IIIRC my Chaser correctly got 2 promotions "reimbursed" after I upgraded the Wanderer that he used to be, that had leveled up to get Flanking 2 (because not a Recon any more).
(There's still a bug of the unattainable for the Chaser Mobility still being displayed as a possible promotion.)
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What kind of abuse do you have in mind ?
And I don't understand what you mean by "free" promotion ?
If it's one that you did *not* get through XP, then there seems to be a bug with, for instance, Combat 1 earned through C2C's Battlefield Promotions setting : it does NOT get lost for the "secondary" split units.
(While City Garrison 1 from Civic (Militia) auto-building *does* disappear on "secondary" split units.)
And how can a player know the difference between those (without remembering all of the game's history) ?
EDIT : Hmm, looks like it's more complicated than I thought : while that Combat 1 didn't require XP to get, my unit still got bumped from lvl 1 to 2, and now has 1/5 XP, meaning it's going to need to reach the usual 5 XP for lvl 3 and the 2nd "non-free" promotion.
EDIT 2 : Huh, so Battlefield Promotions is quite a nerf then, because not only you don't get the XP for that combat, you also lose the option to pick a promotion for the "next" level up ? (I guess at leas you get that promotion early...)
EDIT 3 : Ok, no, the issue is with the *interaction* between Battlefield Promotions and splitting : my unit shows level 1 and 1/2 experience *before* splitting !
EDIT 4 : And then all 3 units are still lvl 1 : 1/2 after splitting... however merging bumps that to lvl 2 : 1/5 !
EDIT 5 :
Then when you merge, only the unit initiating the merge will keep its free promotions.
This seems untrue BTW : my merged unit got City Garrison 1 back even though the "primary" split unit wasn't one that had it.
And can you even *get* Zen as a free promotion ? None of the Buddhist buildings seem to give it ?
EDIT : Oh, wait, I get it now : Zen itself isn't a free promotion, but Lead by Warlord that it requires is one ?
EDIT 2 : Hmm, but why did the merged units then got Lead by Warlord back ??