I want to write this guide to make a note on the interactions with the Sansculottes and also write down the logic for these interactions so it may also help finding more interactions in the future.
Part 1: The logic of how Techs and Card effects are applied
To start this off there are a few things about how techs are applied in the game that should be noted as they serve as the basis for some of these interactions. These are facts from what I can tell experimenting with the techs and I think they should be widely applicable unless there is something I missed
1 - Effects of techs are applied to applicable units in the game only at the time the tech is researched
So for example the Team Senegalese Riflemen card gives 10% ATK to all range infantry (+ extra 5% if you are French or Hausa) when it arrives, meaning that all units that are currently in the game or can be created in the game would get this stat boost if they are tagged “AbstractRangedInfantry”
So any units that currently do not have the tag but might gain it later will not gain this boost when it arrives.
2 - Effects of cards and techs, once applied will stay unless changed by other effects
There is no logic in the game (as far as I can tell) to reapply effects of cards based on new states of units so once an effect is applied it doesn’t change.
And tbh in researching this this only really applies to the Sansculottes (and for some reason spies in US revolt) as they are the only 2 units in the game I can find that can have some of their tags removed.
But what does this mean?
So for example, if you research Great Coat which gives +35% to all “AbstractVillager" , it would give CDBs extra 63 HP and this effect would in effect stay even if you do a French Revolt and change them all to Sansculottes which are not counted as villagers (other effects will apply to modify their stats but thats for later)
These 2 facts serve as the foundation for a lot (and I mean a lot ) of funny interactions that will go through later so keep these two in mind.
Part 2: The Sansculottes
The Sansculottes is for all intents and purposes, a reskinned CDBs. It seems to be that the devs had 2 overall groupings when it comes to revolts, where either the Vils turn into military or they stay as villagers, but either reskinned or changed in some way. Sansculottes therefore are a bit of both, they are reskinned from their base unit, but their tags and stats are changed in order for them to fight as military.
So as start lets look at what is changed and their implications, im going off the game files for the most accurate effects.
1 - The Changes
Relevant Tag changes:
⦁ Remove “AbstractVillager", “LogicalTypeLandEconomy”
⦁ Adds “AbstractInfantry" , “AbstractRangedInfantry” , “AbstractGunpowderTrooper”
⦁ And most important to note here Adds “LogicalTypeAffectedByVillagerUpgrades”
Stat changes:
⦁ Reduces HP by 45
⦁ Reduces train time by 40%
⦁ Adds 12 Damage to Rifle Attacks (their main attack)
⦁ Gather rates set to (from the wiki) :
2 - The Implications
So what does this mean?
Starting with the easy ones which everyone notices the moment they revolt is that Sansculottes are not affected by vils gather upgrades like the market, mills and estate techs. They are only affected by techs that would explicitly name CDBs (or after the revolt Sansculottes) as the target of their effects. And since the revolt set their new gather rates, it doesn’t matter what their previous gather rate was.
This also means they are not affected by Code Napoleon, despite the tech also being made available after the revolt which is ironic.
The second and and slightly funnier outcome is that since Sansculottes are CDBs and only CDBs, other villager units are not converted to Sansculottes, including the 2 french villagers you get as part of the Naturalist age up, and their gather rates are unaffected by the revolt, so if you want some eco, this is one way to do it.
Next we look at the HP changes, which is a flat 45 HP reduction, which is sizable but it also means that their actual base HP is still 180 and any changes that occur afterwards still scales off their base stats, same with their attack which is increased by 12 but scales off their 8 base attack. So any HP upgrades scales much harder than any attack upgrade.
Then for the tags, where the implications are clear, they are now affected by military techs such as the Advanced arsenal techs, various native techs that gives HP and attack to infantry or gunpowder units. They are also affected by Infantry train time techs such as Standing Army, Akan Fontomfrom and Quechuan Diet.
Finally, they have the “LogicalTypeAffectedByVillagerUpgrades” tag meaning that they are still affected by a few techs that gives vils stats such as Nootka Bark Clothing, Great Coats and Blunderbuss but as we shall see, there are caveats to this.
Part 3: Ordering matters
1 - Stuff that doesn’t have an effect but you might think does
So information so far, there are a few techs/ cards that due to their availability and ordering, makes it so that they will not have an impact on the Sansculottes, the first being the Team Senegalese Riflemen as the card can only be sent before the revolt and would not affect the CDBs when its sent and there is no shadowtech to apply the effect again when you revolt.
The second is Royal Fencing School as like Standing Army, should have an effect on their train time, but since its only available before revolt, they wont be affected. Maybe thematically appropriate that the lower classes are not affected by the royal fencing school.
So send these for your other units, not if you want maxed Sansculottes
2 - Stuff that you should get before revolt
For these are cards that you cant get in the revolt but will buff them massively, such as pioneers (+65% HP), Wilderness Warfare (+20% HP) and Northwest Passage (+20% speed).
Then there are techs that will no longer have an effect after the revolt such as the Berber Kings of the Desert tech as it affects “LogicalTypeLandEconomy” tag which is just removed after revolt, researching this after revolt will have no effect, missing you out on an extra 63HP
The Jesuit tech Christian schools should also be researched before revolt as like the Berber tech it affects land villager and wont affect you after revolt.
Then there are the techs that will give you much less stats if you get them after, due to the change from “AbstractVillager" to “LogicalTypeAffectedByVillagerUpgrades”, this includes Nootka Bark Clothing, Great Coat and Apache Cactus Use & Blunderbuss which gives much less stats if they are researched after the revolt.
For example, Nootka Bark Clothing only gives 15% extra HP instead of 50%, a difference of 81 HP if you research it after revolt. The second effect is hidden in the game so you wont know this unless you look around (its on the wiki)
<effect type="Data" amount="1.50" subtype="Hitpoints" relativity="BasePercent">
<target type="ProtoUnit">AbstractVillager</target>
</effect>
<effect type="Data" amount="1.15" subtype="Hitpoints" relativity="BasePercent">
<target type="ProtoUnit">LogicalTypeAffectedByVillagerUpgrades</target>
</effect>
</effects>
Same with Great Coats (35% vs 10%), Apache Cactus Use (15% vs 5%) and Blunderbuss (+3 atk vs +1 atk and +4 Range vs +0 Range**)
**due to Blunderbuss giving bonus range to range attack and not the rifle attack, it gives no range to the Sansculottes
And then there is the Bourbon Chouannerie tech which due to the fact that it affects land villager and the way they balanced it was to add a specific negative multiplier for CDBs, means that if you researched it after the revolt, it becomes an active detriment.
3 - Stuff that you should get after revolt
Anything that affects the new tags such as “AbstractInfantry" , “AbstractRangedInfantry” , “AbstractGunpowderTrooper”
This will be Train time techs such as Standing Army, Akan Fontomfrom and Quechuan Diet.
Advanced Arsenal techs such as Marching Drums, Paper Cartridge and Flint Lock.
In addition a bunch of native techs will now affect them such as Smokeless Gunpowder, Navajo Weaving, Cree Tanning, Somali Oryx Hide Shields etc..,
Conclusion
So that was an introduction to the various interactions of the Sansculottes and to give you a taste of the powers possible here are what i consider to be like the best to the worse case for the unit
1- Home City cards + Important nat techs before revolt + market techs before revolt + advance arsenal after
You might never really get this but on a good unknown roll who knows
2- Home city cards + Market tech before revolts + advance arsenal after
A more typical stat range lets say
3- Everything after revolt
You can see the worse case is badddddddd
So Vive la révolution and prepare the people for battle
