Great Generals mostly useless?

[AriochIV]

I think that removing the ability of all Great Person types to start Golden Ages was a mistake. It meant you'd never have "useless" Great People.

 

[VainoValkea]

It also meant all GP except for engineers and scientists were just golden age mass.

 

[Heart Break Kid]

I think that removing the ability of all Great Person types to start Golden Ages was a mistake. It meant you'd never have "useless" Great People.

Nah, I like that personally. All I used to do was just spam Generals for Golden Ages, wasn't very interesting.

 

[El Caballerion]

You should be able to put a Great General in a city and consume them to instantly create 3 identical military units. Citadels are beneficial but boring IMHO.

 

[CornPlanter]

Pretty much my feelings.

 

[Heart Break Kid]

You should be able to put a Great General in a city and consume them to instantly create 3 identical military units. Citadels are beneficial but boring IMHO.

That along with the XP are great ideas imo.

Get a free general, you get instant units like that ideology tennet.

 

[Machinegunkenny]

The problem with great generals in my opinion is their lack of mobility. The citadel is nice but VERY situational. I bet they are great for choke points on higher difficulty but their lack of mobility is why I just leave them in key cities I am defending.
I hate the admirals special as well but I use them waaay more than GGs due to being able to keep up with my other ships.

 

[Buccaneer]

Wait a minute, with so much gold in the game after classical, you guys are wanting even more gold with additional golden ages?? There are good reasons for limits and scarcities - it makes them more valuable.

 

[Luckystrike77]

Have you considered DoWing the player as he approaches with that slow unit and killing it?

No problem to build a citadel one tile into your country in mp. It can be done ca 2 seconds after declaring war. No skills involved or required.

 

[dashwinner]

Having an extra GG can also allow you to quickly snap up borders that might be contested later but aren't yet - nothing like settling a city close to a neighbor and claiming all those neutral tiles to choke off their growth (especially if this forms a military bottleneck)

Lots of rough terrain also makes Citadels grand - with a couple well-placed Citadels and the Great Wall, you can turn defensive wars into grand slaughterhouses for any belligerent types and expand without hardly firing a shot.

^ this. I love having a couple of GGs handy, you never know when you will need them. I definitely don't find them useless. A well placed Citadel at a chokepoint is a huge plus. Also, by late game, the AI tries to fill in every single little spot of land left unclaimed. If you have a city that hasn't grown its full tiles yet, you can always claim more land to get another resource or two, which is never bad.

 

[Rathelon]

Citadels are for defense, not offense. The great general himself is the offensive side, and the citadel is the defensive side. It depends on what you need, which aspect you will appreciate. And citadels are awesome for defense - they can stop an opposing force cold.

 

[adecoy95]

i like using citadels to steal luxuries that are nearby

 

[Rohili]

Citadels are for defense, not offense. The great general himself is the offensive side, and the citadel is the defensive side. It depends on what you need, which aspect you will appreciate. And citadels are awesome for defense - they can stop an opposing force cold.

There is no rule which states that citadels must only be used for defence; plenty of people have cited valid offensive uses for it.

My main beef with the citadel is not that it is useless, but that it is useful mainly because of the land-grab function (which I maintain is a tacked-on feature unrelated to warfare) and not really its defensive capabilities. Its benefits are also very situational, and very short-lived due to your borders growing outwards (unless you don't conquer cities and keep guarding the same chokepoint throughout the game).

This is unlike other GPs whose secondary abilities usually provide benefits that are useful whatever situation you are in (more gold/science/social policies is always good) and last throughout the game (that extra gold or science would have gotten you free buildings or tech).

 

[dashwinner]

My main beef with the citadel is not that it is useless, but that it is useful mainly because of the land-grab function (which I maintain is a tacked-on feature unrelated to warfare).

It is related to warfare though. There are plenty of perks (unless French legion or smth) for your soldiers to be fighting in their own territory

 

[ahawk]

I honestly don't find GG's useless, and never have.

In fact, the ability to grab land with them is among the best abilities in the game, especially once Great Artists could no longer steal land. Having even 5 or 6 GG's is a great thing, as you usually only need 1 to 3 of them to cover units that are actually attacking or defending, and any beyond that can be used to steal land or quickly connect strategic resources. Moreover, the AI is very spotty about pillaging Citadels, sometimes waiting to pillage one until 4 or 5 units have ended their turn on it for several turns in a row.

So long as you are willing to not improve the yield of the tile you put a Citadel on, Citadels and land-grabbing are great. Again, land-grab alone can help you move luxuries and strategic resources from AI lands to yours (or even just extend your border much more quickly over empty ground that contains such vital stuff).

But all that said, the one thing I can safely say is that GGs are the Great Person I buy with faith least-often, since it's maybe only twice per game that I need to land-grab, and usually I have at least one GG to spare that isn't needed for combat.

 

[Rathelon]

There is no rule which states that citadels must only be used for defence; plenty of people have cited valid offensive uses for it.

My main beef with the citadel is not that it is useless, but that it is useful mainly because of the land-grab function (which I maintain is a tacked-on feature unrelated to warfare) and not really its defensive capabilities.

The zone of control around the citadel is most definitely related to warfare. The star walled citadels were deathtraps for attackers because they were built that way to provide crossfire against anyone trying to approach the walls. That's why any unit ending it's turn in the citadel's zone of control takes damage. And, a side note; if you even occupy a citadel and it's not in your territory - you will still take the damage.