Back to the list of technologies
- "There never was a good knife made of bad steel."
– Benjamin Franklin
This excerpt is from the Civ 5 Guide:
It's possible to rush from Gunpowder to Rifling with very little time in between. Anyone who doesn't have a unique Musketman unit is likely to do this, especially if they are interested in attacking their rivals or defending their own territory.
When you get to the Renaissance, start looking for a Great Scientist and feel free to "bank" them by hiding the unit inside a city. Tell it to go to sleep until later. Once Metallurgy is done, wake that Great Scientist and use them for an instant tech upgrade. Select Rifling, and with that, you get a massive military upgrade just by researching one technology!
Lancers are a harder-hitting version of Knights . They are faster to get around the map, and it helps that they have several more points of Combat Strength. However, these mounted units have a penalty during defense, making them brittle if they aren't defended.
Sipahi are unique Ottoman Lancers that are even faster than regular Lancers. They can pillage in an enemy territory without breaking stride, making them the single best sabotage unit in the game.
Hakkapeliitta are unique Swedish Lancers that are interact with Great Generals and has a 15% combat bonus.
Historical Info:
Metallurgy is the science of metals and metallic alloys. In Civilization V the "metallurgy" technology covers the advancements in this field since the 19th century AD. In the 19th and 20th centuries, great strides have been made in all facets of metallurgy, from extraction, to the creation of new alloys, to the production of cheap, high-quality metals.
Metal remains at the heart of modern civilization. Much of the world is built of steel, and what isn't is made of aluminum or titanium. Our communications networks are made of metal, and so are our vehicles, weapons, satellites and spacecraft. Without modern metallurgy 90% of the Earth's population would starve within a year.