Can units be upgraded after a tech has been researched?

[Aslan Stark]

hey guys,

i just finished researching muzzle loading rifles and all my unit portraits changed but the ones i have the field did not. Do they change automatically or do i have disband and re-enlist them?

[loki100]

it takes time, you'll see a string of messages as individual units upgrade. It happens quicker if they are in defend or passive mode and on a depot, so those on active campaign may take some time

[Jonathan Pollard]

How about ships, do ships ever automatically upgrade if they're in a naval base?

[loki100]

How about ships, do ships ever automatically upgrade if they're in a naval base?

Its more complex

They need to be in a passive mode and on a base (but trade fleets will upgrade even if at sea)

My understanding is that there are generations of ships. So the sail types you start with will upgrade, then the early coal ships and so on (but they will not jump generations - so a sail ship will get stuck in the end). However, if you have a squadron of say sail battleships with missing elements (ie some ships sunk) and they are in passive mode then those gaps will fill with the more modern ship generation. Now you may not want this - since you cannot select within a unit you'll be stuck with the older ones till they get sunk, but its something you could use.

[Jonathan Pollard]

How about Chinese junks and war junks, can they ever upgrade to anything more advanced?

[Jim-NC]

To upgrade, land troops need replacements of the appropriate type (e.g. infantry replacements). I believe they also need access to a depot (but that may be due to my attrition setting).

Naval ships don't upgrade, but if you take losses, the losses will be replaced by the most up to date unit. So if you have a battleship squadron of 1 wooden, 1 wooden screw, and 1 ironclad, and you have the replacements, you can get a brand new steel battleship (with the correct tech), but the other 3 will stay the way they were. Thus you can have squadrons of mixed ship types.

As to the Chinese, you can buy more modern ships (easiest), or try to produce some of your own. FYI - China does not have the model for every ship (for example, they don't have a model for a wooden screw corvette), and thus they can't buy those ship types. This can be changed by cloning units from another country (which is beyond my abilities).

[Jonathan Pollard]

Yes, I've already encountered the wooden screw corvette problem as China. How about artillery, is it worth it for China to research better artillery or are those also not modeled?

Also, it's 1878 and those units that have firearms have smoothbores. Is it possible for the smoothbores to be upgraded to rifles in the future or am I doomed to use smoothbores until the game ends in 1920?

[Jim-NC]

Possible? Yes. Can you do it? I don't know, as I don't know where you are on the tech tree. You may need to research several techs to get them (rifling for example).

You may have to spend a lot of state funds to research the weapons you need.

[Jonathan Pollard]

I already have 100% of the tech for the Dreyse Needle Gun (a rifle) and even the Gatling Gun for heaven's sake, but the only units with firearms that I'm allowed to build use smoothbore muskets. So I think the situation is just as screwy for all post-1850 weaponry as the screwed-up wooden screw corvette problem. I'm only a few turns away from advanced artillery, and I ran the game against the AI without entering any orders just to get to the point of its completion and I didn't get any better artillery units to build either. If you don't believe me, examine my file from the PBEM Conflict in Europe PBEM game (I did not password protect it) so you can see for yourself.

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[Jim-NC]

Considering that you have the techs necessary, we need to look at models and units. In looking at your units, you have several different versions of troops (I see artillery for 1840, 1850, 1880, 1890, and 1910 for example). It appears that most of your infantry is 1850 or 1870 vintage. If you already have 1870 units, then that is the most advanced you will have for most of your troops. If not, then you should be able at some point in the future to upgrade your troops. Some of your cavalry have 1890 versions however. I believe that the tech improvement descriptions are the same for all countries, even though they do not give the same benefits in actuality. For example, when I played Spain, I could not build MP units. When I got the appropriate tech, I should have gotten them, but didn't.

This is a game design issue, and thus not something we can control.

[Aslan Stark]

So i should constantly pay for military research instead of other areas of tech? That brings me to a related point:for education level, how can i passively increase the education level? it seemed after a economic crash, my education level went from 75 to 61

[loki100]

So i should constantly pay for military research instead of other areas of tech? That brings me to a related point:for education level, how can i passively increase the education level? it seemed after a economic crash, my education level went from 75 to 61

re education. One of the cards on the F1 screen to reduce militancy is related to education. The tool tip doesn't say this, but every time you play it you gain one percentage point on your education level. When you unlock it, there is a university regional decision, that adds 4-5 percentage points to the province you played it in.

other than that, I think this is coded off your national attributes.

[Jonathan Pollard]

Considering that you have the techs necessary, we need to look at models and units. In looking at your units, you have several different versions of troops (I see artillery for 1840, 1850, 1880, 1890, and 1910 for example).

The two advanced artillery units I have were captured from the Japanese and British.

[Citizen X]

The two advanced artillery units I have were captured from the Japanese and British.

Units upgrade when

A) There's enough chits in the pool (positive numbers for that kind of unit in the F3 screen) and when
B) they are in a region with depot or fort at the same time,

a thing that the AI is very bad at. So often you find a AI run nation that has the technology but not the appropriate guns on the field. Make peace. Treat away Formosa, which you can't hold anyway and prepare for the next round.

[Kensai]

Captured units of other nations (look in their description card on the top left to what nation they belong) will never upgrade or repair. But they will fight to their best of their abilities until destroyed or disbanded.

China (and other nations that do not have all models) can use ships, land units, etc from every nation by scripting in the correct model under the new nation. The problem is, if your nation is not allowed to have said unit, you will not be able to repair it, even if you set the force pools. There might be another way, but I am not aware of it. China is not stuck with smoothbores all the game, but China does not have many infantry models, the next one comes rather late in the game, by the time of the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of nationalist China.

[Jonathan Pollard]

China (and other nations that do not have all models) can use ships, land units, etc from every nation by scripting in the correct model under the new nation. The problem is, if your nation is not allowed to have said unit, you will not be able to repair it, even if you set the force pools.

The Dutch warships which China recently purchased via scripting have repaired themselves quite nicely. And I'm pretty sure that at least one of those units is composed of the screw corvettes which China will never be able to build as a new unit.