Ways of using a Great General

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Ways of using a Great General

Super Healer

The most common use in multiplayer of a general is a Super Healer, a unit (almost always scout or explorer) with Medic I-III promotion. It is moved together with slow stacks in order to hit, heal and hit another city. Also in defense it can factually strengthen all your defending units in case the attack lasts longer then one turn.

The March promotion only works for the healer itself, not for the stack it´s healing. Is it negligible since the healer is supposed to net get into fights himself till the bitter end anyway, hence scout or explorer as unit of choice.

Military Academy

+3
+50% military unit production
Can be built by Great General

The Military Academy requires the technology Military Science which so low priority in Renaissance games that you will see it only in Industrial and above. In Modern and Future it is very easy to get a city to producing one unit per turn. So the only target for the Military Academy are Industrial games. There though it´s a good and often overseen option to get that magic one unit per turn in a city.

Settling in City

The main reason for settling a general in a city is in order to boost a not Aggressive (the trait) against an aggressive civ or the other way round. The general enables a not aggressive civ which is at an disadvantage during early unit on unit fights (ancient to medieval start) access to the shock promotion (+25% vs. melee units). An aggressive civ can promote city raider I and II or forest cover I and II, giving it different options for early action. The boost of a settled general gets slower the more cities a player has making the percentage of the army that comes from that city smaller.

Super Unit

A example of a Super Unit would be a Swordsman with Cover (+25% against archers) and City Raider I-III (80% city attack).Such a unit can make the difference between choking and killing someone who is defending with archers against early send metal units or enable pillaging a players metal.The main use for the Super Unit though is a defensive unit, like a Spear that was even more strenghtened against horseback units or a Longbow with city defense I-III and more. In a crucial situation where bare survival of a player means the victory for his team, such a unit can make all the difference.

Additional promotion for small stack

Another nice trick is the ability of a general to give several units one additional promotion. This can be a an additional city raider and shock promotion for a stack of 10 Swordsman. Units having 3 experience require another 2 (if not charismatic, then 1) for the next (crucial) promotion. That´s 10 units for a non-charismatic and 20 for a charismatic that a general can "upgrade".

Example: In an ancient start 5v5 Team_Battleground you got Bouddicca of Rome with a non-agressive leader. you build 20 praetorians with barracks and receive a general from your bravely fighting Imperialistic team mate. Now your 20 praetorians got enourmously stronger by each receiving another promotion. City Raider I and II is an option, combat I and Shock another.

5-move-galley

In order to promote a galley with a general, it has to be empty and the general loaded in and then attached. Once done the galley has access to promotions Morale, Flanking I -> Navigation I and II, giving it an overall of 5 moves.

This can be used to hit opposing cities that otherwise at this technological point in the game wouldn´t be accessible by sea units or at least none with 5 moves. It´s not often a 5-move-galley can kill a city because of its suprising nature, but I´ve seen it done in competetive games more often then you´d think.

The Commando

Promoting a unit to a Commando is the best - so good, it´s the only choice in Modern and Future start games. Here is a description done by Imhotep in an earlier article on Attacking in multiplayer.

Using the Commando promotion is an advanced attack option in the later eras. The Commando promotion is enabled if a unit has the Combat IV promotion and is eligible for another promotion (so basically it’s enabled at 26 XP for non-aggressive and non-charismatic leaders/ at 17 XP for aggressive leaders / at 13 XP for aggressive and charismatic leaders). The Commando promotion allows the unit to use the roads/railroads in enemy terrain. This is used a lot in Modern and Future era games – you can either direct hit a city with Gunships and then use the Commando unit to kill the empty city (of course the Commando needs enemy roads leading to the city for that) or you can aim for the back cities which often are empty or only garrisoned with 1 or 2 units. To see how this works I’d suggest creating a Commando unit and toy around with it in Single Player mode using WorldBuilder. A Commando in action:

[rah]

Good write up. I've never done the 5 move galley and that opens up some interesting options on certain maps/situations.

I never use one on a scout for a super medic, and the promotions I would take for a super healer would be the triple jungle promotion.
The reason I use a combat unit is eventually it can also become a super unit. If you're worried about it being killed on defense (you can make sure early it stays a warrior, axe or whatever is a few level s below your strong units, and get the same type of safety, or at least no worse than an explorer) And as a combat unit you can still get more experience points cleaning up after all the cannons (or whatever) have been used. Yes, you may lose one every now and then but the return is worth the risk.

And the one benefit you missed in the stack promotion was it can be done in a hurt stack and those promos used to get some heal to help survive the next turn.

[jobe]

I never use one on a scout for a super medic, and the promotions I would take for a super healer would be the triple jungle promotion.
The reason I use a combat unit is eventually it can also become a super unit. If you're worried about it being killed on defense (you can make sure early it stays a warrior, axe or whatever is a few level s below your strong units, and get the same type of safety, or at least no worse than an explorer) And as a combat unit you can still get more experience points cleaning up after all the cannons (or whatever) have been used. Yes, you may lose one every now and then but the return is worth the risk.

Those don´t have two moves, which is important for many stacks, almost all stacks in MP, where mobility is key. A so-called "slow stack" will be obliterated in most games unless it can move next to an opposing city over hills/forest which provide defense bonuses or is so superior that it cannot be hit. Otherwise opposing catapults and defensive stack will take care of it very fast. Sometimes it would work with 1 move as well though, still I wouldn´t want it to defend at any point.

And the one benefit you missed in the stack promotion was it can be done in a hurt stack and those promos used to get some heal to help survive the next turn.

It´s unlikely that once you´ve gotten a Great General the game is at a point in time where you can attack with only 5 or 10 units. In MP stacks (of a team of 3 for example) often consists of 100 and way more than that units. Also if you don´t use the promotions those units won´t survive a combat to heal afterwards. It´s true that you can leave some of your units unpromoted to have them hit and heal afterwards, though in order to do that you already need to ahve good odds from the beginning, possibly the chance of retreat (horseback units) and the opponent not have a big defensive army that can itself hit your stack.

You are absolutely right though that I missed the healing abilities as an option in certain situations, namely on defense. Being able to heal a couple of units and give them another promo can and often does mean the difference between a city living or dying!

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That's another benefit of assigning it to a combat unit instead of an explorer. You can get additional experience points and select the mobility promo so that's not a problem and the triple jungle allows two movement in forests that a couple such units can create some serious headaches for you opponents or moving quickly to another stack that needs healing help. Early on you're probably using slow stacks with cats anyway. You even said "It is moved together with slow stacks". Later with the mobility promo he can keep up with you fast movers. And with the triple jungle for healing might provide a super defender on the right square.

Very rarely are our MP games team games, so some of the strats are a bit different. We rarely wait for 100 unit SODs, the fun begins earlier.

[jobe]

That's another benefit of assigning it to a combat unit instead of an explorer. You can get additional experience points and select the mobility promo so that's not a problem and the triple jungle allows two movement in forests that a couple such units can create some serious headaches for you opponents or moving quickly to another stack that needs healing help. Early on you're probably using slow stacks with cats anyway. You even said "It is moved together with slow stacks". Later with the mobility promo he can keep up with you fast movers. And with the triple jungle for healing might provide a super defender on the right square.

Very rarely are our MP games team games, so some of the strats are a bit different. We rarely wait for 100 unit SODs, the fun begins earlier.

100 units, that´s 50 turns in an Renaissance game, an hour or one and a half depending on lag . And I very much doubt that there is anywhere more interction in terms of units send all game long than in those games I talk about

I don´t think we play different games - it´s just different people playing them. Pitboss is the same to our ffa or in most parts Ironman games.

[rah]

Again, a way different style of game. I'm usually in normal speed ancient games. But we still manage cannons in a few hours. And I'm sure as dissimilar as our games our, that they still share many similarities. I never really liked speed team games for some reason. Different strokes for different folks. But again I love strat discussions and appreciate your recent deluge of threads. It's nice to discuss IV for a change.

[Dinner]

I liked that write up.

[wodan11]

I agree that making a non-scout/explorer a super medic has advantages. I often do it on a warrior or chariot.

We have to acknowledge other uses, and educate ourselves on when/how they are beneficial, if the goal is to have a well-rounded strategy article (which it seems it is).

One thing I've done myself in the past is that, when someone posts a strategy I have doubts about, I go and try to use and abuse it myself. That's how I've learned so much about different ways of playing. Nothing like first-hand experience.

For an early war, yes a scout is probably easiest/best. But for the next war, that's when other types shine. It's quite easy to get the triple-heal medic, and it's huge to be able to heal in opponent's territory.

[rah]

One thing I've done myself in the past is that, when someone posts a strategy I have doubts about, I go and try to use and abuse it myself.

FTW

[Theben]

For healers I've done a 2 unit "stack" with one unit getting the Woods III promo and the other with the general the Medic III. Uses an extra unit but you have great healing from the get-go... and Woods III has +2 1st strikes so there's some extra strength.