Badesumofu
Warlord
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2007
- Messages
- 107
Leading Troops as a Warlord!
While reading posts and articles here at CFC, I have found that the most apparently popular use for Great Generals is settle them as great millitary instructors. This use grants the most extra XP in the long run, and it also grants the ability to have cities producing units with 5 XP, and thus two promotions. Stacking multiple GMIs in a single city, combined with West Point, and possibly civics as well, potentially grants the ability to build units with up to 3, or even 4 promotions. This is an undoubtedly powerful ability, and in many, even most situations, it is probably the most pwerful use of GGs. There another powerful, and also fun, use of GGs available, however, putting them directly into the feild as Warlords. I find that this is particularly effective when playing a Charismatic leader, as the power of the 25% discount on promotions increases as units gain more XP. That 25% can be worth 2 or more promotions once your units get sufficiently experienced. The only problem is that there are a number of factors that make it difficult to get regular units up to very high levels of XP:
1. Units go back to 10 XP when you upgrade them.
2. Units that live long enough will eventually suffer a 'bad beat' and be lost.
3. Getting really amounts of XP takes a very long time, and the unit needs to risk dying a lot in order to keep XPing up.
Attatching a Warlord either eliminates or mitigates each of these factors. Factor 1 is eliminated entirely, factors 2 and 3, which in many ways are the same thing, are mitigated heavily by the 20 free XP, tactics, and leadership.
The correct way to attatch a Warlord to a unit is important. The correct way is not build a fresh unit, and then attactch a Warlord to it. When you aquire that first 30 XP, to get your first Warlord, you ought to have a few veteran units from the conflict. If you've also been fighting barbarian units along the way- even better. As your units fight, keep an eye on which ones are amassing the most XP, and groom those units. The aim is to come out of the conflict with one or more unit(s) that emerge as the heroes of the conflict. As these units emerge, try to keep them alive, and try to make sure they get as much XP as possible. If you have a handful of units all with similar XP values, don't be afraid to send them into combat with moderate to fair combat odds - some may die, but riskier combat yeilds greater XP. The survivors will be better off for having tkaen the risks, and you only need a single unit to survive these trials. Once you have your unit and your Warlord, combine them. The unit that gets the Warlord will have at least 10 XP, but idealy 20+. With the Warlord attatched, the unit will not go back to 10XP when you upgrade it. The only question now is what kind of super-unit you wish to create!
The Medic 3 Chariot
The most popular is the Medic 3 mounted unit, and this is generally one of the first units I create. It feels a little cheesy sometimes, but damn, it's just so useful. I can attack an enemy city and then have my units heal faster than the defenders in the city! That might seem broken to some people, especially given that AIs are not capable of exploiting this tactic, and don't seem to know how to defend against it. Idealy your Medic 3 unit will have the morale promotion, giving it 3 movement points. You may also want to give it Mobility, but Mobility effectively costs you 3 promotions. You probably wont want this unit fighting at all, so there are only so much XPs to go around. If you can get the unit you intend for this role up to 20ish XP before attatching the Warlord, you'll have a couple of spare promotions for the luxuries. Being Charismatic also helps. Here's a chart which details how many XPs you'll need to get your Medic unit promoted the way you want it:
So, as you can see, you can pretty much forget the idea of getting mobility if you're not Charismatic. If you are, you'll need to get your unit 29 XP before you attatch the Warlord, and given the promotions you'll be giving the unit, that's fairly unfeasible. If you can get the unit to 18 XPs, however, you can give it sentry, which is quite a useful promotion as well. If you can see further, you can avoid putting yourself into harm's way.
The Tactics/Flanking II Cavalry
A Cavalry Unit with Tactics and Flanking 2 has a 90% chance to withdraw from combat. This is excellent, because it makes it far, far easier to get XP. When a unit withdraws from combat, it gets XP as if it had won. You can quite comfortable risk attacking at moderate odds as well, which nets even more XP. Add leadership into the equation, and you have a unit that can rack up truly massive amounts of XP. This unit wont have any City Raider promotions, but it will have exceptionally high Strength, especially if you can get Combat VI, which is the first aim once you have Tactics/Flanking II/Leadership. Once the unit has Combat VI, pinch is a good idea, as are Morale, Mobility, March, Sentry, Ambush (once it's a gun ship), and Blitz. It depends on the situation.
Note that with Charismatic you unit will be getting Combat VI before a regular unit would be getting Combat V. 62 XP might seem like a lot, but with a 90% withdrawl chance, and Leadership, it's really not that much at all. One day this unit will be a Gun Ship, and it will eat enemy tanks for breakfast. Consider giving it Blitz as well- with 4-5 movement points, 42 Strength this unit will be able to devastate enemy forces, and not even need fear SAM infantry (especially if you give it pinch).
The City-Busting Infantry
This unit will start its life as either an Axeman, a Swordsman, or a Maceman. It will be upgraded through Rilfe, Infantry, up to a Mech Infantry. The key is to give it City Raider III while it's a Melee unit. When BTS comes out you'll have to option to then give it Drill IV once it becomes Rifleman. Does a Drill IV/CR III Redcoat sound like a beast to you? The unit will start off with Combat I if you're aggressive. If play as Boudica, then this unit could become a real beast. Note that although I'm giving this unit Leadership as it's 5th promotion, you should give it that as soon as you attatch the Warlord. When I attatch the Warlord to this unit, it generally brings it to at least 37 XP, and so that's the order I'll usually give out the promotions.
Note the way the Charismatic rapidly overtakes Aggressive in terms of how much power it gives even to Melee and Gunpowder units. Given that Aggressive doesn't even affect Seige, Mounted, or Armored units (or any other units) at all, and doesn't come with a very handy bonus to happiness like Charismatic, I consider Charismatic to be the vastly superior trait. This unit has one major weakness- no withdrawl chance. You will suffer a bad beat eventually. It might not be this game, or even the next, but one day you'll attack with this guy at 99% or better, and lose. It adds an element of excitement to the game though, and this guy will bust open a lot of enemy cities for you. Combat VI + City Raider III is insane. If you can get it Pinch as well, it'll be nigh on unstoppable. Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer to build up XP with this guy than it does with the Tactics/Flanking II/Leadership Cavalry.
Coming Soon - The Super Cannon of Doom, and the Super Tank of Death and Destruction!
While reading posts and articles here at CFC, I have found that the most apparently popular use for Great Generals is settle them as great millitary instructors. This use grants the most extra XP in the long run, and it also grants the ability to have cities producing units with 5 XP, and thus two promotions. Stacking multiple GMIs in a single city, combined with West Point, and possibly civics as well, potentially grants the ability to build units with up to 3, or even 4 promotions. This is an undoubtedly powerful ability, and in many, even most situations, it is probably the most pwerful use of GGs. There another powerful, and also fun, use of GGs available, however, putting them directly into the feild as Warlords. I find that this is particularly effective when playing a Charismatic leader, as the power of the 25% discount on promotions increases as units gain more XP. That 25% can be worth 2 or more promotions once your units get sufficiently experienced. The only problem is that there are a number of factors that make it difficult to get regular units up to very high levels of XP:
1. Units go back to 10 XP when you upgrade them.
2. Units that live long enough will eventually suffer a 'bad beat' and be lost.
3. Getting really amounts of XP takes a very long time, and the unit needs to risk dying a lot in order to keep XPing up.
Attatching a Warlord either eliminates or mitigates each of these factors. Factor 1 is eliminated entirely, factors 2 and 3, which in many ways are the same thing, are mitigated heavily by the 20 free XP, tactics, and leadership.
The correct way to attatch a Warlord to a unit is important. The correct way is not build a fresh unit, and then attactch a Warlord to it. When you aquire that first 30 XP, to get your first Warlord, you ought to have a few veteran units from the conflict. If you've also been fighting barbarian units along the way- even better. As your units fight, keep an eye on which ones are amassing the most XP, and groom those units. The aim is to come out of the conflict with one or more unit(s) that emerge as the heroes of the conflict. As these units emerge, try to keep them alive, and try to make sure they get as much XP as possible. If you have a handful of units all with similar XP values, don't be afraid to send them into combat with moderate to fair combat odds - some may die, but riskier combat yeilds greater XP. The survivors will be better off for having tkaen the risks, and you only need a single unit to survive these trials. Once you have your unit and your Warlord, combine them. The unit that gets the Warlord will have at least 10 XP, but idealy 20+. With the Warlord attatched, the unit will not go back to 10XP when you upgrade it. The only question now is what kind of super-unit you wish to create!
The Medic 3 Chariot
The most popular is the Medic 3 mounted unit, and this is generally one of the first units I create. It feels a little cheesy sometimes, but damn, it's just so useful. I can attack an enemy city and then have my units heal faster than the defenders in the city! That might seem broken to some people, especially given that AIs are not capable of exploiting this tactic, and don't seem to know how to defend against it. Idealy your Medic 3 unit will have the morale promotion, giving it 3 movement points. You may also want to give it Mobility, but Mobility effectively costs you 3 promotions. You probably wont want this unit fighting at all, so there are only so much XPs to go around. If you can get the unit you intend for this role up to 20ish XP before attatching the Warlord, you'll have a couple of spare promotions for the luxuries. Being Charismatic also helps. Here's a chart which details how many XPs you'll need to get your Medic unit promoted the way you want it:
Code:
Level XP cost Charismatic Promotion
1 2 2 Combat I
2 5 4 Medic 1
3 10 8 Medic 2
4 17 13 Medic 3
5 26 20 Morale
6 37 28 Flanking I
7 50 38 Flanking II/Sentry
8 65 49 MobilitySo, as you can see, you can pretty much forget the idea of getting mobility if you're not Charismatic. If you are, you'll need to get your unit 29 XP before you attatch the Warlord, and given the promotions you'll be giving the unit, that's fairly unfeasible. If you can get the unit to 18 XPs, however, you can give it sentry, which is quite a useful promotion as well. If you can see further, you can avoid putting yourself into harm's way.
The Tactics/Flanking II Cavalry
A Cavalry Unit with Tactics and Flanking 2 has a 90% chance to withdraw from combat. This is excellent, because it makes it far, far easier to get XP. When a unit withdraws from combat, it gets XP as if it had won. You can quite comfortable risk attacking at moderate odds as well, which nets even more XP. Add leadership into the equation, and you have a unit that can rack up truly massive amounts of XP. This unit wont have any City Raider promotions, but it will have exceptionally high Strength, especially if you can get Combat VI, which is the first aim once you have Tactics/Flanking II/Leadership. Once the unit has Combat VI, pinch is a good idea, as are Morale, Mobility, March, Sentry, Ambush (once it's a gun ship), and Blitz. It depends on the situation.
Code:
Level XP cost Charismatic Promotion
1 2 2 Flanking I
2 5 4 Flanking II
3 10 8 Tactics
4 17 13 Leadership
5 26 20 Combat II
6 37 28 Combat III
7 50 38 Combat IV
8 65 49 Combat V
9 82 62 Combat VI
10 101 76 Pinch
11 122 92 ...Note that with Charismatic you unit will be getting Combat VI before a regular unit would be getting Combat V. 62 XP might seem like a lot, but with a 90% withdrawl chance, and Leadership, it's really not that much at all. One day this unit will be a Gun Ship, and it will eat enemy tanks for breakfast. Consider giving it Blitz as well- with 4-5 movement points, 42 Strength this unit will be able to devastate enemy forces, and not even need fear SAM infantry (especially if you give it pinch).
The City-Busting Infantry
This unit will start its life as either an Axeman, a Swordsman, or a Maceman. It will be upgraded through Rilfe, Infantry, up to a Mech Infantry. The key is to give it City Raider III while it's a Melee unit. When BTS comes out you'll have to option to then give it Drill IV once it becomes Rifleman. Does a Drill IV/CR III Redcoat sound like a beast to you? The unit will start off with Combat I if you're aggressive. If play as Boudica, then this unit could become a real beast. Note that although I'm giving this unit Leadership as it's 5th promotion, you should give it that as soon as you attatch the Warlord. When I attatch the Warlord to this unit, it generally brings it to at least 37 XP, and so that's the order I'll usually give out the promotions.
Code:
Level XP cost Charismatic Aggressive Promotion
1 2 2 2 City Raider I
2 5 4 5 City Raider II
3 10 8 10 City Raider III
4 17 13 10 Combat I
5 26 20 17 Combat II
6 37 28 26 Leadership
7 50 38 37 Combat III
8 65 49 50 Combat IV
9 82 62 65 Combat V
10 101 76 82 Combat VI
11 122 92 101 PinchNote the way the Charismatic rapidly overtakes Aggressive in terms of how much power it gives even to Melee and Gunpowder units. Given that Aggressive doesn't even affect Seige, Mounted, or Armored units (or any other units) at all, and doesn't come with a very handy bonus to happiness like Charismatic, I consider Charismatic to be the vastly superior trait. This unit has one major weakness- no withdrawl chance. You will suffer a bad beat eventually. It might not be this game, or even the next, but one day you'll attack with this guy at 99% or better, and lose. It adds an element of excitement to the game though, and this guy will bust open a lot of enemy cities for you. Combat VI + City Raider III is insane. If you can get it Pinch as well, it'll be nigh on unstoppable. Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer to build up XP with this guy than it does with the Tactics/Flanking II/Leadership Cavalry.
Coming Soon - The Super Cannon of Doom, and the Super Tank of Death and Destruction!
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