What to do with Great Generals?

[goodolarchie]

GG bonus doesn't stack. Attack on multiple fronts, or burn a GA. Golden ages are quite good, worth at least a couple extra units from production/gold.

 

[totallylost]

hey i have a question... Do generals give a bonus to units immediately adjacent to them, or within 2 hexes of them?

 

[CHEESE!]

And by 203 hammers...you mean more like 1.

Best out-of-context ever.

 

[Syiss_]

Seems to be 2 hexes out.

 

[EmperorFool]

And it looks like they get the bonus even when they attack a unit outside the GG radius. I haven't tested the other way around: your unit outside radius attacking an enemy unit inside.

 

[Brota]

Chinese GG gives 45% bonus, pretty OP coupled with CKN.

 

[evanbgood]

I love the way the generals work, myself. In Civ 4 I always found them to be a hassle and a disappointment more often than being an advantage. Scrolling through a dozen unit upgrades is kind of boring when the entire stack ends up eating dirt in a few turns, and guarding a supposedly super-powered unit like it was made of glass seemed... silly.
I haven't done too many large-scale wars yet, other than an amazing one in my very first game with Catherine (the very first time I can remember in Civ history that I actually had fun with a modern day war). Bonus wise, I usually treat my great general like an artillary unit (or I put him right inside an altillary unit). Then, using the "zone of control" concept, I create lines of powerful protector units, and powerful range units. If the general ends up going down, he's usually the last to do so.
In addition, since I've been pretty far ahead military-wise in some of my playthroughs, they definitely work well as golden age boosters, especially in the aforementioned first game. I was Ceasar and, basically, I tried a tactic of golden age "spamming", which seemed much more possible and profitable than it ever was in Civ 4. With high happiness and the right wonders, plus the help of additional great people and generals, and the right social policies, I was able to get my golden age up to 50 turns at one point! Somehow it felt very... Roman
Lastly, in the massive number of new tactics that Civ 5 has made me consider, citadels can't be overlooked. I've used them and standard forts, as well, to great effect. Plopping down a citadel in a recently conqured city turned my reasonably small force into an unstoppable capitol neighbor that eventually forced Catherine to buy peace from me. Using the lay of the land, a good fort can easily bottleneck an enemy or force them to go another, less efficient way to invade. Of course, Civ players have often gone with the theory of "If you're defending, you're losing", but I think this time around, used properly, a good defence can help field a cheaper offense. Not to mention that, with the lack of war weariness and other negative effects, playing defensive in a war that lasts dozens or even hundreds of turns can be quite useful. After all, the more units that throw themselves unsucessfully at your defense, the more powerful your defenders become, and the more generals you make. And if you're playing, say, the Aztecs, well... those captives have to come from somewhere!

 

[Bibor]

The first two great generals can and should be used to accompany your units.

Don't forget generals can embark for naval engagements as well!

If you have one too many, you can burn them for a GA, but beware, Generals give only 4-turn golden ages.

Citadels are good only if you have a LOT of them and you're being overrun.

 

[ICNP]

Citadel is just plain awesome if you're under heavy attack by a stronger player. I was doing a one city challenge today and had the ottomans sending janissaries at me while I had pikemen and crossbowmen and the citadel was a huge help.

I could see these being invaluable in an always-war game too. Speaking of which, always war was a great way to play in civ3 but not as good in civ4 because of war weariness. I can see having a lot of fun with AW again in Civ5.

I could not find the OCC and AW options in Civ 5. I'm sure it would be better in this game, since now you have 3 tile borders for your capital (not to mention Ghandi's power and the Tradition line), and combat would actually make AW not be so borish.

As I'm progressing the difficulties (started at Settler and now moving up back to my Civ 4 Noble) I'm starting to see how excellent the General is this time around. Especially as you can get 2 rather early on thanks to Honor policies.

 

[Pragmatic]

I could not find the OCC and AW options in Civ 5.

In the Setup Game screen, there's an "Advanced" button down on the bottom right. Scroll down the Advanced screen to the bottom right, and you'll see the One City Challenge checkbox.

I don't know about the Always War/Always Peace options, though. Could be the same place.

 

[Deathstar]

Any student of military history should know that command posts never move quickly. (Well, sometimes it *retreats* pretty fast.)

LOL. Oh come on. For gameplay purposes, this guy should be able to keep up with the cavalry.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I really dislike the current Great General. I'd rather like to full on attach him to a unit than have him constantly trailing my army, especially because he's rather vulnerable.
The Citadel has the same problem as forts, although Zone of control helps a little. Maybe I just can't stand holding back. I'm sure when the AI uses it on me I'll be really angry with it.

Golden age is a useful use though, not as good as Civ 4, but their still good.

While moving it with the army is a slight pain, the effective bonus is OBSCENE, far beyond anything in civ IV. GGs give a 25% bonus to all of your units within a TWO tile radius. This is a key component of having swords and horsemen effectively take cities without support, and for battles between relatively even forces in the field becoming one-sided in your favor.

In extreme cases, 2x flanking + 2x adjacent unit + GG will give your forces an 85% combat bonus in the field, however 55% is possible with some consistency. However the "safe attack" vs cities, even the stronger city states, is just gold.

 

[happyturtle]

What's obscene is China's GG.

 

[ICNP]

Yeah, after reviewing my use of Great Generals in combat, I take back what I said earlier. It seems that everything has gotten stronger in Civ 5, with the exception of maybe specialists and slaves.

This makes me wonder how much everybody thinks about the social policy that doubles your xp for units. Considering it follows the GG policy I feel like its pretty strong. Especially if your just milking XP off of a weak city state (this seems pretty rediculous too, as you can just park a warrior on a hill, and the city state will just keep attacking with its weak arrow attack, and you should be able to heal faster if you have a medic. I have no idea what the cap on xp is, but it seems you just keep getting 2xp every turn)

 

[Mustakrakish]

While moving it with the army is a slight pain, the effective bonus is OBSCENE, far beyond anything in civ IV. GGs give a 25% bonus to all of your units within a TWO tile radius. This is a key component of having swords and horsemen effectively take cities without support, and for battles between relatively even forces in the field becoming one-sided in your favor.

In extreme cases, 2x flanking + 2x adjacent unit + GG will give your forces an 85% combat bonus in the field, however 55% is possible with some consistency. However the "safe attack" vs cities, even the stronger city states, is just gold.

What's obscene is China's GG.

Ooh yes! With Chinese GG you just slaughter everyone with relatively even odds. And the golden ages mmm...

The strategy is get your first GG via honor with second policy unlock (I think) and use him for slaughtering other civs, spamming consecutive GG's (Chinese increased spamming rate) for golden ages... And hence of course golden age spamming while slaughtering your opponents! I love Chinese ability. it's funny how people underestimated it before the release.

I... never had so many golden ages in one game in civ4...

Actually I think I had more golden ages than in 10 average games in civ4 (usually found better uses for GP's and GG couldn't start golden ages or at least I thought so )

Thing I like the most about civ5 is how different and fun each in it's own way those abilities are...

 

[Vordeo]

If you have one too many, you can burn them for a GA, but beware, Generals give only 4-turn golden ages.

Really? Thought they gave the same length golden ages as other GP? Recall getting the standard 8 turn age off a spare GG I had lying around (it was the first golden age I got off a GP).

Citadels are good only if you have a LOT of them and you're being overrun.

Actually, I was wondering about this: can't check right now, but do citadels need to be built within your cultural borders? Building one near a tough enemy city and just parking a treb/cannon within might be a useful siege tactic.

 

[Prototailz]

Really? Thought they gave the same length golden ages as other GP? Recall getting the standard 8 turn age off a spare GG I had lying around (it was the first golden age I got off a GP).

Confirmed. The length of the GA does shorten every time you use it so a 4-turn GA from a GG is possible.

 

[urban_fox]

Here's one tactic I've used a few times now which can be very useful for attacking a powerful adjacent enemy city. I first tried it in a game where I had a large Russian city close to my border and I knew it was going to be a problem at some point in the not too distant future.

Here's what I did.

First I created a cultural corridor by buying a tile towards the Russian city. Then I culture bombed with a great artist so I was within two tiles of the Russian city and able to place a citadel on a hill.

By sticking, I think it was a longsword, in the citdal, he could take a good pummeling from the Russian city and everything else it could throw at it with range support from behind it. After a few turns of this, I'd bled her army to almost nothing then moved in on the city.

Sure I could have sent a load of troops to take the city but using this method I could do it with one melee unit and three ranged against an entire army.

 

[ICNP]

Here's one tactic I've used a few times now which can be very useful for attacking a powerful adjacent enemy city. I first tried it in a game where I had a large Russian city close to my border and I knew it was going to be a problem at some point in the not too distant future.

Here's what I did.

First I created a cultural corridor by buying a tile towards the Russian city. Then I culture bombed with a great artist so I was within two tiles of the Russian city and able to place a citadel on a hill.

By sticking, I think it was a longsword, in the citdal, he could take a good pummeling from the Russian city and everything else it could throw at it with range support from behind it. After a few turns of this, I'd bled her army to almost nothing then moved in on the city.

Sure I could have sent a load of troops to take the city but using this method I could do it with one melee unit and three ranged against an entire army.

It seems that the quick assault of Civ 4 doesn't seem as important. With the improved value of rough terrain, you're better off just setting up outside of the AI base, and then letting them come to you. Since War Weariness, and supply costs are gone, the time your in war is less of an issue.

The Citadel and Great Artist seem excessive, I feel like a fort and a catapult nearby would have sufficed (siege is ridiculous, if placed correctly)

 

[civhawaii]

Confirmed. The length of the GA does shorten every time you use it so a 4-turn GA from a GG is possible.

Goes down by one turn everytime you use any GP to pop one. Minimum 3.