Wondering about Great General strategies

[Strategos]

I was writing something in another forum, talking about my uber city-raider III gunpowder units, when I began to wonder, what does everybody else do with their GG's?

I usually end up with like five or six a game, and three of them get tagged to a melee unit with CRIII so that when they get promoted to riflemen, I can minimize those agonizing "longbowman kills another rifleman" scenarios. By the time they're mech. infantry, they've got combat VI, commando, extra move, and usually guerilla III. I also make one or two tank generals with CRIII and barrage III (I think this is the collateral damage bonus). Those guys tear through enemy stacks in cities. Every now and then, when I'm feeling frisky, I'll make a cavalry or even a knight general and just beef him up with combat, extra move, and blitz. By the time he becomes a gunship, he's a powerful unit that can attack five times per turn (well, at least in theory ... lol).

I hardly ever settle my generals either as an instructor or in an academy, but then I don't usually play for dom victories either.

My one wish: blitz for gunpowder units! But then it would be too easy for me ...

Oh yeah, and I LOVE charismatic civs for the XP bonus.

 

[madscientist]

I have settled everyone I have gotten in BTS so far.

Rarely, I will attach a GG to a unit only very early to make early war with a second AI in the axemen/swordsmen era. I will usually promote as many as I can to get them up to city raider III.

I do not use them for military acadamies although I did for ghengis Kahn.

 

[MrCynical]

My earliest great general will often be attached to a single unit, which I can then promote to Medic III (and probably give another promotion or two to). A medic III unit is excellent for keeping a stack alive in a long war. It also helps meet the requirement for Heroic Epic/West Point if I don't have a high level unit already.

Beyond that though, I rarely attach them to units. A single unit can only do so much, and it has a limited life span. If you keep using it, eventually it's going to lose, even if you keep to 90%+ odds battles. I much prefer to stack them as instructors in my Heroic Epic/West Point city. No three or four units, however highly promoted, compare to being able to give units 4 promotions the moment they're built.

 

[sargasm]

Beyond that though, I rarely attach them to units. A single unit can only do so much, and it has a limited life span. If you keep using it, eventually it's going to lose, even if you keep to 90%+ odds battles. I much prefer to stack them as instructors in my Heroic Epic/West Point city. No three or four units, however highly promoted, compare to being able to give units 4 promotions the moment they're built.

Seconded. There is nothing like being able to turn out a tank with City Raider 3 and Pinch every single turn.

 

[axident]

I think my record is 10 GGs in one game, so far. Settled nine in my barracks/HE/WP city with a Pentagon in effect = +18 +4 +3 +2 = 27 xp = tanks with Drill IV and Combat I. I captured an enemy city with Mil Acad so I sent my last GG there, as well as starting construction of Ironworks/Red Cross there, but the game was pretty much over by that point.

 

[petey]

The first one I'll put on a mounted unit to make a super-medic and the rest I'll settle in the HE city or build an Academy in a second city to have two good military producers.

Every now and again, I'll put one onto one of my city raiders, just to have a general lead my armies. That doesn't really add a whole lot of benefit to your attacks and it actually harms you since you're not getting the XP bonus that you could have for your new troops, but sometimes it's cool to have Leonides or Joan of Ark leading your armies.

 

[Bureaucracy]

I prefer to settle them. Any time I attach them to a unit, the damn system makes my unit defend (even if I don't want it to!), and I end up losing it.

 

[Percy]

Yeah, it really sucks how the Generals are prioritized when defending or attacking as a stack. That's also why i'm wondering about using one to turn a mounted unit (Chariot or Horse Archer) into a Medic III. Okay, they get Withdrawal and 2 moves, but they don't get any defense bonus. Is that a way to make sure the game doesn't use them as defenders, thus "protecting" them ?

 

[axident]

Yeah, it really sucks how the Generals are prioritized when defending or attacking as a stack. That's also why i'm wondering about using one to turn a mounted unit (Chariot or Horse Archer) into a Medic III. Okay, they get Withdrawal and 2 moves, but they don't get any defense bonus. Is that a way to make sure the game doesn't use them as defenders, thus "protecting" them ?

GG units make great defenders if attached to a highly experienced Modern Armor. Combat 6, Drill 4, Leadership, and Morale = almost invincible except to air units. I once had such a MA land on someone's shores and absorb 47 cavalry attacks with zero damage.

 

[Percy]

Sorry, i'm talking about early to mid game... Late game in Civ kinda bores me, as it takes way too much time ^^

 

[petey]

Yeah, it really sucks how the Generals are prioritized when defending or attacking as a stack. That's also why i'm wondering about using one to turn a mounted unit (Chariot or Horse Archer) into a Medic III. Okay, they get Withdrawal and 2 moves, but they don't get any defense bonus. Is that a way to make sure the game doesn't use them as defenders, thus "protecting" them ?

Mounted units are generally the worst defenders, so if you have your GG attached to them, you don't have to use it to defend all that much since the other units are selected first. Put it on a chariot or a horse archer and then never upgrade the unit and it won't get selected as the defender.

Every now and again, you'll lose a fight with one of your attacking units and leave an AI defender with less than 1 strength. Use your GG to kill this guy to get the XP, but otherwise, just have him sit there.

 

[popejubal]

Mounted units are generally the worst defenders, so if you have your GG attached to them, you don't have to use it to defend all that much since the other units are selected first. Put it on a chariot or a horse archer and then never upgrade the unit and it won't get selected as the defender.

Every now and again, you'll lose a fight with one of your attacking units and leave an AI defender with less than 1 strength. Use your GG to kill this guy to get the XP, but otherwise, just have him sit there.

I recall reading that Siege units ALWAYS defend last in BtS. If this is true, then a Medic III Catapult with the extra point of movement might be a worthwhile investment. You can tag along with the army and even bombard the enemy cities to provide extra use for the unit.

Don't forget the 10 XP Woodsman III Scout that you put together from the early game.

 

[NaZdReG]

there's a fixed version of epic nextwar called "expanded" that has the late game techs and units from nextwar and the fixes from solver's unofficial patch.

you should see a warlord led assault mech.. holy cow

give it combat 1,2,3 and nanoids so it heals like 40% in enemy lands every turn... nearly unstoppable

NaZ

 

[petey]

I recall reading that Siege units ALWAYS defend last in BtS. If this is true, then a Medic III Catapult with the extra point of movement might be a worthwhile investment. You can tag along with the army and even bombard the enemy cities to provide extra use for the unit.

Don't forget the 10 XP Woodsman III Scout that you put together from the early game.

The catapult's a good idea. The only problem is that if the AI hits your stack with a bunch of its own seige units before attacking, the catapults will be the only things that aren't damaged and will then defend first. If you have your chariot knocked down to 2 health after the bombardment, it won't matter so much, since all your swordsmen will still have 3 and be selected first.

For the Scout, they can't attack, so you can't get the additional XP you need to get the healing while moving promotion and the like.

 

[Percy]

Flanking attacks would be a great danger for your General Catapult.

BTW: Ballista Elephants would also be, for your Mounted General.

 

[axident]

Mounted units are generally the worst defenders, so if you have your GG attached to them, you don't have to use it to defend all that much since the other units are selected first. Put it on a chariot or a horse archer and then never upgrade the unit and it won't get selected as the defender.

Every now and again, you'll lose a fight with one of your attacking units and leave an AI defender with less than 1 strength. Use your GG to kill this guy to get the XP, but otherwise, just have him sit there.

Good posts. I don't use GGs on units usually, but the tactic remains the same if you take a chariot and have it mop up once in a while to get to Medic II.

 

[Bureaucracy]

Put it on a chariot or a horse archer and then never upgrade the unit and it won't get selected as the defender.

By doing so, you miss out on the free-upgrades deal, which was supposed to be yet another reason why to attach leaders in the first place.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Combat II + Amphibious will keep him from needing to defend (make sure you have a strong boat to guard him, though).

Then start stacking City Raider....

 

[petey]

By doing so, you miss out on the free-upgrades deal, which was supposed to be yet another reason why to attach leaders in the first place.

That's true if you're using it as an offensive unit, but the point of a medic is to heal up everyone else to keep the stack moving quicker. You don't want to risk this unit in a fight with less than 95% odds and you can control that when you're the attacker. If you upgrade it to a Knight as soon as Guilds comes along, you'll make it one of your strongest units right there, which means that it will get attacked first by the AI, which risks its survival and can put a major brake on your assault. Once you get to Riflemen, etc, sure, upgrade your Chariot to a Knight, but before that it's counterproductive to do it just because you get it for free.

If you put a GG on your city raiders, then the free upgrades are awesome. Medics want to hang around in the background, though.

 

[SealJuice]

I have attached a lot of generals to units. I noticed in Warlords that my units with generals tend to die despite very good odds. This got so obvious that I stopped doing it. I do not know if BTS fixed this.