noob questions

[rogs]

what do military police units do?

how do i get more generals? how do i promote them?

how come once i got dreyse needle rifles in the first month and in other games never saw them? why did i get the needle gun tech without any research but it is taking me years to research the minie-rifle? if i know about the needle gun does that mean my infantry is automatically equipped with it?

is my technological progress completely random? how can i influence what advances i get? apart from the speed-up / extra 1% investment button how can i get faster tech progress?

how do i rename units?

[Jamitar]

police units are patrol kind of units. if you click on one of their batalion at down right you see police level: ± 7
in case your population are real dificult and start revolting and going on general strikes put them in one city and they might go back to work. unfortunately they've got a tight limit of production and rarely help much, at least in my case

I think for generals im out of my league its the stuff I never understand. but I do know that after a couple of very big battles a general can be promoted, no need to check after each battle it will notify you ( in options you can choose random generals to get random qualities though i never tried and doesnt seem to be interesting)

I m not historically proffesional but by following logic I can fairly easily say that they must already be used in 1850 wheres minie rifle was still unknown

I m quite sure once its researched your unit get it automatically. what else could mean the hundreds of lines repeating
'' national guard has been succesfully trained
'' west battalion succesfully trained'' etc

progress comes from litteracy ( F6) but that never hardly makes any difference. giving the 50 state funds is the way to go ( to get enough money to do that to many if not all researches, produce tons of luxury good shops , dont sell them to other countries, and give them to your population ( in F4 you can see) then raise excise quite high. Im getting totally massive amounts of funds and I can only hardly throw them all out by using research)

I know theres a trick to rename but I forgot. I think its a shortcut letter. go
check in shortcuts in the guide sticky

[Le Ricain]

Generals (and Admirals) are replaced when the in-game leaders die or retire. The leaders are eligible for promotion by being successful in combat. The message board will inform you which leaders are available for promotion. In the Command panel to the left of the lower unit box you can find the promotion button. Click on the general and then look through the commands on the left. I forget which group it is in, but the button is a blue exclamation mark (!). Click on that and the next turn he will be promoted. If the leader is in a stack, but not the commander, you will need to take him out of the stack to get the promotion to work.

There are two types of technology in the game. One is the standard one where you obtain the prerequisite technologies beforehand and the tech will become available for you to research. The other kind of technology is the 'bolt from the blue' kind in which the tech just arrives without any preconditions. An example of this tech is the Dreyse Needle rifle that you mention. This tech represents one of your inventors making a significant invention or development on his own. This explains why in some games you get the tech and others you do not. The Dreyse Needle Rifle tech does allow your units to upgrade. The best way to accelerate technology development is to spend the 50 state funds per turn on your selected techs.

You rename units by left-clicking on the unit tab and hitting the 'alt' button. This gives you a pop-up screen allowing you to rename your unit.

[sagji]

what do military police units do?

They help reduce unrest in the region they are in - all units do this, it is just the MPs do it better.

how do i get more generals? how do i promote them?

Each nation has a quota for the number of generals of each type they should have. If you have less of them than you should you will be given another one. There is no way to change this quota. Some generals will appear even if you are over your quota. If a general is very senior (IIRC seniority 4 or less) and is the most senior general in the stack then you can press the promote button on one of the tabs to the right of the unit panel, you can do this even if over your quota. Next turn the general will be promoted, and as you now have less generals of his previous rank if this takes you below your quota you will get a replacement.

how come once i got dreyse needle rifles in the first month and in other games never saw them? why did i get the needle gun tech without any research but it is taking me years to research the minie-rifle?

Research comes in two types "technologies" that once you discover you have to investigate over a period of time (Muzzle loading rifle is an example of this), and "Inventions" that are discovered fully understood (Dreyse needle rifle is an example of this). The underlying mechanism with inventions is that once you meet the requirements you have a small chance of inventing it each turn.

if i know about the needle gun does that mean my infantry is automatically equipped with it?

No - before you can use the Dreyse needle you have to have researched the muzzle loaded rifle.
When you research the muzzle loaded rifle then you troops will start to upgrade - this requires that you have replacements available, and takes about 1 replacement for each 10 elements. If you have previously discovered the needle gun then next turn they will upgrade to it - which will take about another 1 replacement per 10 elements.

is my technological progress completely random? how can i influence what advances i get? apart from the speed-up / extra 1% investment button how can i get faster tech progress?

Short of spending money there is little you can do - I think if you have good relations with a nation that has already got the tech you will get a small advantage.

how do i rename units?

You can't rename units or elements. You can rename stacks by ALT clicking on their name on the tab of the units panel.

[rogs]

thanks all!