What do you do with Great Generals?

I'm curious to see some of the more interesting things to do with Great Generals.

I will normally settle one in any city that will be used to crank out units. I will also build the academy in the same cities. I am curious, can you/would you build an academy in the HE city? Are there any super combinations, such as Iron Works + Red Cross + GG (in some form) that people have found to be extraordinary?

I am also aware of the M*A*S*H unit idea, although I've never tried it, and would welcome an explanation of how to do it and use it.

What other ways would it make sense to attach a general to a unit? In one game, I had a few Blitz promoted privateers that were stupid-powerful once I upgraded them. I would be tempted to use a GG to build one of those again rather than hoping a privateer survived 20 caravel attacks.

I settle most although I will attachone as the medic III unit. I rarely build academies as military science is a deadend tech I usually ignore for a good part of teh game and by the time I have it that extra 50% military production is rather insignificant.

Combinations: Iron Works is powerful enough by itself so i do not put it with other military national wonders but may settle a GG there. Red Cross is rather useless since you only need a few medics. West Point I try to build in coastal cities and settle a GG so that combined with a drydocks you pump out naval units with 3 promotions! Early GGs I settle in the HE city.

The first one I get I settle in my early military city, the second I attach to a medic unit. Then later I settle most in my HE/West Point city except for one which I use for an Academy and another one I settle in my coastal military city for 2 promotions with a Drydock.

Ah, the WP/Drydock thing makes a LOT of sense.

Question: When creating the Medic III unit, does it need to be a unit already promoted to Medic I?

So far as I know Medic III requires the unit to be lead by a great general and also requires Medic II, which requires Medic I, which requires Combat I. If you can also get this unit to Woodsman III it becomes a super mash unit, as that promotion also adds healing.

Medic III unit requires the following promotions: combat I (free for agrgessive AIs), Medic I, Medic II, medic III. Doable for any unit that get a GG attached to it.

My general strategy is to have 2 main military cities, and focus my generals there. The first two generals will get settled as instructors, one in each city... Now with the 3xp from a barracks, I've got 2 cities pumping out level 2 troops.

The 3rd general will get attached to my highest promoted medic in the field. I like to tinker with who all gets the free xp from the general... If my medics keep getting killed and all I have is a lousy medic I medic, then I'll attach the general to him with *no other units* in the stack, so he gets the full 20 XP which is enough to bump him up to Medic II, then III and then take the leadership (+100% xp) promo. Down the road I will add March then Morale (the one that gives an extra movement point) to this uber medic, and eventually start working down the woodsman line with the goal of getting WoodsIII with its additional healing bonus. I am obviously *very* careful with this unit, as I have invested quite a lot in him. I want him to fight a lot to continue leveling up, but I never want to send him into a fight he might lose. So he's usually in the final waves of an attack, once the defenders have been pounded by siege and my main city raiders have taken out any of the tougher troops that are garrisoning my target... Basically once the longbows/riflemen with city garrison are done, and all that's left is some crappy injured semi-obsolete troops, send in the medic to get some more XP. By modern times it's not uncommon for my super medic to be over 100xp, fully loaded with promotions.

By the time the 4th general arrives I'm usually well into the medieval or renaissance, which means one of my military cities has the Heroic Epic by now and I'm probably running Vassalage and Theocracy, so the 4th general gets settled into this Heroic Epic City. The goal now is to get West Point in that city as soon as I can take a break from fighting and building troops. Now the main military city is pumping out 15xp ground troops, 17xp mounted troops and 16xp naval units, meanwhile I'm beelining the tech that unlocks Pentagon, which I will build somewhere *other* than the West Point city using liberal use of the whip, chopping and/or universal suffrage... For a warmonger game, I feel this is a crucial wonder. Once that's in place, the WP/HE city is now pumping out level 4 infantry and ships, and I start looking to bolster my secondary military city.

The secondary city is usually where I will start settling additional generals as they come along, from the 5th through to the end of the game. If I'm finding it's hammer count is a little off to where I want it to be (ideally it should be finishing troops every 2 or 3 turns) then I'd consider putting a military academy there... It would depend on a few things, like if I was close to being able to build the ironworks then I'd probably just settle an instructor there in the meantime... If IW was a long way off, and I felt I needed more troops faster I'd do the academy, but generally I prefer the XP from an instructor to the production boost. Anyways so with this 5th general my secondary city is putting out (3 bar+2 vass+2 theo+2 pent+2 GG+2 GG) 13 xp infantry, 15 xp mounted (with stables), 14 xp naval (with drydock). From here the game is usually mopping up, but if it takes a while, or theres a lot of naval and air fighting it is possible to continue pumping out the great generals (especially as Imperialistic) which I can keep settling in the second city... The goal obviously being to get to 17 xp level 4 ground troops out of the gate which will happen on the 7th great general.

Now this whole strategy is for a domination/conquest game. If I'm pursuing a peaceful victory, I have a tendency to focus more on the west point city with additional generals, because this allows me the freedom to use better civics than Vassalage or Theocracy. Even in a peaceful game though, my goal is level 4 troops out the gate, so when I know I won't be getting 4 bonus XP from my civics (cause I prefer running Free Speech and Pacificism when shooting for a culture win) I'll dump every great general after the 3rd one into the HE/WP city until I have enough to get that goal. The first 3 generals though, are fairly consistent-- instructor in main military city, instructor in second military city and now both are putting out level 2 troops, then I get my super medic online, and then continue settling generals in those 2 military cities, spreading them out depending on my civics situation. Also, if I fail to get the pentagon then that changes the numbers too, and so I'll likely burn yet another instructor in the HE/WP city before adding a second to my IW city. Again, the goal is XP 17 ground troops in one city above all else, but if all goes well, I will likely be getting troops that good from 2 cities by the modern age!

Phew. That's a little long winded. I think maybe I should do a proper strategy article about this, as I've really been fine tuning my military strategy of late, and playing a lot of Imperialistic leaders to make for some pretty uber mid and late game field armies.

I like to settle all my GG's in one high production city. Once you have 4 GG's, West Point, the Pentagon and a Barracks, land units come off the line at level 5 in peacetime civics.

My M*A*S*H these days is a Woodsman III / Medic II Spearman/Axeman I've nursed along. It's only when I get my 5th GG that I ever consider bumping him to Medic III / March. (That's if I don't build a Military Academy.)

It is a matter of taste, but I rarely settle more than 2 GG in the same city.... I prefer 2 cities putting lvl 2 units ( 2 XP*2 from GG + 2 XP from barracks = 6 XP, 9 XP if mounted with stables ... I'm assuming no Cha ) than 1 city producing lvl 3 units ( 4 XP*2 from GG + 2 XP from barracks = 10 XP, 13 XP if mounted with stables ... I'm assuming no Cha again ). And after Mil Sci there is no question... Mil Academies all the way

The first GG usually becomes my medic. Next ones will be settled in my high production cities. Sometimes if I'm warring a lot and keep getting GG's like there's no tomorrow, I attach some of them to highly experienced units just for fun

Play Imperialistic leaders, you'll be bloody swimming in generals. Another trick is to play with aggressive AI and build the great wall, and just let those nutty AIs like Ragnar and Shaka continue hurling stacks at your cities throughout the game. It's kind of crazy how many generals you actually wind up with in a game like that. The most uber of all troops though are Cyrus and his Cha/Imp Immortals... Because his mounted troops are getting 2 more XP than melee/infantry and charismatic means the promotions come faster. The only problem I have with him is that with no real economic trait, it can be a little challenging keeping up in tech while constantly fighting skirmish and defensive type wars. You end up with really highly promoted troops, that suddenly get clobbered by more advanced forces.

Here's the pattern I normally use; As with anything Civ-related, it is subject to change according to situation, and that I normally have a war/peace balanced approach…

1)
Settle in an early military production city. Doesn't have to be your best prod city, but the one that will be pumping out units (and mostly ignoring infrastructure for a while).

With a barracks and settled GG, the 5exp promotes units to level 2, and I find CityRaiderII swordsmen/cats/trebs most useful transitioning from early-game to mid-game. Stack and city defense units (combat promoted axeman, protecting archers ect&#8230 can be made from any city with a barracks.

2)
Get a WoodmanIII (+15%) or MedicIII (+15%) unit up (which in most games, also opens my Heroic Epic).

You have many options here, but my preferred method is to merge with a 5exp Axeman (from the above settled GG city, totaling 25 exp). This will give me level 4, and I'll buy WoodsIII and combat. Get 2 more exp, and buy medicI. With 2 first-strikes, forest/jungle bonuses, and the healing benefit, I've found this to be my favorite early game balance.

Make note that these two abilities stack only when on a single unit.

3 -> N
Depends…

3a) I oftentimes attach the GG to an attacking mounted unit for the GG specific promotion of Leadership (doubling the exp made), and maybe CombatIII and Blitz

3b) Same as 3a, but with a privateer, to be promoted to a destroyer

3c) Settle in another city, especially if you are not running Theocracy or Vassalage (or have the Pentagon). A second city throwing out 5exp units is nice.

3d) Naval city

3e) Sometime a military academy

JTMacc99 said:

I'm curious to see some of the more interesting things to do with Great Generals.

I will normally settle one in any city that will be used to crank out units. I will also build the academy in the same cities. I am curious, can you/would you build an academy in the HE city? Are there any super combinations, such as Iron Works + Red Cross + GG (in some form) that people have found to be extraordinary?

I am also aware of the M*A*S*H unit idea, although I've never tried it, and would welcome an explanation of how to do it and use it.

What other ways would it make sense to attach a general to a unit? In one game, I had a few Blitz promoted privateers that were stupid-powerful once I upgraded them. I would be tempted to use a GG to build one of those again rather than hoping a privateer survived 20 caravel attacks.

Click to expand...

Settle one in the HE city, and use the second one on a military academy in the HE city. Then build WP in the HE city, assuming that you have a level-6 unit. If not, then use the third one to create a level-6 unit. If you already have a level-6 unit, then use it for a military academy in another city.

Depends on the situation. I definitely focus more generals in cities when using Imperialistic Civs, for instance. Things to do with GGs:

1. If you're Imperialistic, wage early war (if Axe Rush is doable, for instance) to get the early pair of GGs superfast, then settle them in two dedicated production cities to get CR2 Swordsmen out the gate before Theo or Vassalage even come online. Very potent. For Genghis Khan, that's level 4 Keshiks out using Ger+Rax+GG.

2. Medic unit. Generic use.

3. Super Cavalry. Generate a pair of Blitz mounted units in the middle eras. Counts as 2 units for mopping up operations, and the Combat 3 promo makes them generally quite tough. Lots of winning combats mean that they generally promote super-fast, even after Blitz. And they upgrade free of charge. Even one is good enough - once you get the extra movement promo, it snowballs even faster and kills 3 units a turn. Charismatic Leader for best results.

OTAKUjbski said:

My M*A*S*H these days is a Woodsman III / Medic II Spearman/Axeman I've nursed along. It's only when I get my 5th GG that I ever consider bumping him to Medic III / March. (That's if I don't build a Military Academy.)

Click to expand...

Why would you put March on your medic? Ideally he should never be taking non-collateral damage at all, and I actually prefer that he remain at low health whenever possible to minimize the chance that he will be picked to defend.

As for the OP, I generally will make a mash unit with my first GG like many here. Occasionally though, (if I get him at the end of a war and don't want to run in Theo), I will settle him. After I get a mash unit up, I generally settle the rest of the generals. I may spread 2 or 3 to high production cities, but put the rest in my future WP city.

I think its worth noting that your medic unit is always best served by a scout or explorer--this negates the threat of your super medic defending your stack in combat, in addition to having at least 2 mp for extra mobility.

Especially later in the game, if you can build a promoted explorer, its very easy to get medic 3, woodsman 3 with your great general.

Well I guess it depends how you want to use your medic... I like to see him as not just a medic but a super troop. So with march, he can attack this turn and be healed by the next turn. No matter what, he is healing constantly, and I find that extremely important tactically to keep him moving around, finding the best spot (say between 2 stacks) where he can actually heal two groups at once. Having the flexibility to move him every turn, even if hes hurt, and keep him alive because he's constantly recovering makes it that much easier to get him to where you need him in one piece. I attack with the super medic as often as possible, just taking precautions to ensure he's always attacking with good odds. He won't be the first to attack a city, but he'll definitely attack it for that XP and eventually he'll have 6, 8, 12 promotions to his name. Never tried using a non combat troop for a medic though, it would be impossible to level him up without constantly using great generals on him.

neckface said:

I think its worth noting that your medic unit is always best served by a scout or explorer--this negates the threat of your super medic defending your stack in combat, in addition to having at least 2 mp for extra mobility.

Especially later in the game, if you can build a promoted explorer, its very easy to get medic 3, woodsman 3 with your great general.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I haven't done the MASH unit yet myself, was thinking about trying, but my main concern is that the unit should never be picked to defend my stack... So I don't know what kind of unit to choose for that. Maybe a horseman? Explorer seems good too, but counterintuitive somehow, hehe.

Explorers cannot get Woodsman III promotions...

Especially in BTS I find having a extra attacking unit in the stack never hurts as you never know how large a stack you are going to find yourself up against.

The non-combat healer is a very conservative play, as they are virtually impossible to promote, but they almost never have to defend. To get a true UberMedic with Woodaman III and Medic III the unit has to be able to attack at some point, especially as he also wants to have leadership to get those exp faster. It can be a good idea to leave the unit an upgrade behind your main units, so that he doesn't have to defend.

I like to drop my first General onto a Woodaman II, or if I've been really lucky, a Woodsman III warrior; however, if the first war is almost over, it would pay to settle the first General in your military production city in prep for your next war.

My UberMedic promotion chain is Woodsman I, II, III, Leadership, Combat I, Medic I, II, III, followed, if I ever get that far, by Mobility. I like Woodsman III better than Medic II as I think healing 15% in the same stack is better than 10% in adjacent stacks.