Civilization IV: Promotions

In previous civ games, units have only a few levels: conscript, regular, veteran, and elite. Now in Civ4, there are more than 40 promotions you can give to your units as they gain experience, enabling you to customize your units to make them more specialized and more powerful. Some of the promotions give your units a strength bonus, some give your units a bonus against a certain unit type, some make your units better on certain terrain types, while some give your units special abilities such as using enemy roads, faster healing, amphibious attack, and city raider.

In addition, some promotions (like Morale and Leadership) require the use of a Great General, a unit available in Warlords and Beyond the Sword. By joining a Great General to a unit, these promotions become available.

However, not all promotions are available to all units, and the better promotions have other, lesser promotions as prerequisites. The escalating cost of the next promotion ensures that few units will have more than 3-5 promotions, so choose carefully.

Also note that promotions are kept in upgrades, that can lead to upgraded units having promotions that equal but newly built units can’t have. The most notable example ( but by far not the only one ) is the city raider line, that can be present in gunpowder units upgraded from melee units

To add, some promotions, notably Drill II-IV and Guerilla II-III, are available to unit types that cannot take the first promotion in their chain. This is because some Unique Units start with a promotion not usually available to its type – for example, Samurai are Melee units with Drill I, and Gallic Warriors are Melee units with Guerilla I; both units can develop along their paths. Besides that, there are events that give promos to certain units that can’t have them by default, most notably a event that gives combat I to cannons ( in this case you can’t upgrade to combat II though , since the combat line is fully locked for siege unit since BtS 3.13 )

NOTE: Information in this section is correct as of Beyond the Sword v3.17.

Icon Promotion Abilities Requires Leads to Available to
Accuracy Accuracy +8% City Bombard Damage City Raider I
or
Barrage I
Siege Weapons
Ace Ace +25% Evasion Chance Combat III Air
Ambush Ambush +25% vs. Armored units Combat II Siege,
Gunpowder,
Armored,
Helicopter,
Air
Amphibious Amphibious No Combat Penalty for Attacking from Sea; No Combat Penalty Attacking Across River Combat II Archery,
Mounted,
Melee,
Siege,
Gunpowder
Barrage I Barrage I +20 Collateral Damage Barrage II
Accuracy
Siege, Armored, Naval
Barrage II Barrage II +30 Collateral Damage
+10% vs. Melee Units
Barrage I Barrage III Siege, Armored, Naval
Barrage III Barrage III +50 Collateral Damage
+10% vs. Gunpowder Units
Barrage II Siege, Armored, Naval
Blitz Blitz Can Attack multiple Times Per Turn Combat III
and
Military Science
Mounted, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Charge Charge +25% vs. Siege Weapons Combat I Mounted, Melee, Armored, Helicopter
City Garrison I City Garrison I +20% city Defense City Garrison II Archery, Gunpowder
City Garrison II City Garrison II +25% city Defense City Garrison I City Garrison III Archery, Gunpowder
City Garrison III City Garrison III +30% city Defense
+10% vs. Melee Units
City Garrison II Archery, Gunpowder
City Raider I City Raider I +20% City Attack City Raider II, Accuracy Melee, Siege, Armored
City Raider II City Raider II +25% City Attack City Raider I City Raider III Melee, Siege, Armored
City Raider III City Raider III +30% City Attack
+10% vs. Gunpowder Units
City Raider II Melee, Siege, Armored
Combat I Combat I +10% Strength Combat II
Cover
Shock
Pinch
Medic I
Charge
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Combat II Combat II +10% Strength Combat I Combat III
Formation
Ambush
Amphibious
Range I
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Combat III Combat III +10% Strength Combat II Combat IV
March
Blitz
Sentry
Ace
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Combat IV Combat IV +10% Strength
Heals Extra 10% Damage/Turn in Neutral Lands
Combat III Combat V
Commando
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Combat V Combat V +10% Strength
Heals Extra 10% Damage/Turn in Enemy Lands
Combat IV Combat VI Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Combat VI Combat VI +25% Strength Combat V
and
Great General
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Naval, Air
Commando Commando Can Use Enemy Roads and Railroads Combat IV
and
Military Science
Recon, Artillery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder, Armored
Cover Cover +25% vs. Archery Units Combat I Archery, Melee, Gunpowder
Drill I Drill I +1 First Strike Chance Drill II, Medic I
Cover
Archery, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Drill II Drill II +1 First Strike
Suffers 20% Less Collateral Damage
Drill I Drill III Archery, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Drill III Drill III +2 First Strike Chance
Suffers 20% Less Collateral Damage
Drill II Drill IV Archery, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Drill IV Drill IV +2 First Strikes
Suffers 20% Less Collateral Damage
+10% vs. Mounted Units
Drill III Archery, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Flanking I Flanking I +10% Withdrawal Chance Flanking II
Sentry
Navigation I
Mounted, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Flanking II Flanking II +20% Withdrawal Chance
Immune to First Strikes
Flanking I Mobility Mounted, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Formation Formation +25% vs. Mounted Units Combat II
or
Drill II
Archery, Mounted, Melee, Gunpowder
Guerilla I Guerilla I +20% Hills Defense Guerilla II Recon, Archery, Gunpowder
Guerilla II Guerilla II +30% Hills Defense
Double Movement in Hills
Guerilla I Guerilla III Recon, Archery, Gunpowder, Melee
Guerilla III Guerilla III +25% Hills Attack
+50% Withdrawl Chance
Guerilla II Archery, Gunpowder, Melee
Interception I Interception I +10% Interception Chance Interception II Gunpowder, Air
Interception II Interception II +20% Interception Chance Interception I Gunpowder, Air
Leadership Leadership +100% Experience from Combat Great General Recon, Archery, Gunpowder, Melee, Mounted, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
March March Can Heal while Moving Combat III
or
Medic I
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege, Gunpowder
Medic I Medic I Heal Units in Same Tile Extra 10% Damage/Turn Drill I or Combat I March
Medic II
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege, Gunpowder, Naval
Medic II Medic II Heal Units in Adjacent Tiles Extra 10% Damage/Turn Medic I Medic III Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege, Gunpowder, Naval
Medic III Medic III Heal Units in Same and Adjacent Tiles Extra 15% Damage/Turn Medic II
and
Great General
Recon, Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege, Gunpowder, Naval
Mobility Mobility -1 Terrain Movement Cost Flanking II Mounted, Armored
Morale Morale +1 Movement Range Great General Recon, Archery, Gunpowder, Melee, Mounted, Siege, Armored, Helicopter, Naval
Navigation I Navigation I +1 Movement Range Flanking I Navigation II Naval
Navigation II Navigation II +1 Movement Range Navigation I Naval
Pinch Pinch +25% vs. Gunpowder Units Combat I
or
Drill I
and
Gunpowder
Mounted, Gunpowder, Armored, Helicopter, Air
Range I Range I +1 Operational Range Range II Air
Range II Range II +1 Operational Range Range I Air
Sentry Sentry +1 Visibility Range Combat III
or
Flanking I
Recon, Mounted, Helicopter, Naval
Shock Shock +25% vs. Melee Units Combat I
or
Drill I
Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege
Tactics Tactics +30% Withdrawal Chance Great General Archery, Mounted, Melee, Siege, Gunpowder, Naval, Helicopter, Armored, Recon
Woodsman I Woodsman I +20% Jungle Defense
+20% Forests Defense
Woodsman II Recon, Melee, Gunpowder
Woodsman II Woodsman II +30% Jungle Defense
+30% Forests Defense
Double Movement in Jungle and Forests
Woodsman I Woodsman III Recon, Melee, Gunpowder
Woodsman III Woodsman III +2 First Strikes
+50% Forests/Jungle Attack
Heals Units in the Same Tile Extra 15% Damage/Turn
Woodsman II Melee, Gunpowder

 

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