Blacksmiths

[Victor1234]

So, I'm playing as the Romans and come up against a wide array of foes. Currently in the Polybian era. The thing is, lately I seem to be coming up against foes with gold armour/weapon ranking, when the best my blacksmiths can come up with is bronze armour/weapon ranking (essentially, I mean the little shield and sword on the unit is bronze on my Roman units, but the Gauls and Greeks have sent units against me with gold shield/sword on the units).

Will a higher level of blacksmith be unlocked in the Marian/Augustian reforms and what are all the other factions that have higher level blacksmiths (unless these were some strange overpowered mercenary units they sent against me or something)?

[AceOfSpades]

I occasionally face such units, and sometimes I even face gold weapons, gold armour, and 3 expierience REBELS. It's quite annoying.

[Victor1234]

Oh ya, rebels are a whole other can of worms altogether. Nothing like facing 3 cohorts of Augustian-era legionarres in northern Spain when you've just had the Polybian reforms

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

When a settlement rebels to a faction, the units spawned will have random armor, weapon, and experience. It are these free, spawned units that you are seeing. In EB the blacksmith only give 1 to weapon and one to armor. Missiles cannot be upgraded. The upgrades unbalance the stats system too much.