What's your strategy for disbanding old units?

[NFIH]

I'm currently in the modern age (tanks, etc.) and have a massive army as I'm going for a military victory. However, a lot of that is old units like pikemen, maces, etc. I'm concerned that if I simply disband them, my power rating will dip enough that rivals may decide to attack me.

Yes, I can upgrade some units but not enough to go through my stacks.

Is there any "rule" I should follow in terms of how I go about disbanding units?

[snoopy369]

I find they're useful for garrisons to keep happiness up (minimum 1 anyway per city), and good also if I'm careful to keep a few hundred GP around, in that if there's a surprise attack, I can promote a bunch of them in the specific area of the attack, without having to spend a lot of resources upgrading EVERY unit.

[Supr49er]

Gift some of them to Allies/Vassals.

[Garth Vader]

What snoopy said. I never disband anything.

[Solomwi]

I third snoopy's advice. That approach lets me free up infantry that otherwise would be on garrison duty in cities that won't be attacked that late in the game.

[joncnunn]

Agreed, don't disband anything in Civ IV, use as MP in safe cities and keep in reserve as an emergency upgrade.

[MoonWolf]

I often leave them, but when I have a lot of production going on, I might build new ones to replace the old ones as it would be insanly expensive to upgrade them (like archer -> infantry). Old ones with a lot of promotions, I either use with a general or just pay for the upgrade.

[Heraclitus]

If its an MP game I organize gladiatorial games with my allies for free EXP and GG points.

[rah]

Yeah, good for a little garrison. Or useful as bait, pillaging or pretending to. This can pull some defenders out of cities where they're easier to kill.

But my big issue is, if you're going for a military victory and you're worried about how weak you appear, maybe you don't have enough units. Late in the game I'm usually hoping my opponents will attack.

[NFIH]

Originally posted by rah
Yeah, good for a little garrison. Or useful as bait, pillaging or pretending to. This can pull some defenders out of cities where they're easier to kill.

But my big issue is, if you're going for a military victory and you're worried about how weak you appear, maybe you don't have enough units. Late in the game I'm usually hoping my opponents will attack.

No, as I said I have a power advantage, but my empire is quite wide and if I were attacked from the far side where I don't have significant forces, I could be screwed. Or if I was dogpiled (as has happened to one other civ), I could also be screwed. Then I've also got defensive pacts amongst my enemies to worry about--so I can't assume I'll be facing any one civ in a one-on-one fight.

[NFIH]

Originally posted by Supr49er
Gift some of them to Allies/Vassals.

Hmm, this is an interesting idea. I'm thinking I could do this with someone who isn't actually an ally, but whom I don't want to attack me while I'm attacking someone else. (A kind of backhanded bribe, so to speak.) Is this advisable?

[Garth Vader]

So you have somebody who you think might attack you if your power drops and you want to know if it's advisable to gift them a military force right on your border?

[Blaupanzer]

Why do you think that gifting units to an AI you don't want to attack you is going to help? As Garth notes sarcastically above this isn't even bad strategy. It's actually sort of insane. You can't trade the units, due to exploits in earlier versions of Civ, so the receiver has no obligation to wait before attacking. He has no reason not to upgrade the units one turn and send them back to you wrapped in modern warfare regalia the next. (Remember the AI upgrades more cheaply than you at every level above Noble.)

As to my own strategy for obsolescence, I use the 4X principle. When the unit now available has 4 times the strength of the existing unit, I delete any versions still left with less than 10 experience points. The others I gather in one deep-in-country city and only delete/upgrade if the finances dictate either option.

[Jaybe]

< NITPICK Alert! >

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
(Remember the AI upgrades more cheaply than you at every level above Noble.)

AI unit upgrade costs in BtS are 50% at EVERY difficulty level.

Unit upgrade costs are based on the difference of unit "training" costs. AI unit training cost is 100 at Noble, goes up to 160 at Settler (and down to 60 at Deity).

[NFIH]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Why do you think that gifting units to an AI you don't want to attack you is going to help? As Garth notes sarcastically above this isn't even bad strategy. It's actually sort of insane. You can't trade the units, due to exploits in earlier versions of Civ, so the receiver has no obligation to wait before attacking. He has no reason not to upgrade the units one turn and send them back to you wrapped in modern warfare regalia the next. (Remember the AI upgrades more cheaply than you at every level above Noble.)

As to my own strategy for obsolescence, I use the 4X principle. When the unit now available has 4 times the strength of the existing unit, I delete any versions still left with less than 10 experience points. The others I gather in one deep-in-country city and only delete/upgrade if the finances dictate either option.

My musing was that I could gift the AI civ some now quite obsolete longbows and such, get a positive diplomatic bonus such that I could attack a third AI without being molested by the first. The units are too weak to do anything to me, and I wouldn't give many--just two or three. Enough to make the AI think I'm being friendly.

But if it's still a bad idea, it's a bad idea.