Unit upgrades (skills, formations, health, armor, weapon, etc): How will they be implemented in Rome II?

[Octopus]

CA has stated that armies will be recruited in the field instead of in cities like previous titles. How will unit upgrades be applied to these armies that are recruited in the field?

In previous games leather tanners, blacksmiths, temples, and recruitment buildings themselves offered various upgrades to the units recruited there. I personally enjoy making beefy recruitment regions. In Shogun II I would make all my legendary dojos in blacksmith regions so the units get recruited with ridiculous armor, attack, charge and morale .

I have a few guesses as to how it will work in Rome II:
1)Tech trees: I think they mentioned that reforms may be part of tech trees for factions like Rome, so perhaps there will be unit upgrades within the military branch of the tech trees
2)Regional bonuses: Units get the upgrades of the buildings present in the region where they are recruited (in the field)
3)Remove upgrades as we know them from the game....I doubt it, but possible

Also, will retraining be possible in Rome II? In Shogun II units only received the bonuses if they were recruited in the region that offered it and then they were stuck with those bonuses, unable to get retrained for additional bonuses.

I think the tech trees are the most likely option. Since there are now three branches (military, engineering, economy?) to the tech trees there should be plenty of room for techs like armor, weapons, skills, formations, etc.

Thoughts?
Discuss

[Sharpe]

I've been saying since the game was revealed that experience needs to be more important.

An experienced, veteran unit should be worth their weight in gold and you should prize them over most elites.

[Octopus]

I agree with you. Each chevron of experience should be difficult to obtain and provide significant bonuses. I would like experience to be much more meaningful. This should be in addition to other bonuses though such as armor or weapon upgrades and both should be included in the game somehow.

One way CA is making experience better in Rome II is with the legion history and experience, which will add some bonuses on an army wide level, but I think more can be on the individual unit experience as well.

[McCarronXLD]

What Sharpe said. I was really disappointed in Shogun 2/Rise of the Samurai/Fall of the Samurai that the units I have already created could not be upgraded with region bonuses. My veterans would be more likely to get equipment upgrades than my recruits. So what happened is I would end up disbanding all of my veteran units in the game and recruiting all of my units from regions with bonuses. This really made the units seem like fodder and I did not like it at all. Want personal attachment to my units. I am hoping in Rome 2 that they either do not have unit recruitment bonuses anymore or existing units can be upgraded.