Attaching Great Generals to units

[cripp7]

Another fun thing is to attach to a privateer. Having a combat5 going after everything on the water.

 

[carl corey]

My thoughts are to first produce as much as possible and then work on the quality of whats produced so I usually pop out the military acadamy then settle the gg for the xp.

Well, in Beyond the Sword you need Military Science for a Military Academy. I usually have at least one GG by then, if not more, and I may not even research it until very late in the game. I'm going to try a Grenadiers beeline soon, that's one case in which it would be interesting to save the GGs to build Academies first.

 

[histoire68]

This is some awesome advice, thanks so much to everyone who responded. I am looking forward to trying out some of the suggestions.

Is a "level 6 unit" one that has received six promotions?

 

[Belisar]

Units start at level 1, so level 6 means 5 promotions.
26 XP if you are not charismatic.

 

[UncleJJ]

Attaching a GG to a unit can have some benfits if done right. Most of the time I settle the GG (+2 XP per unit for the entire game beats 20 XP at once).

Some times to use it

1) Attach them to a weak unit for the medic III promotion. Mostly a chariot, but Monty's Jags start with wwoodsman I and get to woodsman III and Medic III for a really super healer.

2) Getting a unit to level 6 so you can build West Point.

3) Getting a Super CRIII unit. This is great for demolishing cities, however it will lose eventually.

4) Keep a mix of units in a stack to protect the GG unit. Example a Pikeman will generally defend before a GG-attached Maceman when attacked by a mounted unit.

5) The leadership promotion can general ALOT of XP's towards another GG, especially if you are Imperialistic and/or fighting defensive with the Great Wall.

Actually I think 5 might be incorrect. I'm not sure about the 3.17 patch but for vanilla, Warlords and earlier versions of BtS the leadership promotion definitely does give double exp for the unit but only gives normal GG points. For instance, an attack at 99% will give the unit 2 exp and only 1 GG point. If you're Imperialistic then it would be 2 exp and 2 GG points and not the 4 GG points I presume you meant ... that would be evil and make the promotion very useful maybe even a little overpowered. That's probably why it doesn't work like that which is a pity. I think they probably should do that to make using combat warlords more attractive and make Imperialistic a bit more attractive as a trait.

However, I have an alternative 5) for you madscientist, that no one has mentioned yet The free upgrades. Attaching a warlord to a unit has two great benefits, firstly the unit gets free upgrades from then on and secondly when upgrading the exp points are not reset to a maximum of 10 like they are for a normal unit. Both are very useful. In my resent game with Justinian I am upgrading my Medic 3 chariot to a cataphract that can help finish of damaged defenders. I don't risk him but he's an extra body and much more useful than as a chariot and he can earn a few GG points even if further promotion doesn't do much.

Later I'll upgrade him to cavalry and maybe gunship so he's always an effective unit with a secondary combat role. That saves an enormous amount of gold. On marathon a chariot (60 hammers) upgrade to cataphract (180 hammers) costs 380 gold, then to cavalry (240 hammers) will cost another 200 gold and finally gunship (320 hammers) will cost 260 gold. That's a total of 840 gold.

 

[Eunomiac]

If you can get to Privateers early, definitely try GG'ing one and give it Leadership and Drill IV. Have it patrol the sea, killing every Galley / Caravel / Galleon you can find until eventually it's got enough experience for a Blitz promotion.

A Privateer with Leadership, Drill IV, Combat 3 and Blitz is a GG-making, boat-killing, XP-gaining super tank.

 

[Deep_Blue]

I personally use first 3 GG to build Military Academies in my core cities, then I will settle GGs. Military Academies are underrated they give production boost early in the game and give you an advantage if you have few cities.

In a recent game (Huge, Marathon, Emperor) I had only 3 productive cities + 2 Commerce Cities with cottages only + 2 Worthless cities, and my military production was ridiculously slow. I was continuously at war with the Mongols from the west and the Russians from the south and I was only able to compete with them after using 3 GGs to build 3 Military Academies. 50% unit production boost makes big deference in marathon speed.

However using GGs depends on your situation:

1- If you have problem with production or have few cities -> build Military Academies.

2- If you don't have problem with production then settle your GGs.

3- Using warlords is not very valuable for the long run, but you can use them for some short run advantages.

 

[carl corey]

Uh, MAs aren't early in Beyond the Sword. They require Military Science.

 

[Deep_Blue]

I can build MAs without Miltary Science , actually I can build them as soon as I get a GG !!

I think I have 3.03 patch

 

[carl corey]

There was an error in one of the early versions that lets you do that, they fixed it in the meantime.

 

[ese-aSH]

the other day, I was fighting a difficult war as boudica.
Augustus had many HA and cats stacking at the very gates of my capital. I had one of the largest defensive army i've ever had.

He started the assault. my vailant defenders killed the cats, one after the other, and then the HA ; yet there were too many of them. In the end all my defenders but 5 were dead, the remaining ones close to death too.
And augustus still had 8 HA and 4 cats.

From this battle a great general had emerged in my city, and for the first time I chose to spread its XP points between several units : the individual +4 xp brought 2 levels to each of my units, so they were able to promote and therefore heal themselve.
ex : Instead of a CG1 Longbow with 0.8 I got CG3 with 4.7.

In the end those elite units hold the city leaving me the time to gather a stack and couterattack.

The lesson to me is : GG can change a battle, simply because they can promote and heal several units. Even if this is very situationnal, it has to be considered.

On defensive wars, having a GG ready to enter in an assieged city and heal all the defenders can sometimes makes a decisive difference.