Riflemen in Medieval Age?

[blarghy]

Currently playing a game where most of the nations have just started entering the Medieval Age and all of a sudden I see the Iroquois marching a friggin' Rifleman unit around! There were no notifications that anyone had reached the Renaissance Era yet and the Iroquois are only about 25 points ahead of me. How the heck can that happen?

[Dauphin]

It was possibly a more basic unit that entered a ruin and got upgraded. I've had a warrior upgraded to a spearman then a pikeman before I'd even researched my second technology.

[Asmodean]

Yup...I think I read about a player who had a rifleman even before advancing to the classical age. Lucky scout that popped some goodie huts, and got upgrades every time.

Not something you'd expect to see a lot, but it can happen.

Asmodean

[AeonOfTime]

In my second game I played on an archipelago map. I sent my scout out to sea as soon as I could embark it, and found a LOT of ruins as none of the AI players had ventured out yet. Believe it or not, I got so many unit upgrades I ended up with an Infantry. Then murphy's law got applied and I lost it to a barbarian trireme. I did not know back then that embarked units cannot defend themselves (unless you chose the Songhai)

[fani]

Confirmed...its all because of the ruins...i just got a warrior up to a rifleman...thats not very balanced though, because i easily destroyed the romans with that unit as soon as i found their capital..

[rah]

I've played for over 500 hours and have at most gotten three upgrades on a single unit so I'm sure the probability of this is quite small. But I will admit that on an island map the potential is probably a bit higher due to the reasons mentioned already.

[LagMasterSam]

I recently had a rifleman upgraded to a tank because of some ruins.

[rah]

Are you sure it wasn't an upgrade to a mech infantry after an upgrade to infantry.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

can't be anything else, rah. i checked, there's also no way that a GDR can emerge in this way. mech-inf is probably the limit.

i kind of like this mechanic though. it gives a big bonus to exploration. only downside is if you get so far ahead of anyone else that you effectively win the game without even trying. there's a fine line between the annoying, fun, and boring categories.

[Snotty]

I had a Siamese elephant upgrade to a cavalry during the medieval age. While he received a 25% increase in combat strength and 50% increase in movement, he lost his 100% against other mounted units. I was both amused and displeased

[rah]

can't be anything else, rah. i checked, there's also no way that a GDR can emerge in this way. mech-inf is probably the limit.

That's what I was asking. Mech is probably the limit since nothing upgrades to a tank. A rifle should upgrade to infantry first, then mech infantry, but there is no upgrade beyond that to my knowledge.

[Aro]

This probably happens more often in low levels... Btw, I had a lot of crosbowman from archers.

[rah]

yeah, crossbow from scouts and pike from warriors is the best I've gotten.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

my best upgrade was a sequential upgrade from warrior to infantry on an island level. mind you, i'm sure a lot of the people that report this happening in 3000bc save and load quite a lot.. in my case i didn't, no need to cheat with this AI

[jnh140]

and i've seen a musketeer > mech inf on prince, late game, and after prerequisite tech had been obtained.