Using the Great General

[Ataxerxes]

@Nicol.Bolas That's basically my experience - I never put GG units in harm's way. They only fight at 95% or higher, so a 3-promo unit could have reasonably won the fight at 80% odds or so.

But all this misses the larger point: Wars are about siege. If you're doing it right, siege damages everything to 25%-50% health, then the regular units just clean up in fairly easy fights. The only time you need a strong attacker is if your siege didn't do it's job (meaning the enemy unit still has close to full HP).

(For more on why siege is necessary, see the stack o doom guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185838 )

Siege units are there to die, so you can't put a GG on them. The only way to help siege is to settle the GG. And once you have good siege, ordinary 3-promo units can mop up easily.

(This is the same reason Charismatic is better than Aggressive - wars are about siege, not melee. See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8824380&postcount=106 ).

Welcome to the forums! The point about siege is definitely good - most newer players don't use enough. I rate Charismatic well above Aggressive, but not due to war. Charismatic is better for most wars, but Aggressive is better for the rush. But Charismatic gives the happiness boost as well which is really nice.

Like you, I don't put my GG units in harms way. Of course, my only GG units are supermedics, everything else gets settled.

Note: I think the Military Academy question is partially decided by what speed you play on. Normal it might not be worth it if you can get out units in 1 or 2 turns. On Epic or Marathon then the Military Academy becomes more attractive.

 

[OneLeggedRhino]

Thanks for the welcome. This really is a friendly place

Question on healing: Once you can produce 3-promo units (or nearly-3-promo), you can easily get a Woodsman 3 unit for extra healing. One woodsman + one normal healer is roughly as much healing as a supermedic, without costing a GG. Why go for the supermedic? Do you use that along with a woodsman healer for 40 hp/turn?

 

[6K Man]

Seems like the “Super Unit” approach would only make sense with your first GG, in the Ancient era or close on the heels of it.

At those times, you may not have siege, and you won’t have a lot of units. The AI defenders won’t be behind 80% culture defenses and you probably won’t see many city defenders with more than 1 promotion (unless you’re attacking a Protective AI, of course). That’s when a 23-XP attacker with CR3, combat 1 and/or cover can really make a difference, IMO. Later in the game, the Super unit won’t have as much of an impact – after all, it’s just one unit and can only attack once per turn… and you can win with 0-XP units if you have enough siege, in the middle game and later.

 

[6K Man]

Thanks for the welcome. This really is a friendly place

Question on healing: Once you can produce 3-promo units (or nearly-3-promo), you can easily get a Woodsman 3 unit for extra healing. One woodsman + one normal healer is roughly as much healing as a supermedic, without costing a GG. Why go for the supermedic? Do you use that along with a woodsman healer for 40 hp/turn?

I think the point is that you can't get Medic III without a Great General.

 

[2metraninja]

I never tested it myself, but I am quite sure Medic III and Woodsman III are not cumulative, so no big point in having those 2 in a single unit.

I want to mention 2 other uses of the Great Generals, which are more relevant to a MP than SP, but still worth mentioning.

One very good use is to get a Commando unit when fighting a human opponent. Razed enemy capitol (or any other valuable city), defended by a single warrior, as it is out of reach for normal units and all the other enemy units are concentrated on the front? No problem to the almighty Commando You can ask Blubmuz of team Sirius in the MTDG2 how demoralizing and hurting this can be.

Another good use is to make far reaching vessel. 5 movement points galley anyone? 8 tiles moving transports? The idea is the same as with the Commando - you come out of the nowhere, raze a valuable city and while sailing away leaving your enemy's weeps behind your back to fondle your ears