Super Flankers, Super Defenders, Super Guerillas, etc.

[ohjames]

We're all familiar with using a Great General to make a Super Medic (or even a Super-Duper Woodsman III Medic) to help your army along. I particularly like Absolute Zero's common move of using the GG to promote an early warrior into a Super Medic Axeman with Mobility to hang out with the Horse Archer stack and whack Spearmen.

But in what situations do you find you use Great Generals - presumably the second or later ones - to create super units other than Medics? Is Super Flanking best on a Treb/Cannon or on a non-siege attacking unit? Do you ever go for Super Guerilla (without being a Celt? Guerilla III is indeed pretty neat and pretty easy to get with Duns.) What about City Defender? What about using your GG on a boat - for example to make a Super Submarine at some point?

 

[lymond]

Only if warring constantly and IMP will I maybe create a Super unit. I usually have bad luck with them anyway. Settling them in HE cities pays off for the whole game, so I prefer doing that instead.

 

[shulgi]

Agree, it's one of the reasons that IMP is very fun. I like the Woodsman 3 promotion the most out of the other options both for healing and attacking. In the Caesar game I captured Great Wall early and didn't have a heroic epic city set up, ended up making 3 super generals early plus a medic, my woodsman 3 + CR 3 praetorian was pretty sweet. I usually attach them to a mounted unit or elephant and go through the combat line. I think super flanking is too risky, the general will die too often.

 

[lymond]

I think super flanking is too risky, the general will die too often.

I agree. I always have bad luck with the flanking, especially as an earlier promo. Maybe throw it in later if I get a lot of XP and complete things like Combat, CR, March, etc. March is sweet on a super unit.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

If I play a level below where I should, I'll usually use all of my GGs to create super soldiers. It's fun, and if I'm playing down, I don't really need them to be settled anyway. I rarely go the flanking route though.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

I love making Nutcrackers. In an early catapult war there are times where a Super CR Combat sword will pay off more than a simple medic. You can get these insane 95% odds of winning with 1 collateral with them allowing you to not lose more siege, and get rid of the 1 strong defender. Other than that I don't use them.

 

[Apricottage]

Usually I just settle to get an extra promotion. Occasionally I'll mess around with getting a single city attacker as a Swordsman/Axeman/something around that era and focus on keeping it around so I can take advantage of the free upgrades. I've never gotten a unit with Commando outside of the FFH mod, but it seems like it would be best in multiplayer against lazy defenders who don't properly defend cities not on the front lines.

 

[Doshin]

Two recent games:





Attach GG to an Archer (pre-Catapults) or a Longbow (pre-Knights). Upgrade to Drill IV, Leadership. Fortify in a hill city. Profit.

 

[Handel]

What about using your GG on a boat - for example to make a Super Submarine at some point?

To make a Super Submarine you have to attach it to a caravel and upgrade it later to a sub. Flanking promotions simply disappear from the available options if the total flanking percentage can go over 80%. But with an caravel upgrade you can make it 110% - although it should be considered an exploit. I tested it and when attacking it never dies. Give it a blitz and it can attack zillions times per a row generating at least 1 point per attack.

 

[vicawoo]

A mobility flanking 2 horse archer is worth 2.5 flanking 2 horse archers (about). No offensive promotion seems even close to that. An extra promotion is worth ... I dunno, 10%? 20%? more, so experience-wise it's probably better to distribute exp.

Defensively, a super defender can be worth many times more than a normal defender, as people in always war games would tell you, although I'm not sure how much.

 

[Handel]

Defensively, a super defender can be worth many times more than a normal defender, as people in always war games would tell you, although I'm not sure how much.

LOL... Once I played a lot with xbowmen to give them tons of XP (doubt someone will make it in a real game). They needed 50XP (if I remember correctly) for Drill IV and City Defender III. When the railroad came I promoted it to a machine gunner and a single machine gunner killed the whole attacking stack (and it is immune to collateral damage so the siege machines were toast).

 

[jarhead_leif]

Only if warring constantly and IMP will I maybe create a Super unit. I usually have bad luck with them anyway. Settling them in HE cities pays off for the whole game, so I prefer doing that instead.

No matter how high the experience of the unit is, if the odds play between 95%-99.9%. Still, you're not safe.

 

[GKey]

I strongly recommend this thread to anyone who'd like to toy with super-duper GG units.
Tons of fun guaranteed. Just don't forget to turn quick combat ON, otherwise you are going to wait hours between turns.