What upgrades does everyone recommend?

Crimson13

Prince
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
373
I'm curious as to what the forum thinks is the "best" upgrades for any/every unit? I tend to use Harmony picks, Miasma/healing based often, but I have a scattering of all of the affinity picks.
 
Upgrades! I'll mention some neat end-game Supremacy ones which i tried and found very good.

1. +50% flanking, +20% near-friendly-unit Redeemers are extremely efficient:
- fast (4 tiles per turn, no terrain costs, hovering means they are also, for all most intents and purposes, "melee naval ships" when at sea - except they can _heal_, unlike proper ships, outside of friendly territory when fortified, and they can _fortify_ while at sea),
- expendable (no resource cost, and relatively cheap),
- can take cities all on their own,
- can take the same tile with a carrier, effectively protecting the carrier from harm with their much higher combat power,
- are excellent at pillaging tiles, trade route plundering and capturing "panicking" workers.
- the +20%-near-friendly-unit bonus works both for offense and defense, and +50% (total) flanking works for any attack made by Redeemer whenever there is at least one more friendly unit adjucent to the Redeemer's target, and also during defense against any _melee_ attack whenever attacker has at least one more friendly unit (except the Redeemer) adjucent to the attacker, afaict.


2. "Can move after attack" Vindicator. It's quite simply _the_ upgrade which allows you to dominate an ocean even with 1-2 Vindicators. Being able to move out of harm's way after an attack is amazingly useful. Once, i have a lone Vindicator fighting 7 (!) enemy (AI) Vindicators which were upraded for +1 aircraft. I "shot and ran" them all, one by one, going in circles in a large ocean... %)


3. The Supremacy upgrade for Tacjets which allows 1 free rebase per turn - if you enjoy having any large air force, this is surprisingly effective.
 
Purity Centurions with March and all the heal buffs that can be attained. Awesome blockers for your ranged units, and of course they're not bad for taking cities. As far as I know, Purity is the only affinity that gives the March promotion.
Only problem is the game is usually decided by that time, though I think Purity's Tier 3 soldier is pretty decent too. It's also annoying to move foot soldiers around late game, especially across oceans. Embarked movement should match the speed of your cruisers/carriers. It's pretty annoying when a unit named "Marine" won't move fast when embarked. Anyway, that's a minor gripe...

Usually though I pick the following promos:

Soldiers: +15% attack unless I'm fighting aliens or know I'm going Purity. Aside from the aforementioned use with Purity, the healing buff is too small to use by itself, and it's not too big a deal if the Purity soldier doesn't get the heal buff. March is good on its own. When going down the Harmony route, I usually go for the direct attack bonuses - I don't like losing units so the Pyre Zombie bit is of no appeal. By time Tier 4 soldiers are a thing, Terrain movement has far better workarounds, so better to have the miasma effect when it can be used. For Supremacy, the +% per adjacent unit bonus is not that great for a soldier unit, since usually the soldier is only flanked by 3 units anyway - better to get the flat 20% bonus. The flank bonus for apostles is still often better than the Medic promo.

Rangers: First promo is always defense against ranged. In MP ranged units are still cheap as hell. Cover against them is critical, since most turns the Gunners should be shooting or moving to shoot. The later perks are all situational - a lot of their tier 4 units are going to come at the tail end, so they only have a limited window to use their wtfgood abilities unless screwing around against the AI.

Rovers: Take the flanking bonus, if they're hitting fortified units they should have a flank bonus anyway.

Gunboats: Take the bonus against land units. The only other sea units are other Gunboats which get shredded, and sea aliens which can be picked off at range. You shouldn't be wasting too much effort on shooting sea aliens anyway.

Missile Rovers: Mostly there to pick off orbitals. At the very end they can tear down cities, but at Affinity level 14 it's mostly a matter of mopping up. As such, the promos that enhance movement are generally preferable to attack bonuses.

Tacjets: Needlejets still suck against equivalent tier units, so wouldn't bother with +15% against land/air. Intercept bonus for sure - if the needles aren't getting intercepted, they're doing enough damage. Other than that, any mobility bonus is preferable.

Carriers: There are two schools of thought... build fewer carriers and put an added jet on them, or just build more carriers...

Uniques: Really at their best when their raw strength is better than main troops. The promos on standard units are better. Of course the best is to just use Xeno Titans...
 
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