I don't take advantage of promotion options...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

...and that seems stupid.

Basically, I'm overwhelmed by the many options; I also, despite reading around some, don't really get how to use a diversified military. So I generally end up just giving everyone combat promotions, except for siege units (which I uniformly promote barrage-accuracy-barrage), the occasional medic unit when on the march, and city garrison promotions for units securing cities on the front. (The other exception to this is that I'll give axemen shock promotions and swordsmen city raider promotions if I can, but I usually don't fight early wars so don't get to do that very often).

I need a philosophy of promotion; anybody got one?

[Ming]

Well... you are at least doing some of the right thinking. Giving swordsmen/maceman city raider is perfect if they are going to be you key city taking units. As far as siege units, you have the right idea... but some might suggest a more mixed force, with some like you are promoting and some with city raider. Tribs with city raider can take out long bowmen if the city defenses have been taken down. I'm not a big fan of accuracy, and you should consider first strike as will as barrage for units that will be used to attack enemy SOD's.

Giving axeman shock is also good unless you are planning an early rush, and then city raider might be better.

My early warriers and scouts, I like to give them woodsman promotion... once you get to level two, you get a warrior that can more two in jungles and forests. If you can get him to woodsman three, you get a 15% stack healer out of the deal. Scouts don't get woodsman three... bummer

Using promotion properly, you can build some very specialized units... to meet whatever you need you think you might need.

But overall, your current strategy isn't all that bad

[Krill]

You're going about it the right way IMO. See what you can do without anything fancy, then start to experiment...only probalem is that the AI sucks at warfare...

[Dis]

I like city raider alot over the 10% one.

But it depends on the situation. I've been playing the persians my last 2 games (I love em). So I have a lot of immortals. Good against axeman, but poor against swordsman. If I see the ai building lots of those I'll give the promotion that gives bonus against melee troops. Or if they have lots of mounted troops I may give promotion for bonus towards mounted troops. So it's best to stay flexible as the need arises.

Obviously if you aren't in a war, and aren't sure what you'll face, then just assign generic promotions. City defender for archers/longbowmen inside a city. I usually give first strike if they are defending a stack outside a city. Spearman I'll give the 10% combat bonus. Axeman, swordsman get the city raider, unless I am playing defensive. Then the axeman will get combat, or bonus against melee. But if I'm planning a future war, then city raider all the way. For bombardment I always go for more collateral damage.

When my enemies get to gunpowder I'll do combat, and pinch (bonus against gunpowder)

[Jaybe]

Of course, another option to standard promotions is to NOT promote them until their use is imminent.

... Or go to options & let the COMPUTER choose them for you (I've even tried that a couple times, but not for long)!

[Dis]

yeah I should do that, but worry I'll forget. Though you can promote on the spot, so it's not a big deal. For some reason I think of it like upgrade where you can't use the unit that turn... So offensive units you probably should "save" your promotions until you know what you are facing.

defensive units are pretty standard. City defender for city, or first strike outside the city.

I thought about the computer guided promotions, but i'm not that much of a masochist. But how bad could it really be?

[Theben]

For archers and longbows, and often for gunpowder units, I tend towards Drill more often than Combat promotions. But if the enemy is even tech and has some Combat promos then I'll get those for my gunpowder field units.

Otherwise pretty much the same as Ming with the exception that I'll always have 2-3 cats with the Accuracy promotion to knock down walls quickly and the rest will have City Raider. If I have a lot of them then I'll add some barrage promoted cats/trebs/etc. General assault plan is to have the Accuracy units knock down the walls, the CR II/III units attack 1st to damage the high strength defenders, and then the high barrage units hit the weakened defenders and max out the damage.

[Ming]

Early in the game when I start building my first cats, I usually don't assign the promotion at first, not knowing whether they are going to be used to defend against SOD's, or be used on cities. I then promote as needed.

[TriMiro]

Early Horse units, I go for Combat + Shock (10% strength + 25% vs mele) That gives them a chance vs spearman.

Axes are mixed between City Raider and shock (for defensive purposes vs other Axes).

Arches go with Garrison + Drill (first strikes are great vs slightly weaker units).

Swords go for City Raider (they are good for little else).

Later most units get Pinch (+25% vs gunpowder) and if the enemy has a lot of Mounted units, I may go for Formation (+25% vs mounted).

The proper promotion can significantly change the odds in your favor.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Interesting input everyone, thanks.

I don't tend to go to war much early in the game; I prefer to consolidate a tech lead then use it later -- maceman/knight/trebuchet is probably my earliest attack formation, unless my hand is forced. I'm in the middle of a late-game push for domination right now, though, and have begun mixing up my use of tanks in particular; I can see the value (and tanks with 3 city raider promotions are pretty fun to use).

[joncnunn]

Well, here's what I do with pre-gun powder units:

Archers: City Defender
Axes : Combat I then the anti-melee one
Swords : City Raider
Maces: Either City Raider or Combat I then the anti-melee one
Longbows: City Defender
Crossbows: Combat I then the anti-melee one
Spears / Pikes: The anti-horse one (with sufficent combats first to open it)
Cats / Trebs: Extra colaterial damage, then bombard.
Knights (and below) : Combat
War Elephents : The anti-horse one (with sufficent combats first to open it)

[slnz]

As noted, promo usage is highly situational, but here's my 2 cents on "finer points":

- Every stack moving in hostile territory should have maximum defensive capability for all types of attackers; in the Medieval ideal case this means at least 1 Shock Crossbow, 1 Formation Pike (the AI vastly favors mounted units so usually you need many more pikes), 1 Combat Knight (vs crossbows), and a (usually warrior/spear/pike) Medic.

- Spearheading attackers such as Swordsmen, Macemen and Tanks should always be CR. There are better alternatives for all other uses.

- Conquest army siege should be CR almost always; more strength means higher survival rate, which means more hits, which implicitly results in more collateral damage (note that for trebs CR is less valuable in relation, because it only applies to the base 4 str, and the other promotions apply to the total str). For defense, if the immediately threatened city is not very important, it's often more efficient to lure the enemy stack into conquering it and then blast the stack with CR siege, rather than blasting it with Barrage siege outside.

- For defending cities and forts on hills, starting with Guerilla I&II is in the vast majority of cases better than CG I&II.

- For fighting on open ground, Combat > Drill, except when facing masses of enemy siege. Drill archers in particular are very situational and very often CG/Guerilla is better.

- When facing vastly inferior tech (i.e. no need for maximum strength capacity), you can skip picking promos until after the unit is damaged to <50% health. Then you can use the promo picking health boost to keep the blitzkrieg going

As for every rule in Civ4, there's an exception to all these guidelines.

[TriMiro]

Two things I forgot to mention.

- Scout with Medic promotion, I would often use the first Great General to get Medic III. The advantage of such a combo is enormous.

- For fighting technologically weaker units, the best promotions are March (attack over and over again, especially if the enemy has the advantage of numbers) and Drill (if the first strikes are successful, this weakens the enemy even further).

A scout + Medic III and several Mech Infantries are unstoppable against somewhat weaker enemy.

[Theben]

Attacking army should have both a Medic III Warlord (if available) and a Woodsman III unit, as both can heal units. Incidentally a WOOD III unit is an effective attacker as it also gets +2 1st strikes regardless of terrain.

Drill archers in particular are very situational and very often CG/Guerilla is better.

Have to disagree... drill III/IV archers/gunners in defensive situations will most likely outlast a Combat III/IV archer/gunner and kill many more units. 1st of all they're highly resistant to collateral damage, so that when the enemy SoD attacks you'll still have full or almost full strength defenders facing them. Second, any bonus from CD, guerilla, or combat will have an additive effect as opposed to drill which has a multiplying effect. Combat IV sounds great with a longbowman until you realize it already has +50% just from fortifying and built-in city defense at minimum (and add another +50% min if on a hill, plus other possible bonuses). So even if the city defense is bombarded to 0% and you're not on a hill the unit has an effective defense strength of 9 vs. 11.4. So the attacking maceman has a slightly smaller odds of winning. Even with CD III or Guerilla III it will only take on average +1 maceman or collateral attack from artillery to remove the pesky longbow. Drill defenders last a lot longer. My experience in games supports this.

[slnz]

Drill archers in particular are very situational and very often CG/Guerilla is better.

Have to disagree... drill III/IV archers/gunners in defensive situations will most likely outlast a Combat III/IV archer/gunner and kill many more units. 1st of all they're highly resistant to collateral damage, so that when the enemy SoD attacks you'll still have full or almost full strength defenders facing them.

To reiterate:

except when facing masses of enemy siege

Also, if you're getting hit by the enemy SoD in open ground by a regular basis promotion choices certainly aren't your worst problem.

Second, any bonus from CD, guerilla, or combat will have an additive effect as opposed to drill which has a multiplying effect. Combat IV sounds great with a longbowman until you realize it already has +50% just from fortifying and built-in city defense at minimum (and add another +50% min if on a hill, plus other possible bonuses).

No one talked about Combating longbowmen. They obviously get either Guerilla, CG or Drill, depending on the situation. And yes, drillers are needed if you're going to defend against a massive SoD containing lots of siege. But as I pointed out this is their ~only use when compared to CG/Gue, and in my opinion a very unfavorable position to fight. Usually it's possible to avoid getting the full blast of a SoD if there's a chance the fight could end badly.

The combat/drill choice was for Gunpowder units, which by far are better for generic fighting duty with Combat instead of Drill (yes, even for Pro civs).

So even if the city defense is bombarded to 0% and you're not on a hill the unit has an effective defense strength of 9 vs. 11.4. So the attacking maceman has a slightly smaller odds of winning. Even with CD III or Guerilla III it will only take on average +1 maceman or collateral attack from artillery to remove the pesky longbow. Drill defenders last a lot longer. My experience in games supports this.

You talked about drill being a force multiplier; well, it happens that those work better the more force you have (this is why also why Samurai are so crazy with CR, and why Chu-ko-nu are generally worse than one would think). Drill loses a lot of its effectiveness if the driller has less str in combat than the enemy unit as the possible drill hits hit more seldom and take smaller hp chunks. You cannot possibly want pure drillers over pure CGers in a straight-up fight against CR Maces.

A quick WorldBuilder proof states that a Longbow defending (no hill, no fort bonus, no culture) has better chances against a CR2 Mace with CG3 (75%) than CG2 Drill 4 (63%), that is, 3 promos vs 6. Just having CG1 also gives better chances than having Drill1-3. Granted, not the optimal Drill situation but illustrates quite well its relative uselessness in a normal defending situation with no mass siege involved.

Also I really hope you are not picking Guerilla III for defensive purposes...

So yes, Drill has its purposes but its a niche utility promotion and certainly should not be given to all units of a certain type. If fighting defensively, it's often viable to make a Driller general, as with Leadership and the constant fights against enemy siege give insane amounts of experience very fast. After a certain point this general can basically shrug off most siege attacks. The WoodsmanIII general often ends up moonlighting as a driller anyway.