Great people - proper usage (bulb?)

[omnipherous]

Yeah, a new game tonight, go down a few different routes than normal.. that's for another thread though, I'll not hi-jack this one

One downside of getting the GW, is the large number of early Great Spies, which, not yet knowing how to fully utilise espionage, I find totally useless..

 

[Grey Fox]

One downside of getting the GW, is the large number of early Great Spies, which, not yet knowing how to fully utilise espionage, I find totally useless..

Seems like it's about time to learn to me

 

[JBossch]

I was more wondering if it is possible. Say, with GG1 you create a super medic on a defending unit for the stack, then with a subsequent GG you join to the whole stack to make use of free promotions for the city raiders..

For example, I have an abundance of GGs in my current game as I have the Great Wall, and my good neighbour Monty continuously suicides fairly large stacks against a nearby choke-point hill-city of mine, I have a couple super medics already in different stacks (i'm building up while letting monty go nuts and fail again and again, before I invade myself) as well as 4 settled GGs in my main production/HE city...

I have/will have enough of them that I could spare one if it meant a large stack got free upgrades when riflemen come around!

Thanks in advance, awesome forum here..

Only the one unit the GG is attached to gets the free upgrades. The EXP gets divided amongst the stack but only one gets combined with the GG.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Only the one unit the GG is attached to gets the free upgrades. The EXP gets divided amongst the stack but only one gets combined with the GG.

Unless you foresee yourself getting like 15 GGs I have no idea why anyone would attach a GG and allow the XP to be divided up.

 

[JBossch]

Unless you foresee yourself getting like 15 GGs I have no idea why anyone would attach a GG and allow the XP to be divided up.

Sure. The OP was asking if doing so would allow all those units free upgrades. It does not.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Gotcha, mang. He was talking about upgrading, not promos.

 

[omnipherous]

Only the one unit the GG is attached to gets the free upgrades. The EXP gets divided amongst the stack but only one gets combined with the GG.

Aha, this makes a lot more sense - and also further points to settling the GGs and getting more XP as soon as you build a new unit in a city. Thanks for clearing that up.

As for espionage.. I know how to use it to hinder the AI slightly, but usually can't bring myself to build a spy rather than another military unit, when the effects of poisoning the water supply, for example, seem so short and pointless if the city will soon be burning anyway I can't seem to steal techs though?

Now, Great Artists - unless going for a culture victory.. what use are they? Just GA fodder?

 

[AmazonQueen]

Aha, this makes a lot more sense - and also further points to settling the GGs and getting more XP as soon as you build a new unit in a city. Thanks for clearing that up.

As for espionage.. I know how to use it to hinder the AI slightly, but usually can't bring myself to build a spy rather than another military unit, when the effects of poisoning the water supply, for example, seem so short and pointless if the city will soon be burning anyway I can't seem to steal techs though?

Now, Great Artists - unless going for a culture victory.. what use are they? Just GA fodder?

Theres some techs they can bulb that are useful
The free one from Music usually comes at the right time to bulb most of Divine Right but apart from culture victories I'd never aim to get one

 

[sfnhltb]

Generally this is what I do with each one:
* Great General - Wait till a new military tech then attach it to my newly created strike force. I sometimes build the military academy if my production city is lacking,
* Great Scientist - Make the science building with first one, then settle - in my best commerce/cottage city.
* Great Merchant - Send him to a large/distant city to get the cash, cash is generally used to deficit research.
* Great Artist - No idea what to use it for tbh. I tend to save it till I am having issues with a captured city possibly flipping. Don't get them much anyway.
* Great Spy - I tend to ignore espionage so don't get these much.
* Great Priest - Rarely get one of these, and I normally haven't founded a religion so they are quite useless.

GG - if you are going to put it on offensive units, putting it on an old unit with XP is better than waiting for a new unit to put it on most of the time, as it gives you free upgrades and preserves XP over 10, also settling for +2XP is also a good option sometimes - especially in your HE city.
GS - late on more academies in other cities, or bulbing is better than settling of course
GA - I often bulb or golden age with these, culture bomb is occasionally useful
GSpy - Espionage is great on tight games, once you get to higher levels as you can break down city defenses with a revolt, interrupt their strategic resources early in the war deep into their territory, steal technologies, etc.
GP - if no shrines, bulbing mainly, can settle them as well as hammers/gold is a decent combo

 

[Grey Fox]

The free one from Music usually comes at the right time to bulb most of Divine Right but apart from culture victories I'd never aim to get one

I think the free one from Music comes at a point where I am about to do a civic switch and I usually have all cities settled that I can (peacefully). So often I save this for a golden age timed with Civic changes and hopefully semi-mature cities (in size).

 

[Zortex]

Thanks for all the comments.

In summary I think I will now use my GG to settle in my HE city for xp boosts, I've heard the idea of a 'supermedic' floating around. But I tend to have 3 upgrades from my HE city anyway so I can just do a medic that way.
Also I will look more at bulbing as viable if aprropriate. I tend to randomly decide which techs to go for depending on the game situation (beeline liberalism? nah I will just make it up as I go lol) so it may or may not be useful.
I didn't realise I could build multiple say science academies (thought I was limited to one), so i will probably make more of them.

 

[JBossch]

Medic 3 is only available if you attach a great general.