Great Generals

[obsolete]

I looked through the strategy archives and was surprised there isnt any indepth essay written on great generals. Everything from optimized use to theri generation points would be of interest to me, as I don't think I use them efficiently. Perhaps it is coming...

I'm curious, roughtly what % of the time do you

A. Absorb them into a city
B. Create a building with them
C. Attach the leader to a unit

I tend to only do A or B, while never being satisfied with the results of C.

 

[varus]

The first one, in my opinion, should always be attached to a unit.

Pick a unit that has the Combat 1 promotion already, and preferably has medic 1.

Attach him to that unit and that unit only. It's good if the unit is fast (chariot, horse archer). Then use up the Medic II and medic III promotions. A medic three unit can heal a stack in 3 turns pretty much regardless of where they are, so it's extremely helpful. Then the rest get settled into these cities:

The next one goes into whatever city has Heroic Epic, which is also usually my highest production city for the time.

The third one will go either to one of two places:
If it looks like I'm going to have another high-production city elsewhere that will overtake the HE city and get Ironworks, I will drop him there.

If it looks like I'm going to have a wonderful draft city (Lots of farms and Globe theater) then I'll drop him there for an experience boost when whipping/drafting units every turn.

 

[futurehermit]

My 1st one is always a medic 3 unit to keep my stack of death on the move. A chariot or other unlikely-to-be-picked-to-defend unit is a good idea.

For later ones, it depends. If I'm charismatic, I'll always settle. If I have one good military city and few other decent production cities, I'll settle.

But generally I like to go with military academies in my multiple production cities to speed up troop production. I generally go for domination wins and later in the game you need all the troops you can muster: 50+ unit stacks of death are very common.

p.s., if i build or capture the pyramids after the medic unit, i'll settle (+3 beakers/turn on representation).

 

[bode404]

If it looks like I'm going to have a wonderful draft city (Lots of farms and Globe theater) then I'll drop him there for an experience boost when whipping/drafting units every turn.

I cant see how doing that can be worth, you'd use only half the bonus from the GG...

I use 1 to make a medic 3 Warlord, then I settle the rest on one of my two highest production cities (the ones with HE and Ironworks). I'd only build an academy on the Ironworks city, and that would be before I can build the Ironworks itself.

However, I'm not sure if this is the best way to use them, I'd like to see other opinions too.

 

[itsnotmeee]

imo, its not worth settling GG in my Globe Theatre city becuz i wont benefit much from it anyway. the inexperienced drafted units are still useful as backups and city defenders when you capture cities. my first GG is attached to a chariot for a medic that will last for the rest of the game. its so very useful to have him in your stack. my next GG is settled in my HE city. my next GG is used to build a military academy in my ironwork city. if i can get another GG, ill build another MC in my HE city or just settle him. why not settle him in my ironwork city? becuz i build a West Point in that city, while reserving a national wonder space in HE city for Red Cross.

 

[EEE_BOY]

well,in my last cyrus game, i use all GG attached to warriors instead of my medic unit nor the most promoted units. this takes advantage of the free upgrade through axeman->maceman->grad->infantry. i gave all of them CR3 , leadership, morale, and 30% withdraw. with Imp traits and Great wall , i generate 8-9 GG in that game, one after another. the morale infantry is still effective when the armed units are around. chm traits also reduce the need of MI in one city as i produce units nation wide and use civics.

i think this is the extreme case u can use GG like this way. because u need Imp traits to generate lots of GG. the money u save from upgrade is huge and u never worried about CR units in gunpower era. warriors are cheap units that u can make them early garrison units and save hammers for immortals.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Always use one for medic 3. The others are negotiable depending on your goals.

 

[carl corey]

I thought about doing a general thread about Great Generals at one point, but I think it's highly situational. A couple of examples: if you either have no religion, can't adopt a religion, or just don't have theology early on, how to get twice promoted units? Easiest is to put a GG as Military Instructor in a Heroic Epic city - provided of course you do have Heroic Epic built. Late in the game a Military Instructor might help you get your next promotion, but if you already have enough experience to go near that promotion and you have military tech advantage maybe it's better to build a Military Academy and pump those troops faster. They'll get promoted anyway after their first fights.

Some other things I learned after a few tries:

If you plan on domination with intercontinental wars it's good to have a coastal city with Military Academy if you already have Pentagon or can run a +2XP civic, or a Military Instructor in a coastal city, especially if the war is fought pre-docks. That lets you promote your transports with flanking and navigation to faster reach the other continent.

If you're in a big war (or plan on having a series of wars) multiple Medic III units are really valuable. At most I had two up to now, but sometimes I could have used even three. It's better to have another Medic III than giving a unit 13XP instead of 11XP with the next promotion at 17XP anyway.

And there are even situations where I consider dropping the 20XPs on multiple units. One time I was in a war with Huayna and needed a quick way to heal some troops that were going to be attacked next turn, so I shared the XPs between them and promoted those I could. It did indeed help. Another game with the Romans saw me share the 20XPs between Praetorians to get a few of them to the next level. I didn't finish that game unfortunately, but I think at the moment it was better than settling the GG. And in my last game I'm playing the Chinese and I attached the GG to several Cho-ko-nu's. One more drill promotion for them is pretty cool.