About Great General attributes

[Solver]

Hey, if your leader dies after taking out 20 units, that's still a great investment. The game is all about relative costs, after all.

[Pinchak]

I usually dedicate all warlords to one "war unit" city.

Academy first, then start stacking great instructors.

Thats the gift that keeps on giving.

[Thedrin]

Don't chariots only upgrade to horse archers in Vanilla? In Warlords don't you have to wait for knights before upgrading chariots?

[Provost Harrison]

Chariots are very useful in themselves for fending off axemen...the Egyptian war chariot is fantastic against those pesky barbarians (and Montezuma )

[Nacht]

Originally posted by mkorin
He gives the city +3 science, +2 culture and more importantly +2 exp. for all units created there.

If you are running representation and build the Sistine Chapel, sure. Otherwise it's just the +2 exp.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Pinchak
I usually dedicate all warlords to one "war unit" city.

Academy first, then start stacking great instructors.

Thats the gift that keeps on giving.

After creating the first unit to unlock some of the special buildings (usually a super medic), I do pretty much the same thing. However, I may create one or more additional super medics as needed, but I also love creating the war unit city. It's simply amazing how many units one city can crank out

[petermarkab]

Don't you also need a level 4 unit for heroic epic, then a level 6 unit for ... that other thing i can't remember! (think it comes with Military tradition)

I always use 1st GG for XPs on one unit then do academy or assign to city. Remember that by running the representation civic, your GG generates an additional 3 beakers per turn on top of his other benefits.

[MattDoyle]

West Point

[lockstep]

About "war unit cities" and warlord units:

I, too, dedicate one city with high hammer potential (if possibe, two food ressources and lots of hills within the fat cross) for unit production. Heroic Epic and West Point will be built here, and GG's (save one for a warlord unit) will be stacked as military instructors and be used to create a Military Academy. (+50% unit production may be overkill in the end game, but it definitely pays off in the middle game when you crank out level 4 cavalry every 2 instead of 3 turns). If I fight many wars, my war unit city will eventually produce level 5 units (barracks, West Point, 4 instructors, Pentagon (or vassalage or theocracy) = 17 xp). If I'm Persia (charismatic/imperialistic), I will build level 6 units out of the gate (like above, but 6 instructors = 21 xp). Talk about city raider III, combat II armor.

Warlord units will die as often as not (if you don't go the medic III route), but I find them worthwhile nonetheless. First, I don't want to worry about getting a level 6 unit (and being able to build West Point) the "normal" way - my level 5 units always seem to have bad fighting luck. Second, if you're fighting major wars with lots of city attacks, your warlord unit will not have to engage in suicidal attacks, but can be used to pick off enemy units already wounded with odds of 90+% (95+% if you're anxious). Naturally, you need other strong units in your attack stack so your warlord won't have to defend when heavily wounded. If you manage to reach level 9 (which is realistic with non-charismatic civs), you have a combat VI, tactics, leadership unit that will have good odds in any fight. (Especially the combat VI promotion seems to do the trick.) Reach level 12 (doable for charismatic civs) for combat VI, flanking II, tactics, leadership, blitz, and your warlord unit will be nearly invincible.

[Blake]

It's not a bad idea to spread out GG's to multiple unit pumps, if you have multiple suitable cities (as should be the case if you're going nuts with warmongering).

The idea, is to like first get 2 cities capable of popping out lvl3 units with no civics (3exp + 2exp), if Charismatic you can simply use Vassalage+Theology to bring both cities up to lvl4 unit pumps. Also remember to take advantage of Stables to make up the difference.

Typically you'll do better with multiple cities pumping out lvl4 units than one city pumping out lvl5 units - you don't actually get any good promotion at lvl5. Like siege units max out their barrage at lvl4, City raider is maxed out at lvl4, at lvl4 you can pick up Formation, after this you're only getting the low powered combat promotions, or promotions of only secondary use.

As a rule Charismatic is very good for spreading generals, Spiritual is also good for being able to run Vassalage+Theology on a whim. The Mongols also have a benefit, as any city with a general easily hits 11exp mounted units - just run Vassalage or Theology. If not charismatic, spiritual or mongol then it can take so many generals to get a city up to lvl4 that you pretty much end up concentrating generals anyway.

One particularly good use of General spreading is to get a number of cities popping out 5exp units, without bothering with theology/vassalage at any point in the game. This can be good if you war a bit but don't want to compromise on economy.

[Grandpa Troll]

Great strategies and usefullness of this unit

Keep 'em coming good folks

Gramps

[Will9]

With, Heoric Epic, West Point (and since I've modded my game I'd also have Iron Works), a barracks, a Millitary Advisor, and a Millitary Acadamy in one city plus the Pentagon somewhere, you can make exp. 11 units every turn. If you have Vassalage and Theocracy thay are 15 exp. If you are Charismatic, that is 4 promtions with no combat. If you are Boudica in BTS, you can get Combat 5 units with no combat.

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Blake
Typically you'll do better with multiple cities pumping out lvl4 units than one city pumping out lvl5 units - you don't actually get any good promotion at lvl5. Like siege units max out their barrage at lvl4, City raider is maxed out at lvl4, at lvl4 you can pick up Formation, after this you're only getting the low powered combat promotions, or promotions of only secondary use.

I respectfully disagree for two reasons. First, although level 5 generally may open up only second-rate promotions (though I still find another +10% strength useful), I will give city raider siege units accuracy as their second promotion to reduce the number of turns necessary to bring city defense bonuses to zero (and so to minimize the danger of having to face reinforcements). Therefore, I want level 5 siege units for the combination city raider III, accuracy.

Second, it's not exactly about multiple cities cranking out level 4 units versus only one level 5-city. My "war unit city" will also have the Heroic Epic and eventually a Military Academy which together result in +150% unit production. In other words, this city will crank out five units for every two units of the same type another city will produce. So you need either three other cities with settled GG's (and civics as needed for level 4), or two other GG-cities with a Military Academy in one of them to match the "war unit city". So, while spreading GG's is surely a solid approach, I don't view it as a clear-cut way to "typically do better".

[Blake]

It depends on the leader, terrain, map size and more.

Larger maps mean you have more viable military pumps and more incentive to spread, a small map may only have one good production city site making it moot.

Brennus (Cha/Spi) is the classic general-spreading leader, because with a single GG in a city he can pop out lvl4 units whenever he wants (by switching to Theo+Vassalage) - that's a really good deal, just 1 GG for lvl4 units.

I feel that Imperialistic leaders tend to favor "Towers of Power" type military pumps, Imperialistic is the weakest economic trait* (in terms of paying for what you have, it's not bad for expansion) so there is a quality over quantity argument and strong incentive for hardcore city specialization.

* Even Aggressive and Protective are better economic traits - you can get by with fewer units and sustain fewer losses in war. Imperialistic has NOTHING other than the minor discount on settlers which is less than most traits cheap buildings.

[DanQ]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=164765