what upgrades do you prefer for your scouts?

[darkace77450]

I always start with Ranger because traversing rain forests takes forever. After that I'm always tempted to take the Guerilla and Ambush route because rangers with these two upgrades sound like a lot of run to play around with (and the new spec ops upgrade coming in Rise and Fall could make this even truer).

Unfortunately, I usually find myself filling out the bottom portion of the tech tree a bit later than I'd like, so rangers don't wind up with much to do by the time I'm ready to upgrade my scouts. For this reason I find myself defaulting to Sentry/Spyglass just for the immediate and guaranteed utility these upgrades bring to the table.

So I'm wondering how you guys play things when it comes to upgrades for your scouts. Do you find the eventual payoff from the Guerilla and Ambush upgrades to be worth the long term investment? Or do you just take the less interesting but immediately useful Sentry/Spyglass route?

 

[Monthar]

I usually go down the right side to get to the +10 combat strength in all situations.

 

[Karpius]

For me, its entirely situational. How I upgrade a unit depends on location, potential enemies and immediate need for that unit.

However, my general style of play involves making decisions as if I have no idea what the future brings in terms of techs, civics or upgrades.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

I go straight down the right side until I get the combat bonus. After that I usually take Ranger over camouflage, although I don't usually get them past 2-3 promotions. The idea of having a highly promoted scout and rushing rifling is seductive but it isn't worth investing in.

 

[Forster]

I usually get the ranger first, then the mountain, and then go down the right side. Having both of the first upgrades give me a scout with high survivability. It can move quickly through almost any terrain and can escape most units by moving into and through rough terrain.

 

[UWHabs]

My scouts are pretty much always dead pretty early. I will often get the first promo, in which case I just grab depending on which terrain I see near it at the moment. Not sure if I've ever gotten a second promo on a scout before it dies.

 

[Forster]

Are you manually directing them? Do you move them one hex at a time? If you do that you should be able to keep some alive.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

My scouts are pretty much always dead pretty early. I will often get the first promo, in which case I just grab depending on which terrain I see near it at the moment. Not sure if I've ever gotten a second promo on a scout before it dies.

You've got a point here. Taking the two terrain promotions first is probably better because you'll bust fog faster and the combat bonus is over-rated.

 

[Victoria]

Always the bottom 2 but normally most scouts are dead before they get there apart from sometime 1 that will find 3 wonders. I will use my scouts as part of my army very often and it's there they tend to survive longer.

I always move my scouts 1 tile at a time but moving that third tile into sight of a barb horseman is often what kills them.

 

[Forster]

Unless the scout is hit by more than one unit, it will usually survive and then can use its superior speed to get away, particularly if the is terrain nearby that is one for which the scout has an upgrade. I prefer getting both movement upgrades first because of that and because of the speed it allows the recon unit to travel.

 

[Kin]

In mid game I use my scout to keep barbs from building camps. I just move them over areas where no one wants to build. Like ice and tundra.

 

[Disgustipated]

I almost never get more than 2 promotions. I pick rainforest/woods movement and then hills movement.