why oh why do my great general defend?!

[Iranon]

Very interesting. To be honest, getting units to defend how you actually want them to would be tricky... only some factors of interest:

- survival odds (duh.)
- expected hp left (often favours first strikes over raw power)
- expected damage dealt to the attacker (see above)
- expendability: Hammer cost and number of promotions
- various situations-specific considerations

An example of the last: If attacked by a ton of siege, I don't want my high-drill units to defend at first; they will shine as the second line of defense because they will take less attrition.

 

[JujuLautre]

Thanks for the link. Quite interesting.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The reason your GG died is that you took it down the Drill line. Until someone goes and alters the bestdefender code, don't give your great general extra first strikes (unless of course you do want it defending! ).

It is seriously the biggest problem with the Drill promotion line - that units with low survival odds will sacrifice themselves over better units just because they have a lot of first strikes.

 

[DABegley]

I use the drill line a lot but never for GGs. If I go past C1/Medic3 I usually go into the extra movement point or heal while moving. I never give GGs combat promos past C1. I know the immunity to collateral damage is tempting but it always returns to bite me when I go there. After some cannon fire your Drill3 GG is the only one left unharmed thus he defends first. I have been know to attach a GG to a scout and refuse the free upgrades thus making my super-medic or Woodmen III last in line to defend, otherwise my GGs die like flies.

 

[Senior Tigr]

Woodsman III promotion cannot be given to Recon Units. I think it is because of the attack bonus in WMIII - recon units cannot attack.

 

[Tristan_C]

Compromise: GG a trebuchet, which very seldom defends a stack, makes pretty good use of CR, excellent use of GGtactics, and fantastic use of drill4? What do you think? I've been settling my GG's these days, so I'm just curious on this.

 

[killmeplease]

trebs are suicide units anyway

 

[DABegley]

Your right, thinking back the only woodsmen IIIs I have made were from warriors that had Woodsmen promo from Barbs first. I didn't remember I hadn't done that with a scout. Sorry, my bad.

 

[dirtyparrot]

@Iranon, I don't think that it has to be that time consuming. I would just make that option available for GG's and that would be the end of it (and maybe a sufficiently promoted unit).

 

[laughingvulcan]

Back to the spirit of the original question, as someone else mentioned, I usually don't take advantage of the free upgrade for a great general, so that they are one of the weakest units in my stack, if not the weakest. In that situation, obviously, I'm using them as a great medic, usually with the promotion where they move really fast , and not as an attacking general.

 

[Tecibbar]

trebs are suicide units anyway

Cats are, Trebs are not.

gg a seige isn't good, seige can only get 1 exp per battle, too slow to ever reach drill IV

 

[r_rolo1]

^^Wrong. That is only true if the siege unit is attacking.

 

[bestsss]

>>gg a seige isn't good, seige can only get 1 exp per battle, too slow to ever reach drill IV

Actually great general on siege is good.
Consider this: city raider 1, accuracy, morale. Add 3-4 to your cavalry and it's golden. No culture defense, 2 tiles movement and keeps pace w/ the cav.
You may go further w/ d1, m3, morale and use the siege as medic that can bomabard, not bad either.
Plus upgrading them is actually good.

No point to burn generals on "expendable" siege, really. Keep the siege that supports alive, attack w/ the mounts.

 

[mechaerik]

Yeah, until enemy mounted units flank it to death.

 

[bestsss]

healthy cannons take quite a bit to get killed. Having formation mounts helps as well. When you get artillery, it takes gunship to flank anything. In captured towns you can't get flaked either.
Plus, use the standard tactic to kill the enemy stack in your own territory before proceeding.

 

[Scoottr]

How about a chariot used as a GG instead. Good movement and I thought it didn't get some sort of bonus which would keep it low on the list for being attacked.

 

[bestsss]

Scoottr, that's the classic way.