How do you promote your ancient era units?

[Risa]

Here's some of my favorite choices. I'll only discuss the first two promotion, as it is practically impossible to mass produce 10xp units early on.

Scout
Combat I + Medic I: Greatest battlefield medic unit. Since it has lowest strength, it won't be touched before all of the stack are down.

Warrior
Combat I + Medic I: Same as above. It has higher strength than scout, sure, but to get a 5xp scout is much harder than to get a 5xp warrior. Moreover, with agressive leaders, it can be promoted directly to Combat I + Medic II with 5xp, while scout need 10xp, which is almost unachievable.
Woodsman II: Super scout.
Combat II: Default choice. City raider is useless because you won't use warrior to attack cities. Combat I + Cover may be good, but if you need to fight against an archer, an archer or a better unit is more appropriate. Same goes for Combat I + Shock or Combat II + Formation with agressive leader.

Archer
Guerilla II: True guerilla. Rules on hill offensively and defensively.
Combat I + Shock: Worked for resourceless civ. It'll still be slaughtered by axeman or swordsman, but it at least has a chance to fight back.
Combat II: Default choice. Drill is usually a waste, as archer has lowest strength for a "real" military unit, so that first attacks don't worth much for them. And horse archer are immune to first attack anyway. City garrison looks good, but you often need to counter attack, where it doesn't help at all.

Spearman
Combat II: Only makes sense this way. If you want to fight against anything other than mounted units, why not train an axeman instead? With aggressive leader, Combat II + Formation is obvious.

Axeman
It is the main unit of ancient era. Any promotion seems appropriate. The only exception may be Combat II + Formation. That is spearman's role.

Swordsman
Same as axeman.

Chariot
Flanking II: Since it has lower strength than spearman, axeman, swordsman, or even an archer defending anywhere except on plain ground, it is good to have extra withdrawal chances.
Combat II: If your opponent relies heavily on melee units, Combat I + Shock works as well.

Horse Archer
Combat II: As the strongest attacker and pillager of ancient era, withdrawal chances worth a bit lesser. So Flanking II doesn't get top priority. If the opponent relies heavily on melee units, Combat I + Shock is a good alternate.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Re: How do you promote your ancient era units?

Originally posted by Risa
Here's some of my favorite choices. I'll only discuss the first two promotion, as it is practically impossible to mass produce 10xp units early on.

Scout
Combat I + Medic I: Greatest battlefield medic unit. Since it has lowest strength, it won't be touched before all of the stack are down.

I don't typically have too many scouts other than the 1-3 I produced to explore. Those get either the woodsman II or whatever the hills equivalent is depending on terrain.

Warrior
Combat I + Medic I: Same as above. It has higher strength than scout, sure, but to get a 5xp scout is much harder than to get a 5xp warrior. Moreover, with agressive leaders, it can be promoted directly to Combat I + Medic II with 5xp, while scout need 10xp, which is almost unachievable.
Woodsman II: Super scout.
Combat II: Default choice. City raider is useless because you won't use warrior to attack cities. Combat I + Cover may be good, but if you need to fight against an archer, an archer or a better unit is more appropriate. Same goes for Combat I + Shock or Combat II + Formation with agressive leader.

I treat all my warriors as future axemen/spears. I'll typically NOT promote them, actually. Wait till deciding what to upgrade them to to decide the upgrade. This let's me respond with appropriate upgrades when barbs and/or AI's invade.

Archer
Guerilla II: True guerilla. Rules on hill offensively and defensively.
Combat I + Shock: Worked for resourceless civ. It'll still be slaughtered by axeman or swordsman, but it at least has a chance to fight back.
Combat II: Default choice. Drill is usually a waste, as archer has lowest strength for a "real" military unit, so that first attacks don't worth much for them. And horse archer are immune to first attack anyway. City garrison looks good, but you often need to counter attack, where it doesn't help at all.

Again, typically go unupgraded, and therefore able to respond to demands. I dislike the city defender upgrade, but have been tinkering with the drill upgrades.

Spearman
Combat II: Only makes sense this way. If you want to fight against anything other than mounted units, why not train an axeman instead? With aggressive leader, Combat II + Formation is obvious.

Typically, that is the path, yes. However, I've found lots of uses for Spears with Combat I and cover. Defense vs enemy mounted units, and offense to finish off the enemy city if needed.

Axeman
It is the main unit of ancient era. Any promotion seems appropriate. The only exception may be Combat II + Formation. That is spearman's role.

Disagree here. Like the Spearmen, Axemen are pretty unique. I believe Axemen should be getting Combat I and shock first of all. They are the anti-melee unit primarily. Exception being if they are takign the swordsman's place due to lack of Iron.

Swordsman
Same as axeman.

City Raider seems the best choice most times as a non-aggressive. For Aggressive leaders, combat I, unit specific combat (cover or shock), and city raider or medic work quite well.

Chariot
Flanking II: Since it has lower strength than spearman, axeman, swordsman, or even an archer defending anywhere except on plain ground, it is good to have extra withdrawal chances.
Combat II: If your opponent relies heavily on melee units, Combat I + Shock works as well.

I like to have 1-2 per stack get flanking I and Sentry as well, but otherwise complete agreement.

Horse Archer
Combat II: As the strongest attacker and pillager of ancient era, withdrawal chances worth a bit lesser. So Flanking II doesn't get top priority. If the opponent relies heavily on melee units, Combat I + Shock is a good alternate.

I'ld argue that without inherent withdrawl like a Chariot, Flanking I and II are MORE important, despite attack strength.

[PapaMonkey]

After they become obsolete, do you often upgrade your ancient units? Typically I only upgrade the units that have been promoted well. The others I fan out along my enemies borders prior to an attack. Then when I declare war, I send in warriors and archers all through his country. They are fodder, but the AI must destroy them as they pillage all his tiles. This allows my main thrust to be less molested by the enemies troops!

[khumak]

My earliest units that I build I don't plan on converting to offensive units, they're primarily for scouting, hitting goodie huts, and defending against barbarians and animals. Far and away the best upgrade path for all 3 of these purposes is Woodsman I & II so my first 4 or 5 warriors and/or scouts get Woodsman I & II before anything else. These units all get parked in forests or jungles around the perimeter of my empire, preferably on hills for the extra defense boost. My next set of warriors are my city garrisons so they get combat I and Medic I if they ever get any xp.

My first true offensive units generally come around the time I discover Bronze or Iron Working depending on whether or not I have copper. If I have copper then I build Axemen. If not then I build Chariots. I generally don't build swordsmen because usually by the time I have swordsmen any towns I might want to take are defended by axemen which slaughter swordsmen. If I'm really intent on waging war early I build Horse Archers and they get Combat I and either shock or Combat II.

[Jamski]

Combat1+Cover+CityRaider1 is the ideal for my city-attacking swordsmen.