hello Isaac,

This is actually intended. All pre research upgrade units remain the original level and those made after research are the new level.

This change happened a while back (and is similar to other Bytro games like TGW and the future CoW 1.5)
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[/list]All the best

Will there be an opportunity to dismiss unwanted obsolete units, or is the game deliberately and intentionally steering us towards strategies that make active use of military units (as opposed to colonial and economic strategies where a player's military is passive and defensive in nature)?

Nope. you will have to send unwanted to the frontlines . To get them killed is only way to get rid of lower level troops.

Yeah, I really don't like this rule, it's so unrealistic, on a game that does so well on so many other levels.

Made one post about it on another thread, so not going to do that again.

Well, if we're going to be forced to fight, can we at least be honest about it? A good start would be removing the Strategy Advisors Focus Selections of Economy and Colonization. Colonial strategies are balanced in such a way that they cannot realistically compete with most active militaristic strategies. But at least colonizing can be called a strategy. There is literally no Economic strategy that can be followed in a playable fashion that is not actually a colonial or militaristic strategy.

This game is purposefully and deliberately balanced for war. If that is what it is intended to be, then so be it. However, we all need to stop pretending that its the warfare and the military that distinguishes this from other comparable titles to draw in players.

I tend to agree. Simply that if one focuses on economy so much, those who are focusing on conquest will ultimately destroy them.

I tend to do a strong blend of econ/fighting that has served me well. Any game I ever focused on economy always left me too vulnerable for others to easily wipe me out.