Great Leaders - What are they good for?

[Furiey]

Not a lot is the answer, at least for a Military Great Leader when you only have enough cities for 1 Army!

Our only good option for a Military Great Leader is the Ironworks in Rome. We knew Rome had Iron, but we got coal for Christmas!

Alternatively we can rush an ordinary city improvement, perhaps a University in Rome.

Future options will include the Heroic Epic, if our Army is victorious, but we don't have enough Armies for the Military Academy.

A Scientific Great Leader would be useful for Newtons University (we were going to build that in Priapos?) or we could hold it back for Theory of Evolution.

We won't get another Military Great Leader until we use an existing Leader (Military or Scientific), so better to use him unless what we are waiting for is really close.

Citizens, what would you prefer we did with a Great Leader?

 

[Cyc]

Iron Works sounds good to me.

 

[ravensfire]

Ironworks!

-- Ravensfire

 

[xyourxmomxcorex]

Beline to Evolution and rush it

 

[Furiey]

A Scientific Great Leader, if we are lucky enough to get one, could be very useful for rushing the Theory of Evolution. However we can't rush Great Wonders with a Military Great Leader. If we do get a Scientific Great Leader we alternatively have the option of immediately rushing Newtons University. If we keep the SGL we will not get a MGL until we use him.

 

[TimBentley]

We got 2 MGLs wiping out a Japanese invasion force. The turnchat had to stop due to the lack of instructions or discussion of a 2nd MGL (although I think it's obvious). We should build an army (4 cities needed per army, we have 8). The next MGLs should probably build the Heroic Epic and Military Academy (for stronger armies, not building them); a university in Rome would be another option.

 

[DaveShack]

IIRC, the Military Academy doesn't make armies stronger, that's the Pentagon and requires 3 armies to be built. Heroic Epic does increase the chances of more MGLs.

If we had enough cities, the obvious use would be the FP, but we won't achieve that unless someone lands a settler and we allow the city to grow before we snatch it.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Don't build Heroic Epic or Military Academy using great leaders. The reason is that those 2 buildings make excellent prebuilds for factories, ToE and Hoover.
I think Defense Minister Ravensfire would like an army.

 

[ravensfire]

"Sir, this man's crazy, you can't let him out of the army. "
-- M.A.S.H.

Give me another Cavalry Army, and I'll conquer the continent twice as fast! Well, how about 25% faster? Would you believe that?

Well played, TimBentley! 2 MGLS, Iron Works and (hopefully) a new army to come! Indeed, we may have to plan for at least one more MGL before we're done with all of this! I'm quite pleased that the large number of Elite troops tasked to defeat the Japanese proved their worth, as men within their ranks proved their courage and leadership.

-- Ravensfire

 

[Furiey]

2 great Leaders!

We have a choice of:

A. Army
B. Heroic Epic
C. Military Academy
D. Forbidden Palace at sometime in the future.....
E. An expensive building (eg: University in Rome)

Military Academy really does nothing for us as at this point in the game and is far far more use as others have said as prebuilds

Forbidden Palace would be nice but we can't even build it yet - we don't want to hold a leader back that long.

Heroic Epic, useful for more leaders... but more as a prebuild

But and Army.... I do like playing with Cavalry Armies (although Siphai Armies are even better....)

I think Ravensfire should have another Cavalry Army for us to play with - we even have 2 Elite* Cavalries to put in it already.

If we should get another Great Leader then as we can't build another Army I'm torn between an expensive building and Heroic Epic.

 

[DaveShack]

Go for the army.

 

[TimBentley]

The military academy would increase our cavalry armies' attack from 9 to 10.5 and defense from 4.5 to 5.25 (changing the bonus from dividing by 6 to dividing by 4), but I can see using it as a prebuild would be more useful.

Well played, TimBentley!

I didn't even make any sacrifices to the RNG gods, but apparently they favored me.

 

[Furiey]

I am going to instruct that we use Great Leader Ajax to form an Army.

But what about the next one? Our choice will be:

A. An Army - We won't be able to build another Army until we capture cities from Persia, Babylon, Japan and England and that could be quite a wait.
B. Heroic Epic
C. Military Academy
D. Forbidden Palace at sometime in the future.....
E. An expensive building (eg: University in Rome)

If we don't want to hold our Military Leader back, we'll need to choose between Heroic Epic, Military Academy or an Expensive building eg: a University in Rome or perhaps soon a Factory in Rome. Rome would be the best choice for this as it would take a long time to build these improvements otherwise. I think I would choose Heroic Epic then a Uni or if available a Factory in Rome, saving the Military Academy as a prebuild.

If we get a Scientific Great Leader then Theory of Evolution or Hoover Dam would be good, unless our prebuilds are already too far gone to be allowed to go to waste or these Wonders are too far away still, in which case we could grab something like Smith's or Bach's.

If we use a Leader to rush a Wonder I would chose Rome as the site as it is in most need of a culture boost.

 

[Furiey]

We now have another option for a Military Great Leader:

F. Battlefield Medicine (units heal in enemy territory)

What are our priorities if we get another Military Great Leader?

 

[Furiey]

TimBentley came up trumps for us and we built Smith's with a Scientific Great Leader we got for researching Industrialisation.

Luck did not go completely his way however, the RNG got it's revenge and we lost one of our Armys. That means the next Military Great Leader would probably be best used as an Army, but do we fill it with Cavalry or wait for Tanks?

 

[TimBentley]

If an army is disbanded in the city with the military academy, it can finish an army in 4 turns, so it could be filled with cavalries.

By the way, if we get more when we're at our army max, we could rush something in Istakhr (it'll grow to size 7; 2-turn worker factory will still work). The small wonders can be finished quickly.

 

[Furiey]

Good points Tim

 

[TimBentley]

Rome should build an army in turn 11, after finishing the military academy, a stock exchange, and a police station (I'm assuming we'll acquire communism soon). Exceeding 100spt (after a police station and growth) is always nice.

 

[Furiey]

Istakhr may need to come off Worker duty soon - it would benefit from a leader rushed Factory.

 

[Furiey]

We have a Scientific Great Leader

We researched Motorised Transportation and Socrates was born, what shall we do with him?

The next available Wonders are the UN and SETI. We will reach the new age in 4 turns and could get one of the techs free. Alternatively woe could use him for a Forbidden Palace, but that seems a waste when we can use a Great Leader from fighting the Japanese or Persians for that. There's also Manhattan Project of course.....