Great Generals

[MrFelony]

What's your favorite unit to attach a GG to? personally I love attaching them to knights/cavs but the ultimate goal is to cultivate this cav general into a gunship. the potential damage that a high level Gunship general with blitz has to decimate the opponents army is insane. I had a Gunship that eventually reached at least level 26 because with blitz and the 100% xp, it was killing 4 weak units a turn. then it was killing any 4 units a turn, didnt matter what they were, even SAM infantry. and with the extra move promotions, make that 5 units

 

[SenhorDaGuerra]

i prefer to settle them into the city. in my current game as rome (augustus caeser) i have 11 GG settled in my military city. with barracks (no theocracy or vassalage) i get 24 exp points right from the off. so sweet.

 

[Smeee]

I tend to settle GGs in my city with the highest production and combine them with West Point and maybe the Red Cross or Heroic Epic.

Like SenhorDaGuerra I may not have 1 or 2 spectacular units but I have a very very solid army.

 

[BlastDuke]

Once each game I use one GG on a chariot to make him a "Healing III" chariot. I never upgrade this unit, so it will be the last defender in a stack (=never killed) and the 2 make it worthwile even in a tank stack. The healing rate is just wounderful, even in enemy territory.
To get Healing III you need 17exp (non-charismatic), so I use a 7 exp chariot (which is fairly easy to get) and another unit on the same tile and attach my GG to the chariot, so I get 2 units with +10exp.
All other GG's are used for their +2 exp bonus.

 

[MrFelony]

Well ya, i only attached 2 generals to units, the rest were settled in my West Point city. but if you are good and cultivating generals, you'll not only generate more experience for more GG's, but also equivalent xp for your troops. my first GG cav died at level 12 somehow (i think a 3% loss defending ), so i just attached another one i got to a level 8 or 9 cav, who now as a Gunship has 120xp gaining about 8 a round, which is the same as a level a round.

 

[MrFelony]

Well ya, i only attached 2 generals to units, the rest were settled in my West Point city. but if you are good and cultivating generals, you'll not only generate more experience for more GG's, but also equivalent xp for your troops. my first GG cav died at level 12 somehow (i think a 3% loss defending ), so i just attached another one i got to a level 8 or 9 cav, who now as a Gunship has 120xp gaining about 8 a round, which is the same as a level a round. and with barracks it should be 25 xp, no?

 

[Bast]

I've just started attaching the first one to a scout which gave it Medic III promotion - which actually does wonders when you're in a stack in enemy territory.

Aside from that first one, I settle them all until Military Academies become available. And then I might go back and attach one to a real unit that I might use to go to war.

This is different when I play Victoria - only imperialistic leader, I play - I usually get plenty of great generals so I usually stick them to units a lot more. In that case, usually the Musketeers which become Redcoats - YEAH! - for free.

 

[MrFelony]

not just for free, they also get to keep all their xp, unlike other troops when you upgrade them

 

[King Flevance]

Of my 1st 2, 1 becomes a Leader. The others I mostly put down the +2 xp guy in a city. I prefer attacking them to swords. Or possibly a Horse archer if I have HBR. But never a chariot. I like making 1 a Leader and adding all xp to only 1 or two units though. Making sure the attached guy gets that +100% xp promo to hurry my next GG's along.

 

[LemonJello]

I ususally setle my GGs into production cities to give units the added xp boost. I like to have a solid army across the board and not worry about super-upgraded units.

 

[Archaelicos]

I also usually attach only one or two. I think usually I build the War Academy with my first one, attach the second to a chariot, and settle the rest. That reminds me, what's this War Academy bug I've heard about?

 

[robcheng]

I try to attach the GG to a Woodsman III melee unit, so I can promote to Medic III, since the healing of Woosdman III stacks with the Medic promotions. The Aztec Jaguar is ideal for this, since it starts with Combat I and Woodsman I

 

[Lillefix]

I also usually attach only one or two. I think usually I build the War Academy with my first one, attach the second to a chariot, and settle the rest. That reminds me, what's this War Academy bug I've heard about?

The bug is that you should not be able to build the war academy before education or military training or some other quite late technology.

 

[PibbZ]

In my current game i combined one with a battleship which upgraded to missile cruiser. I use this ship as some sort of flagship for my best naval stack (1 missile cruiser, 4 level 7 destroyers (upgraded privateers), 2 battleships, 3 carriers and a few subs).

Awesome, the missile cruiser got +75% strength now

 

[onedreamer]

What's your favorite unit to attach a GG to? personally I love attaching them to knights/cavs but the ultimate goal is to cultivate this cav general into a gunship. the potential damage that a high level Gunship general with blitz has to decimate the opponents army is insane. I had a Gunship that eventually reached at least level 26 because with blitz and the 100% xp, it was killing 4 weak units a turn. then it was killing any 4 units a turn, didnt matter what they were, even SAM infantry. and with the extra move promotions, make that 5 units

I have your same strategy Yeah, it is insane
I attach the first General to a melee sieging unit though. I always use the General with 4 or 5 units in the stack (depends if I need 4 or 5 exp). It is better IMO to bring a 5xp unit to 10 (+1 level) than a 10xp unit to 15xp (no levels). Normally I do it with say 2 macemen and 2 catapults/trebuchets. This way I have city raze III trebs, which are extremely useful.
After having 2 Generals on the field I settle the next in the cities as trainers, preferably coastal cities so that also my ships get the bonus. Occasionally I will also build a Military Academy in a city without Heroic Epic (possibly coastal, and possibly where I already have a trainer of course) to have 2 cities pump out units.

At first I didn't use much my Generals on the field, like most ppl who replied here. I changed strategy when I noticed that a couple of Generals generate much more exp (especially with leadership promotion), hence more Generals.

 

[Jperkinson]

I attached my first one to a Privateer...

Then go to town on anyone and everyone (Friends and Foes) who don't have Frigates to chase me around with... And by the time they do, the Privateer is strong enough to hold it's own against a small stack of them...

Then upgrade it to modern ships for real warfare.

All the while racking up loads of XP to locate the subsequent GG in a westpoint city...

I bee-lined for Privateers in an island map, and ended up with a privateer with maxed out promotions. (This was on Noble/Marathon). Pretty Sick when they have that kind of power. (Combat 6, Navigation2, flanking2, first strike4, moral, tactics, leadership, medic3)...... not to mention +1 movement for circumventing the globe first.... +8 movement points....

One ship wrecking machine! Of course I was way behind in 'normal technology', but my navy was something fierce.

(Maybe I should bump the difficulty up?..... nawww)

 

[SpiderMinky]

i prefer to settle them into the city. in my current game as rome (augustus caeser) i have 11 GG settled in my military city. with barracks (no theocracy or vassalage) i get 24 exp points right from the off. so sweet.

I have usualy attached them to Swordsmen for the early ones or macemen or Cav for the later, but I just did this in a recent game and it was Awesome, I did not have as many settled as you did, 11 would be a whole lot of fighting, but there is nothing like making level 4 or 5 units right out of the gate it really makes the war machine self perpetuating. especialy when you couple it with heroic epic and westpoint.
just think of it level 4 or 5 tanks in one turn with a good produciton city.

On topic with the OP I think my favorite recently has been the maceman with crIII and then add the morale one for an extra move, you nurter that all the way to inantry and that is just scarry.

 

[Enigma256]

i settle all of them, but one.

that gets attached to a new melee/gunpowder unit (usually it is an infantry, in the early game i prefer the 2XP) and promoted to Medic3
after that he gets some fights with 99.9% of winning to get him Woodsman3, for a 40% healing power.

i never have to heal for longer than 1 turn.

 

[Bird Brain]

Like most people here I used to just settle them all. However, I've been experimenting recently, and I've been impressed with GG units in the field.

My first GG always becomes a medic now. It might seem stupid at first, but a medic general speeds up invasions sooooo much by cutting healing time down to almost nothing. Besides, as long as you're careful they never die.

For offensive use of GGs try using them on units that can blitz. You can rack up insane ammounts of xp by attacking multiple times a turn. Throw in the +1 movement ability to make it even better. Knights make good choices because they can eventually become gunships which, with blitz, can attack so many times every turn. However, tank generals make fantastic units as well, and they can train quickly right from the start since they start with blitz.

In general, I think it's still better to settle or build academies with most GGs, but attaching them to units every now and then sure is fun.

 

[weasel77066]

I attached my first one to a Privateer...

Then go to town on anyone and everyone (Friends and Foes) who don't have Frigates to chase me around with... And by the time they do, the Privateer is strong enough to hold it's own against a small stack of them...

Then upgrade it to modern ships for real warfare.

All the while racking up loads of XP to locate the subsequent GG in a westpoint city...

I bee-lined for Privateers in an island map, and ended up with a privateer with maxed out promotions. (This was on Noble/Marathon). Pretty Sick when they have that kind of power. (Combat 6, Navigation2, flanking2, first strike4, moral, tactics, leadership, medic3)...... not to mention +1 movement for circumventing the globe first.... +8 movement points....

One ship wrecking machine! Of course I was way behind in 'normal technology', but my navy was something fierce.

(Maybe I should bump the difficulty up?..... nawww)

Ive been liking this idea the last few days. Im considering trying this out. A privateer built with civics and a drydock then toss a general in there and he can really score some points getting further GGs. The best thing is that you dont have to be at war to do it, then free (otherwise expensive) upgrades through stealth destroyer. Currently you would have to nab medic3 and keep him at sea, cause of the harbor issue. I believe they are going to change that though