Great Generals - Settle or Combine?

[Stalker0]

So far, the great general ability to combine with a unit doesn't seem that good to me. The special upgrades are nice, but instead I could get a permanent +2 xp to ALL units from my big military city. And there's not the chance my unit will die and I'll lose everything. Further 20 xp just doesn't seem enough of a bonus to warrant the combine.

Is this the general feeling, or am I missing on the awesomeness of great generals out in the field?

[Rathelon]

I usually use them for the experience bonus or the military academy. ::shrug::

[King of Town]

those promotions are pretty ridiculous that you get access to. Especially with a mounted unit, I think cavalry can end up with 80% withdrawl chances. That's almost unbeatable. You get free upgrades too. I usually will try to just have an army of about 8 guys, and then just a lot of support siegery. So attaching a general to like 5 of them is pretty realistic and get's a lot of benefits. At a certain point the promotions you have left are mostly meh, so having the GG gives you something to promote them to that's useful to you.

[Refar]

The MedicIII is allways worth it, more so if you plan a offensive action. Plus: it instantly provides you with the Level 4 (and in most cases level 6) unit you need to unlock Heroic Epic and later Westpoint.

Sometimes if i plant to go to war a lot - and i.e. if i am Imperialistic - i also like the Leadership+Tactics combo on a somewhat decent offensive unit. Often a mounted unit for the synergy with the innate/flanking withdrawal chances

Spoiler:

You can attack at 50% winning odds and still have 95% chance to survive. If you withdraw you can fight another day. If you win at relatively low odds, Leadership will give you a lot of XP to improve the unit and even more important - towards your next GG.

[EDIT] King of town beaten me to it And as he mentioned: Free upgrades AND you do not loose XP when upgrading. Those can end up as really monstrous gunships some day - if the game lasts long enought.

Settling and sometimes Military Academy are not bad either.

[King of Town]

It's pretty hard to say flanking promotions suck when you have a 90% withdrawl chance, but that's another thread...

[taillesskangaru]

Normally I'd settle. I don't think a single powerful unit is a lot of use in a war, and in the long run the 2xp bonus in a city is better.

[Munch]

I tend to settle generals in my military city but every now and again it's fun to get one super-promoted unit (who upgrades for free) running around. Especially with the three unique promotions:
# +100% exp generation
# +30% withdrawal chance
# +1 movement point

Of course, to minimise the chance of your giga-unit being killed, it makes sense to minimise the defensive bonuses, making it less likely to be chosen to defend your stack when attacked. So, I go for only offensive (or non-defensive to be specific) promotions like the three above, city attack, medic etc; I avoid promotions like city/hill/forest defense, bonuses versus certain units (particularly siege) and first strikes (because of eventual collateral reduction, but maybe this is a harmless one).

[troytheface]

a Bismark-like promoted ship can be interesting.
Beefing up a stack on the defensive or at war doesn't hurt and is more dynamic play then settling or building.
I say combine! - and forget the stupid, uneventful, boring, rational choice.

[jeffreyac]

Originally Posted by troytheface

forget the stupid, uneventful, boring, rational choice.

I think you should make that a sig - thanks for my first Internet Smile of the Day!

even before the coffee kicked in, too...

[PibbZ]

I always play as Victoria, so i get my generals slightly quicker.

What i ALWAYS do, is settle the 3 first in my main production city (to get level 4 units straight out of the box, CG3, Woodsman3, Barrage 3 and so on), then the next 3 goes into a special forces city (the one with westpoint+red cross) to make high-level marines / paratroopers and such (level 5). Then general number 7 will be added as a warlord on my best Privateer, and upgrade it all the way to Missile cruiser, via destroyer. This privateer tends to be around level 8 by the time the rest of the civ's are hooking up with frigates. (farming XP on triemes and caravels / carracks).

Millitary academy goes into my special forces city with general number 8, if i dont get it via castle or drydock special event. (Free millitary instructor).

[SJN]

I am not a very good player, but I did just win my first Noble game by Domination.

What I did was not combine a single general, which is a different strategy for me. I was playing Bodica (Charismatic is awesome) and I settled every general for the +2 xp in my mil production city. I built West Point and Heroic Epoch in that city. For the bulk of the game, this city would pump out one unit per turn at least at level 4.

I could build any kind of military force here. I built a series of riflemen with forest III and used them as special forces. I later built a series of infantry with Commando. When I was preparing to invade my enemy's islands, I built a massive number of marines with combat 3, march, and pinch (I was going up against a lot of riflemen). And highly promoted paratroopers just rock!

My other production cities could pop out plenty of units for "the numbers". Attacking a city with a core of well trained troops works great. The well trained troops break the city's best defenders and then the less experienced troops can win handily (and get promoted too!).

So, for my money, +2 in a city that produces one unit every turn is better than combining after just 10 turns. And I've never needed the super medic, because I give so many of my troops march, the medic I promotion, or even combat V.

[Bandobras Took]

If you're playing a more peaceful game, you're still going to go to war, but do it as little as possible. In this case, it make sense to put a Great General on one unit to open the door for Heroic Epic/West Point, because there's every possibility you won't get a unit to high enough level otherwise.

[noto]

I used to always combine the GG with a unit because I got all excited at the prospect of building that unit up to something like combat 6, drill 4, etc, etc - it was like building up a hero in warcraft. But then I noticed that my super unit served no purpose. If I babied it and made sure it didn't die by only letting it fight when the odds of surviving were 99%, it didn't help me at all, and if I let it fight tougher battles, it would die. Believe it or not, even at 95% odds a unit has a 50% chance of dying after something like 15 battles. That's not a lot. So now I always settle the GG. The nice thing about that is, unlike aggressive, the settled GG will help all different kinds of units, not just melee and gunpowder.

[Smeee]

Originally Posted by troytheface

a Bismark-like promoted ship can be interesting.
Beefing up a stack on the defensive or at war doesn't hurt and is more dynamic play then settling or building.
I say combine! - and forget the stupid, uneventful, boring, rational choice.

Along the same lines as Troy here, If I have an early enough GG I always try to get a Privateer or two with GGs. Properly promoted a couple of heavy privateers can give frigates a bloody good pounding. Which can really help with keeping your enemies building usless naval units instead of land army zergs!

[Verge]

I usually assign one Great General to a naval unit, with the goal of getting Blitz eventually. Properly promoted, you'll have a single ship that can take on whole navies.

The rest I settle.

[ganto]

Still experimenting but I've found that attaching the first GG to -one- unit works well for me.

The GG typically goes to one of my early game now useless warrior (xp if any was likely only spent on combat 1) that's been sitting idle around the capital. It should give me insta medic3 unit, and leadership if he had enough xp from barbs. Then next turn I get to spend the free upgrade to a modern unit.

He then travels with a stack and heals it.

Then I go 30% withdraw. I dont get the +move promo since he travels with a stack anyway.

Some may like putting GG on a fast unit + offense but I find there's quite a gap between cav -> gunship upgrade.

I've not found military acadamy to be worth it.. I now settle the rest in my westpoint city

i play noble

[LegionSteve]

I join the first one to a single unit and make him a super-medic. That also ensures I have had a unit of high enough level that I can build heroic epic and west point as soon as they become available. After that I settle them all in the city where I am going to put HE + WP, which will produce my most elite units.

[Supr49er]

Originally Posted by Refar

The MedicIII is allways worth it, more so if you plan a offensive action. Plus: it instantly provides you with the Level 4 (and in most cases level 6) unit you need to unlock Heroic Epic and later Westpoint.....

That's what I like to do, get a scout to 10XP and GG him into a super medic, unlocking the WP national wonder.

Subsequent GG settled into my military city for strong units.

If I get way ahead (very rarely ) I will try to build a super Battleship or Modern Armor unit with my GGs.

[Lord Olleus]

Enough said. Those two units killed an entire marine and artillery stack in two turns, saving my amphibious landing from certain defeat.

[Jtownsend]

I actually thought the normal thing to do was to merge one at the very least for a Medic III healer, so that your SoD could win a better war faster. It seems, however, that I aimed far too low in my warmongering.