Definition
A supermedic is a unit that has the most possible of the healing promotions available: Medic III and Woodsman III. These healing rates will stack together for a whopping 40%/turn to units in the same square. Units in adjacent squares only get the Medic III bonus.
Usefullness
A supermedic can keep an advance going as long as you still have troops. No need for those silly drill promotions now! If you've never played with one, what are you waiting for? You'll never go back.
Restrictions
You can only achieve this by giving these promotions to a single unit. Simply putting a Woodsman III and a Medic III unit in the same stack will result in 25%, not 40%. The unit needs to be able to gain Medic III, so it must have a warlord attached. The unit also needs to be able to gain Woodsman III, so it must be either Melee or Gunpowder. Explorers, which would otherwise be great candidates for the job, cannot receive Woodsman III.
Requirements
You will need 7 promotions in total. Woodsman I-III, Combat I or Drill I (to unlock medic I), and Medic I-III. This is a total of 50 experience for most leaders. Since you must attach a warlord for the medic III promotion anyway, you can gain 20 experience from him for free. Make sure there are no other units in the tile or they will share the 20 exp. I will also assume you have a barracks where you are producing the troop, and are running Theocracy (but not vassalage). Great Generals (GG) settled in the city might help, but we want to use them to make supermedics! So we won't count on them, and the warlord effectively adds 25 exp.
Below are the ways to achieve the supermedic, ranging from worst to best. Please comment!
You can attach two warlords to a unit
You will then need only 5 more experience. I would recommend getting this experience BEFORE you attach the warlords, since it would really suck to lose your 49 exp. almost-supermedic. Make sure you don't take any promotions but the ones along the supermedic path. This option requires two generals, which means half as many supermedics. Plus, you have to wait until two are born before you make your first dude, which means a lot of fighting without your main man! Bad option.
Red Cross
You can wait until you've built the Red Cross, which gives out Medic I for free. This will also save you from taking Combat I, which means you only need 5 promotions, or 26 exp. You would only need to win one battle, or be running vassalage. But you want to have the supermedic available long before Medicine, so this isn't a very good option either.
Random Event
If you're lucky, you could get a random event that gives your _____ troops a free promotion, either Woodsman I, Combat I or Drill I. You can't really count on this though.
Charismatic Leader
If you use a charismatic leader (whose promotions cost 25% less) then you only need 38 exp. for the 7th promotion. You would need to gain 13 more experience. That's a lot of battles without any useful promotions (save for Combat I) but it can be done. You may be able to settle a GG before you have a troop worthy of the warlord. Cyrus is the best purely charismatic leader as he is also imperialistic, so you will have more GG's to attach to troops.
Protective Leader
Slightly easier is the protective leader, whose gunpowder troops start with drill I. This means you only need 6 promotions, or 37 exp. You'd still need to do a little fighting though, and you have to wait until Gunpowder to make one. Charlemagne is protective and imperialistic.
Aggressive Leader
Slightly better is the aggressive leader, whose Melee and Gunpowder troops start with Combat I. You can make a supermedic earlier than a Protective leader. Genghis is the best choice here, as he is imperialistic too.
Churchill
Churchill has both the protective trait and the charismatic trait, so only 28 exp. is needed. You can make up 3 exp. pretty easily.
Boudica
Boudica is Aggressive/Charismatic, and is one of the best candidates to make supermedics. Her troops start with Combat I and 25% less for promotions, so only 28 exp. is needed, and you can make the supermedic before Gunpowder.
Montezuma
Best candidate. He's aggressive, and his Jaguars start with woodsman I for free (as well as Combat I). You only need 26 exp. to complete the job. With Monty you can have supermedics very early in the game (even before Iron). You may not have Theocracy this early, but 3 exp. is not hard to come by. It's even worth saving a few 6exp Jaguars until later since they upgrade for free once the warlord is attached. I usually don't even upgrade them, since I don't want them even thinking about defending a stack!
That's how it's done. Anything I've missed, or helpful comments always appreciated.
A supermedic is a unit that has the most possible of the healing promotions available: Medic III and Woodsman III. These healing rates will stack together for a whopping 40%/turn to units in the same square. Units in adjacent squares only get the Medic III bonus.
Usefullness
A supermedic can keep an advance going as long as you still have troops. No need for those silly drill promotions now! If you've never played with one, what are you waiting for? You'll never go back.
Restrictions
You can only achieve this by giving these promotions to a single unit. Simply putting a Woodsman III and a Medic III unit in the same stack will result in 25%, not 40%. The unit needs to be able to gain Medic III, so it must have a warlord attached. The unit also needs to be able to gain Woodsman III, so it must be either Melee or Gunpowder. Explorers, which would otherwise be great candidates for the job, cannot receive Woodsman III.
Requirements
You will need 7 promotions in total. Woodsman I-III, Combat I or Drill I (to unlock medic I), and Medic I-III. This is a total of 50 experience for most leaders. Since you must attach a warlord for the medic III promotion anyway, you can gain 20 experience from him for free. Make sure there are no other units in the tile or they will share the 20 exp. I will also assume you have a barracks where you are producing the troop, and are running Theocracy (but not vassalage). Great Generals (GG) settled in the city might help, but we want to use them to make supermedics! So we won't count on them, and the warlord effectively adds 25 exp.
Below are the ways to achieve the supermedic, ranging from worst to best. Please comment!
You can attach two warlords to a unit
You will then need only 5 more experience. I would recommend getting this experience BEFORE you attach the warlords, since it would really suck to lose your 49 exp. almost-supermedic. Make sure you don't take any promotions but the ones along the supermedic path. This option requires two generals, which means half as many supermedics. Plus, you have to wait until two are born before you make your first dude, which means a lot of fighting without your main man! Bad option.
Red Cross
You can wait until you've built the Red Cross, which gives out Medic I for free. This will also save you from taking Combat I, which means you only need 5 promotions, or 26 exp. You would only need to win one battle, or be running vassalage. But you want to have the supermedic available long before Medicine, so this isn't a very good option either.
Random Event
If you're lucky, you could get a random event that gives your _____ troops a free promotion, either Woodsman I, Combat I or Drill I. You can't really count on this though.
Charismatic Leader
If you use a charismatic leader (whose promotions cost 25% less) then you only need 38 exp. for the 7th promotion. You would need to gain 13 more experience. That's a lot of battles without any useful promotions (save for Combat I) but it can be done. You may be able to settle a GG before you have a troop worthy of the warlord. Cyrus is the best purely charismatic leader as he is also imperialistic, so you will have more GG's to attach to troops.
Protective Leader
Slightly easier is the protective leader, whose gunpowder troops start with drill I. This means you only need 6 promotions, or 37 exp. You'd still need to do a little fighting though, and you have to wait until Gunpowder to make one. Charlemagne is protective and imperialistic.
Aggressive Leader
Slightly better is the aggressive leader, whose Melee and Gunpowder troops start with Combat I. You can make a supermedic earlier than a Protective leader. Genghis is the best choice here, as he is imperialistic too.
Churchill
Churchill has both the protective trait and the charismatic trait, so only 28 exp. is needed. You can make up 3 exp. pretty easily.
Boudica
Boudica is Aggressive/Charismatic, and is one of the best candidates to make supermedics. Her troops start with Combat I and 25% less for promotions, so only 28 exp. is needed, and you can make the supermedic before Gunpowder.
Montezuma
Best candidate. He's aggressive, and his Jaguars start with woodsman I for free (as well as Combat I). You only need 26 exp. to complete the job. With Monty you can have supermedics very early in the game (even before Iron). You may not have Theocracy this early, but 3 exp. is not hard to come by. It's even worth saving a few 6exp Jaguars until later since they upgrade for free once the warlord is attached. I usually don't even upgrade them, since I don't want them even thinking about defending a stack!
That's how it's done. Anything I've missed, or helpful comments always appreciated.