Why does the AI always have so many Promotions?!?!

[koolaidbuddy]

I play on Noble diffucuilty, but I always see the AI's units with like 3 promotions and i know they haven't fought anything yet

 

[Lone Wolf]

The AI's receive no bonuses relative to the human in promotions.

They may gain promotions from fighting Barbarians, or from Barracks, Theocracy, Vassalage... As you can too.

 

[Fei Kelei]

Is it an AI leader with the Aggressive trait? Aggressive leader + Barracks + Theocracy/Vassalage = An entire army of melee or gunpowder units with no less than three promotions. That's a pretty big advantage for them if you're not Aggressive and not running one of those civics.

 

[Ekulyen]

Most obvious one would be 'Protective' trait, no? Free City Garrison I and Drill I for archers. One more promotion from barracks and you have 3 promos, way before Feudalism/Theology.

 

[MrCynical]

The Protective trait is the most obvious source of extra promotions. Archers from a city with a barracks will then start with at least three promotions. The AI doesn't get any bonus experience/promotions at any difficulty level.

 

[digitCruncher]

The most promotions you can get (And the AI can get) is (with Unrestricted leaders):

Agg/Pro of Native America

Your archers start with:

Combat 1
Drill 1
CG 1

Then... after that, you have the totem pole (+3 XP for Archers), Barracks (+3 XP), and Vassalage and Theocracy (+2 XP, and another +2 XP with state religion)

That comes to 10 XP exactly... enough for *3* promotions.

So Tokogawa of Native America's longbows can theoretically start with Combat I, Drill II, CG IV ... Combat I, Drill IV, CG I ... Combat V, Drill I, CG I ... so many options! And that comes to 6 promotions in total.

So yes, you can get quite a bit of XP without warring.

Without Unrestricted leaders, the maximum is 5. Barracks + Stable = 2 free promotions (+5 XP), as does Barracks + either Vassalage or Theocracy (with state religion), and then protective gives 2 free promotions, and aggressive gives another 1. So Tokogawa can get 5, and Sitting Bull of the Native Americans can also get 5 (Barracks + Totem Pole + Vassalage + Theocracy gives +10 XP = 3 promotions, and Sitting Bull is also protective, giving Drill I and City Garrison I for free)

 

[Sian]

well ... Archers doesn't get the promotion from Agg so no ...

 

[LateGameWarMong]

I assume this is early game, by late game you could be playing tokugawa, and putting out mechanized infantry from a city with the Red Cross.

So before using any XP for promotions, your units have Medic I, Combat I, Drill I, City Garrisson I, March.

Then if toku gets the Pentagon, and westpoint, and barracks, in the same city, the unit starts with 2+4+3 = 9 XP.
Use a civic to get another 2 XP, and you can assign another 3 promotion on top of what the unit starts with.

Or you could have a charismatic leader with the 25% less XP needed - 3 promotions for only 8 XP

And the AI gets heavy bonuses vs barbarians on noble and above, so they should have quite a few units make it to the 10 xp max from barbarians

Does the AI ever settle military instructors? I know they make quite a few military acadamys

 

[Fei Kelei]

Does the AI ever settle military instructors? I know they make quite a few military acadamys

Yeah, I've seen it before, and I think they do it pretty often, especially since you have to wait all the way to Military Science before you can build academies. In my last game, Shaka had a settled GG in his capital city, and after I "liberated" it I didn't notice it at first, so that was a pleasant surprise when I built my first unit there after getting the city up and running.

 

[Supr49er]

Most obvious one would be 'Protective' trait, no? Free City Garrison I and Drill I for archers. One more promotion from barracks and you have 3 promos, way before Feudalism/Theology.

This is very likely, or the 'Aggressive' trait.. What civ had the promotions?
Fighting animals give you max of 5 XP, Barbs give max of 10 XP.

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