The Use of Warlords (as opposed to instructors)

[mboettcher]

Personally I used to never use warlords, they seemed too fragile and didn't seem to give me much of an advantage.

However, with the plethora of strong promotions available I realized one can create very strong stacks, practically invincible stacks of units with a couple of warlords. Plus melee units have access to promotions gunpowder units don't and they carry over making for very strong riflemen once your super macemen warlords upgrade. It also made me reconsider the value of the imperialistic trait. This makes imp/char a strong combo.

I always have a few different roles for my warlords:
Medic (one is enough, I keep all in same stack)
Early powerful combat (1 at first maybe 2 depending)
Long term combat (1 and then as many as generals permit)
Calvary (same as long term)
Artillary (1-2)

This stack can't really be beat if you bring troops with it.
The value of sticking a warlord on calvary became apparrant to me because early on they can survive almost any battle and get 2 xp out of it while damaging the best defender. The speed is also useful. Combine +30% withdrawal, Flanking I and II with March and a medic and you have a hell of a repetative undying unit.

Medic: basically medic III plus woodsman III (40% heal). City radier helps because its good to rack up xp without risking death.

Artillary: because they keep dying, because they have access to March (can heal while moving i.e. after an attack) and tactics (+30% withdrawal, warlords only) and because it can do a lot of damage.

Early powerful infantry: designed entirely for early combat. You take promotions that become out dated like March (which might be worth it anyway for the long term combat), +25% archery, melee..
Still don't forget city raider I-III and +25% vs siege units- both of which are not available to gunpowder infantry. Also Guerilla III plus tactics gives 80% withdrawal for infantry. Not too shabby.

Long term: basically pick up only promotions that will be useful to mech infantry (with the exception of march which allows more combat more often).
That way you can get infantry that heal while they move, have city raider III, 80% with drawal, 6-8 first strikes (Woodsman III and Drill IV) and +75% combat (combat VI) along with many other minor abilites. Pretty much the hardest unit ever to kill. Especially in stacks.

What do you guys do with warlords, if anything? Feedback pls

 

[Supr49er]

... What do you guys do with warlords, if anything? Feedback pls

First: Make super Medic
Second: Make Academy in military city
Third: Make Academy in RC navy city
Rest: Settle in military city

I don't like to risk them on units that can be killed either.

 

[Ossian]

But you don't get the academy option until mid game, so it can't be the 2nd general you get..

 

[Gooblah]

Yeah...usually mine go something like this:
1) Settle in military city, usually capital.
2) Make Super Medic for entire game on cavalry unit. Have him hide until the stack is nearly dead, then rush him with cavalry escort to heal stack, while cavalry escort protects stack (wimpy, yes, I know)
3) Build Academy in Military city (if prior to Academy, then make a few more medics or settle)
4) Build Academy in Navy city
5) Settle in Navy or Military city

 

[oPlaiD]

Yeah...usually mine go something like this:
1) Settle in military city, usually capital.
2) Make Super Medic for entire game on cavalry unit. Have him hide until the stack is nearly dead, then rush him with cavalry escort to heal stack, while cavalry escort protects stack (wimpy, yes, I know)
3) Build Academy in Military city (if prior to Academy, then make a few more medics or settle)
4) Build Academy in Navy city
5) Settle in Navy or Military city

You could just like, use a Scout as your medic, or something, and then he'll never be in combat while staying with your stack.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

1) Settled in my most productive city
2) Turned into a medic
3) Settled in my next most productive city
4) Turned into a super city rater
5 and onward) Stacked with existing instructors.

Screw acadamies. Culture boost is negligible, hammer boost tends to be unneeded since your troops come out of hammer rich cities anyway, and they're attached to a crap tech.

I really like the sound of this tactics siege unit though. I'll have to try it.

 

[PibbZ]

You could just like, use a Scout as your medic, or something, and then he'll never be in combat while staying with your stack.

Scouts cant get woodsman III though, missing out on a fantastic extra bonus.

 

[Simple Simon]

I use my Generals according to situation - if, e.g., I know that I will fight tough opponents early and can get 5XP in a city with on GG, I settle them. If, on the other hand, I run theocracy (or plan to), I will usually create a super-medic (chariot), long term goal being Medic III Woodsman III. Later Generals are used on City Raider units (swords, axes, maces), which I protect by excessive use of artillery. These guys later get further promotions and make one hell of an invasion force once they become infantry. CRIII, CombatIII, Pinch - that's the level they easily reach.... har, har, har.

Academies are for games where my top military city is weak, or when long wars must be fought, like invading a large continent.

 

[niels251]

most of the time i build the heroic epic and west point in one city and settle all my warlords there. That city will crank really high experince units out, espesially in the late game.

 

[stachnie]

1. Settle in my main military city (usually with good production potential but poor commerce potential, designed to build Heroic Epic and West Point).

2. Supermedic (usually on a Woodsman III warrior, give a Leadership and Medic promotions, upgrade whenever possible and allow to battle when odds are greater than 99%).

3. Settle in some other productive city (preferably a coastal one).

4. Again settle or maybe make a super mounted unit (Blitz, Leadership, then Morale) to finish off critically injured enemy units.

When it becomes available I create Military Academies in cities mentioned in 1. and 3. If you manage to get Pentagon and settle another GG and build drydock in 3, city 1 may produce 11 XP land units while city 3 may produce 10 XP ships (for Charizmatic leaders, Pentagon is not that necessary).

S.

 

[GIO888]

Maybe I'm unusual in pretty much always morphing them into a unit?

3 City Defense plus 30% strength plus 25% against gunpowder units dropped into a city you just took makes for an AI counteroffensive bloodbath, you know.

 

[Diamondeye]

Drill is a monstrous line to go with generals. Siege weapon or gunpowder, maybe even start at xbow. Drill IV and then go combat.

 

[LlamaCat]

drill line with warlords can be very powerful indeed, especially units like Samurai. a group of 3 or 4 warlord units with these promotions would be deadly.

the problem as I see it is that you somehow need to earn those great generals in the first place, which means you are building and potentially losing a lot of units already just to get to that point (although privateers, great wall, etc are nice ways to help get more GG points in BTS) So I think that's why most people use the first one for a medic or something, then just settle the rest in cities.

 

[Aneurism]

most of the time i build the heroic epic and west point in one city and settle all my warlords there. That city will crank really high experince units out, espesially in the late game.

I usually just make warlords all the time, I find them quite handy. This sounds like an interesting strategy to try out.

 

[Simple Simon]

well, get the great wall, have tokugawa as closest neighbour - you'll have plenty of generals

from personal experience I can tell you that a group of 5 CR III, combat II, heal-while-move, amphibious Infantry can turn a blossoming AI landscape into a killing field littered with dead riflemen. You have a 10 to 20 turn advantage in which an entire continent can be pummel ripe for the picking.

 

[mboettcher]

Its true a warlord on its own is not great but rahter pretty fragile (because you can't pick which units defend. I wish you could put a defensive priority saying your generals or something always defended last). Anyway a stack of 6-8 Warlords is something to behold. If they all have march and one is a medic with a few support units then you can march across an entire civ without stopping. Takes like 4-6 turn to make them a vassal.

Oh btw the AI always settles their great generals in some city like their capitol. Wait till mid game or so to attack a civ thats been at war alot and then built your westpoint and heroic epic in the city they settled 2-4 generals in. Free xp and its usually a high productive city.

 

[gnosticgnome]

damn, missed the woodsman III thingy. Good to know. I go for west point, evtl pentagon (long term, jea), and settle the generals. Managed at one point to have 6 or 7 seven generals in a city and it produced units with min XP = 21 (more for mounted) without theocracy & vassalage civics (marathon & prince). Kinda sweet, only elite units. One question - is it true that generals appear quicker if you have the great wall and kill enemies inside your cultural borders??

 

[Wodan]

I used to be all about making a massive military city with settled warlords and all the buildings.

But then I figured that having all that initial combat power was fairly useless. With it, you still can't take cities w/o siege. So, I was softening up with artillery anyway. And, if you use siege then you can take the city with weaker units... having stronger units is overkill.

These days I pretty much use them all for either Warlords or save them for golden ages. Warlords, because they're fun. Golden Ages, because they're so powerful in a late-game CE.

Wodan

 

[gnosticgnome]

About that time in history you don't need artillery anymore, there be bombers now! Whatever, it's just fun having an elite panzer division, an elite parachute div etc

 

[Simple Simon]

is it true that generals appear quicker if you have the great wall and kill enemies inside your cultural borders??

doubled! sweet, isn't it?