimate city raider. Spears are strong against horses. Upgrade spears against horses even further, and then you can find one spear behind city walls taking down 5 horse archers!!

On the other hand, you can use promotions to make up for a weakness. For example, spears are very vulnerable to axes -- so you upgrade them against melee so they're less vulnerable to their cryptonite. This is the same deal with swords.

My advice is to experiment!

 

[Xeos]

On city sitting units (archers, sometimes spearmen, a few gunpowder units, one or two per city) I take city garrison 1, then all combat promotions. If I am not mistaken somehow, each city garrison over 1 only gives 5%, where combat is 10% each.

On horse units, I generally just take all combat unless I really need an edge over someone's specific unit type. Armor I generally take all combat, maybe collateral 1.

I usually don't find a large use for the medic promotion, I tend to wage very successful wars, to the point where I ride my mounted units to the city, catapult the defense down and take it within 4 turns of getting there(depending on defense modifier). Then I just sit the city for a turn, maybe 2 and everything is generally healed enough via promotions and sitting a couple turns to go after the next city(I assume this is one of those cities with 12-16 units in it, if it's one of the 4 unit garrisoners I generally move on and take the next). If I have a large enough tech lead from beating people up a little bit and extra cities, I may just forgoe the catapults/artillery and just use an equal number of tanks against their longbowmen/musketmen.

For a point of reference, I play modified quick w/slightly quicker units build, epic tech speed and no base upgrade cost on generally duel pangea maps(I dislike having to manage 15 cities and 30-40 military units constantly...), maybe 4 corners if I feel like something different. Noble difficulty, with a leader that has at least the expansive trait (I am trying other things, aggresive is a nice early boost, and good for helping to city defenders anti-pillage).