Riflemen in Medieval Age?

[Dauphin]

I am rather confused as to how a caravel turned up on my shores before I received any notification that anyone had entered the renaissance era (i.e. had astronomy). I may have missed the message, or can it happen?

[MxM]

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

Are you sure it is true? I was under impression that all units special properties stay with the unit. For example upgraded scout still treats any territory the same, does not lose turn crossing the river and so on, even if he become a pikeman or infantry.

[AeonOfTime]

I was under impression that all units special properties stay with the unit. For example upgraded scout still treats any territory the same, does not lose turn crossing the river and so on, even if he become a pikeman or infantry.

I can confirm this - I had a scout upgrade to a spearman, and I kept upgrading it as new tech became available. In the end I had a Mech. Infantry that treats any territory the same. These units have a great strategical potential if you manage to keep them alive.

[rah]

Hmm, are you sure? Scouts upgrade to archers than crossbowman before it can upgrade to rifles etc. So it would have never been a spearman along the way.
It was funny in the initial testing when the crossbowman upgraded to a rifle it was still considered a ranged unit that couldn't do a ranged attack but because of the flag it couldn't do a regular attack either. So you basically upgraded to a unit that could no longer attack anything. Needless to say it was fixed quite quickly.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

in my current - third game - Ottomans got a rifleman running around in BC 2460... but AI cannot take advantage of that... design bug not exploited by poor AI