Qs on General generation, Xbow uses

[Gary4Civ]

Hi,

Can I sneak 2 questions into 1 post?

1) I just played a game where I was actually deleting great generals. They were just way to slow to catch up to where my tanks and bombers were fighting (playing on the fastest game speed) and became a useless gold burden. Is there any way to control how fast great generals are made or switch production of them to something else?

2) During the archer/crossbow period these units were excellent - I used them for most of my army (defending and taking cities). After gatling gun time when they are obsolete, and through machine gun time (which changes xbows to a range of 1 as you know) I found them all but useless. Its not until nearly the time of modern armor that they can upgrade to APC. So I seem to have a choice of carrying a whole lot of nearly useless gold eating units for 3 entire generations of upgrades (gatling, MG and through tanks in to Modern Armor), or deleting them. Any suggestions on this most welcome.

Thanks!

 

[NotSure]

Hi,

Can I sneak 2 questions into 1 post?

1) I just played a game where I was actually deleting great generals. They were just way to slow to catch up to where my tanks and bombers were fighting (playing on the fastest game speed) and became a useless gold burden. Is there any way to control how fast great generals are made or switch production of them to something else?

No, combat XP are their GPP.

2) During the archer/crossbow period these units were excellent - I used them for most of my army (defending and taking cities). After gatling gun time when they are obsolete, and through machine gun time (which changes xbows to a range of 1 as you know) I found them all but useless. Its not until nearly the time of modern armor that they can upgrade to APC. So I seem to have a choice of carrying a whole lot of nearly useless gold eating units for 3 entire generations of upgrades (gatling, MG and through tanks in to Modern Armor), or deleting them. Any suggestions on this most welcome.

Thanks!

I don't find them to be useless at all. If you prioritize Industrialization, you get the Gatling Gun early and, even with a shorter range, they're really powerful. They're base strength is just as good as their ranged strength. If you can get range/logistics promotions they're just awesome. In fact, I won't even upgrade a unit this good to mech inf. You could always garrison them if you prefer melee units I suppose.

 

[Patriotic_Fool]

Hi,

Can I sneak 2 questions into 1 post?

No... I'm sorry but it's impossible and would never work. One at a time, please.

As for the first one, you can adopt autocracy.. one the social policies under that tree gives +2 GG movement (I think it's g+k only, tho)

 

[Naresh]

Yeah, it's GnK only for the +2 movment. Though if he is playing with gats, he has GnK

Crossbows are very useful. Gattling guns are reduced to a more defensive roll and support, rather than (arguably) offensive like the crossbows. They get the defensive terrain bonus, and are meant to walk along side the melee units, covering flanks etc.

In this period cannons and artillery become your long range support (esp. artillery) and of course, the triplane bombers.

 

[Gary4Civ]

Great tips on getting plus range promotion and +1 movement with promo or social tree - that could be what I was overlooking - thanks!

 

[headcase]

Hi,

1) I just played a game where I was actually deleting great generals. They were just way to slow to catch up to where my tanks and bombers were fighting (playing on the fastest game speed) and became a useless gold burden. Is there any way to control how fast great generals are made or switch production of them to something else?

Thanks!

Great Generals ("GG"s) appear automatically after gaining enough XP overall. Generally, that means the more you fight the more GGs you get.

instead of deleting them, you can use them to form a citadel. These have two purposes:
a) They provide tons of defensive strength to the unit that is sitting in them, allowing them to "hold the line" very effectively
b) They claim all of the land next to the citadel; this means you can take land from other civilizations... don't expect friendly relations with them after that though.

The drawback is the space with a citadel can't have any other improvement (farm, mine, etc). If it already had one, it will be replaced by the citadel. I think you can claim land with it and then remove the citadel afterwards though, if you want to just claim land.