What's the highest level unit you've had?

[Older than Dirt]

Of course the 65 point level was experience point level. The Elephant started out with 4 XPs. I took it along to mop up severely weakened units in order to get the last 15 points or so. In fact, trying to get it promoted was a large consideration in deciding to go to war instead of founding a couple of new cities to obtain easily a domination victory.

Don't forget to name such units so that when the are eliminated you can really feel their pain.

 

[Watiggi]

Artillery, 43 exp

whoa! How did you get it to that level? Did you take risks (ie, send it into attack at 40-50%?) or did you just have it attack at 90% *a lot* of times?

I just about all ways attack with seige and I would rather have my seige units promoted than the others. The highest I have gotten a seige unit is level 5, maybe 6 - 4-5 promotions (city raider I, II, III and barrage I, maybe barrage II).

I generally end up with about 7-12 level 4 seige units (with city raider I, II, III) but I don't find that I can get them higher, unless I take the risk.

That's the reason why I created this thread, because I have never really been able to get my units above level 4/5 without really risking them. I would love to have a 5 or 6 commando units in a game and use them. The problem is that they would probably die easily once they got to that level considering they would run around in enemy territory.

Watiggi

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

One of the SGs I'm in, Rise of the Queen Mother, we have a War Elephant who is now 50XP. We named him Beast. Beast isn't any sissy mop-up man, either. He's usually first in attack and, since this is an All War pangea and we do a lot of defending, he's almost always the first defender.

Beast has gotten pretty well damaged but he's still kickin' around eating axemen for breakfast.

 

[Mad Professor]

Artillery, 43 exp

<Gasp!!> How? The way I use Artillery would never get them many experience points. Either bombarding (no experience there) or softening up units in a city doing collateral damage before the other units attack when I don't have many bombers handy (or I haven't built them yet) to do the job.

Artillery with 43 exp would be a handy unit to have around. Please do tell how you got one!!

 

[jameson]

In a Chinese Noble always war game, I had a Cho-Ko-Nu reach 83 XP, never finished that game either. With Drill IV, enemy units were as good as dead before the fight even started (pretty much all xp were gained on defense).
I've seen reports of people getting units at over 100XP this way.

In regular games, the highest I ever got for a unit was 37 XP or so.

 

[Hardvark]

I had a Praetorian reach level 9 (65 xps) - he was killing riflemen by that stage (admittedly wounded riflemen). I then upgraded him to infantry and he went back to 10 xps, needing 82 for the next level.

 

[Watiggi]

I had a Praetorian reach level 9 (65 xps) - he was killing riflemen by that stage (admittedly wounded riflemen). I then upgraded him to infantry and he went back to 10 xps, needing 82 for the next level.

I was going to say "why aren't these people upgrading their unit" but then that says it all

I think I might have to play an always war of an OCC game. I wouldn't mind racking up the experience from being continually hammered. hehe

 

[scipian]

Exp. 32. I usually do quick blitzkriegs. Instead of having two or three really high units I have the 20-30 units who survived the war have about 10 exp. If I get another war soon it might get pushed up to 20 ex. Usually I just do a quick burst of war and then consolidate myself. So these men become the occupiers and the canaries. When they die I know to build more, advanced, units.

 

[Watiggi]

Should the experience be reduced to 10 when you upgrade the unit? There are pros and cons to both. What are your thoughts? (directed at anyone)

 

[Koelle]

post your pic here plz otherwise i wont believe you

 

[Watiggi]

In a Chinese Noble always war game, I had a Cho-Ko-Nu reach 83 XP, never finished that game either. With Drill IV, enemy units were as good as dead before the fight even started (pretty much all xp were gained on defense).

I love the concept of the Drill promotions (ie, the free strikes), but I find that they can be extremely unlucky where none of the freestrikes hit, and as such the unit looses it's edge. It effectively becomes a zero experience unit with no promotions.

I mean, if it had promotions like city garrison and what not as well, then it would still have an edge, but it takes a bit to get to Drill IV and the risk the the free strikes don't pay off can, IMO, be high. I guess the way to go is to be patient and give it longengevity promotions first (like city garrison) and then give it the Drills later on or something.

Watiggi

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

@Watiggi: I once had a game where I pretty much gave all my cho ku no drill promotions exclusively. Most of them were drill III, probably. Anyhow, I think a cho ku no with drill III gets 3-6 first strikes, so at least 3 are guaranteed to come in. Even if the other 3 roll poorly, a chuck with 3 first strikes is pretty lethal.

I didn't lose any of them 'til well into gunpowder. By then, I was mopping up with cavalry and infantry so my chucks were really just suiciding for collateral damage by that point anyway.

 

[Jheronimus]

Ok, dumb question here; What determines how much experience points you earn from a battle, and I believe you won't always get experience points from a won battle, isn't it...? What determines it?

 

[Watiggi]

@Watiggi: I once had a game where I pretty much gave all my cho ku no drill promotions exclusively. Most of them were drill III, probably. Anyhow, I think a cho ku no with drill III gets 3-6 first strikes, so at least 3 are guaranteed to come in. Even if the other 3 roll poorly, a chuck with 3 first strikes is pretty lethal.

You may be guaranteed 3 first stikes, but they could miss. A first strike round is a normal combat round, with the normal odds of winning that round: If you win the round, you cause damage; if you loose the round, no damage occurs. You can still have 3 first strikes and loose those 3 rounds and thus cause no damage. That's what I was refering to. If this happens, it would become no different than a unit without first stikes. Off course the odds of this happening are small, but when it happens, having Drill IV would seem misleading.

In other words, it can loose it's first strike rounds (even if it had 6 first strikes) and no damage would be done. At this point in the combat (after the first strike rounds), no damage is done on either side and so it's the same as if the unit had no first strikes to start with.

First strikes would be better if the Drill I gave 1 first strike chance, Drill II gave 1 first strike, Drill III gave 1 first strike chance, Drill IV gave 1 first strike (therefore giving less first strikes in total). Then make the first strike a guarenteed win (thus do damage). That way the first strike's could be relied on. Currently there is a chance that there will be no damage from first strikes, effectively giving misleading results. The only problem I can see with this (and is probably why Firaxis went with the way it is now) is that a longbowman can cause initial damage to a modern armour with first strikes. As it is now, winning a first strike round is based on strengths.

Watiggi

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Good stuff, Watiggi. I had no idea that's how first strikes worked. I just assumed you rolled to detirmine if you got the first strike. If you did, it caused damage. Methinks I'll have to look closely at the combat log. Edit: Either way, I think the odds of actually getting nil benifit from drill IV are minimal. In my above-described game, my chucks were a force of nature. They killed everything. (I never understood how a crossbow caused collateral damage.)

@Jheronimus: far from scientific, but I've noticed that you receive more XP from winning underdog battles and less when the odds are in your favor. Re: 0XP gained from a win, I think all wins vs. AI or human give at least 1 (maybe?), but you can't get higher than 10XP form barbarians.

 

[Watiggi]

The combat log doesn't help that much. You can have 6 first strikes and loose them all, and then they win 3 rounds after that (so they win a total of 9 rounds in a row). The first entry in the combat log with be the first win against you where you took damage.

So in this example, for having 6 first strikes, all you would see is 3 rounds where you lost them all - the 3 rounds where your damage was reduced each round. In other words, the combat log doesn't record failed first strike rounds. So, even though you have first strikes, the enemy may win the first round and "draw first blood" in the combat log.

The only clue you have when viewing the combat logs is that you may notice you winning more of the first rounds, but that is *only* if you have a substantial amount of first strikes. Having one first strike really wont show. If you have 6 first strikes, then you may see the first 3 entries as you winning and doing damge (and thus loosing the other 3). Essentially, the more first strikes, the greater the chance of "drawing first blood".

I don't know if this is still reported the same way in 1.61. It would be good if it told you that the round was a first strike round, whether win or loose. Pre 1.52 or 1.09 had it so that if you lost a first strike round, it would still show in the combat logs, but it show that you didn't loose any HP.

Watiggi

 

[BadHorsie]

Should the experience be reduced to 10 when you upgrade the unit? There are pros and cons to both. What are your thoughts? (directed at anyone)

Yeah. If you got some bloke from the middle ages who was a master with a longbow, and taught him to drive a tank, he's hardly gonna be a pro, is he?

 

[Sisiutil]

<Gasp!!> How? The way I use Artillery would never get them many experience points. Either bombarding (no experience there) or softening up units in a city doing collateral damage before the other units attack when I don't have many bombers handy (or I haven't built them yet) to do the job.

Artillery with 43 exp would be a handy unit to have around. Please do tell how you got one!!

I haven't gotten artillery to THAT point, but a while back someone in this forum recommended giving seige units the City Raider promotion as well as or instead of Barrage (or whichever one increases collatoral damage). I started doing that (Vassalage/Theocracy lets me give each catapult or cannon both promotions), and I've noticed that my seige units survive city attacks a lot more often, and frequently kill the main unit they're attacking instead of just giving up the ghost.

I think that like most players, I just toss seige units at a city or stack and expect it to die, not taking the same precautions and considerations of match-ups and odds like I do with other units. If managed carefully, you could have a seige unit survive several battles and earn lots of promotions. The added benefit of having seige units survive, of course, is that they're so useful, but slow-moving--and I also kind of resent producing a unit just so it can go die.

On a related note--does it bug anyone else that air units cannot earn promotions? Where are all the Top Gun fans screaming for justice?!?

 

[jwildstr]

Yeah. If you got some bloke from the middle ages who was a master with a longbow, and taught him to drive a tank, he's hardly gonna be a pro, is he?

No, but he'll be very experienced at taking orders, different styles of defense that may come against him, knowing when to retreat/regroup, etc.

I think knocking a unit from 65 to 10 is pretty stupid personally. I agree that it should take a hit (or there would be a major issue with upgrades), but that's a little obscene. Maybe a drop by 10 XP (or to 10, whichever is higher) would be more reasonable. So your 65 XP elephant would now have 55 and need _MORE_ experience to get another promotion, but not need an entire lifetime of experience.

 

[Gherald]

Where are all the Top Gun fans screaming for justice?!?

Top Gun ... fans?!?!?