I've just about had it!

[Theseus]

Small side note on elite management:

Later, when the value of GLs declines, I often do NOT preserve my fastmover elites (e.g., Cavs), but use them to bust down defender hps, depending on the higher retreat percentage.

Going back to the first post: RonnieMac, it's all in the percentages. Keep at it, learn the value of early warfare, and of a surfeit of units...

If you REALLY want GLs, learn how to create and use GL-generation battalions: a) ancient era version, a Spear and some Swords, and later b) a forward mountain fortress, some defenders, and a large number of fastmover attackers.

[Datajack Franit]

I could never get more than one leader, figure out 12...

[pedrojedi]

The number of GL we get seems sometimes to grow as your practice grow. But definitively having a militaristic civ is a great jump.

PS: I'm playing as vikings now, and the GL has not come yet (I'm in the start of medieval age). I'm getting nervous.

[steven8r]

I think the expected ratio is 1 GL per every 16 Elite battles or something. So every time one of your Elites engages in a skirmish there is a 1/16 chance that he will generate a Leader (if he wins).

Once you build the Heroic Epic, that ratio drops to 1/12. Presumably, you'd get a GL after every 12 battles. Rememer, it's a percentage, not a hard and fast rule.

Being Militaristic helps your units achieve Elite status faster than the non Militaristic civs.
Note: any unit that attacks or is attacked twice in the same round will advance a level.

Just hang in there RonnieMac. You'll get a GL before too long. In fact, you might just get more than you can handle.

Is there such a thing as "too many GL's"? It's pretty bad when you have to use them to rush things like Temples or Libraries, but you have to use them up in order to get more.

[minke19104]

Originally posted by pedrojedi
The number of GL we get seems sometimes to grow as your practice grow. But definitively having a militaristic civ is a great jump.

PS: I'm playing as vikings now, and the GL has not come yet (I'm in the start of medieval age). I'm getting nervous.

Are you using your Beserkirs alot? They are really GL makers, since they have the best attack until tanks, and theyre even better if you do not capture the cities from galleys. If they fail to capture a city pull back the galley out of enemy border. Let it rest there, then attack again. While in the ocean no one can touch the beserkir, except for enemy galleys attack your own. This is much better than having them try to defend a captured city with 1 defense.

Continuosly use Beserkir to their maximum advantage. Attack, capture, fortify, sail and find another city. You'll get one soon...

[pedrojedi]

Actually, my problem is exactly having to lie all expectations on my berserkir... since I'm far away behind in tech, and do not have horses, I only have slow-movers... and the situation gets worse with the fact that the enemy already have the gunpowder and can be even further ahead; I did not manage a good early initial strikes project, so I'm going down for good I think.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I have a problem consistently generating leaders, like some of you have expressed. I wage war quite a bit, and I only attack weak units with my elites.

I think my problem, actually, may be precisely that: I build a huge advantage numbers-wise before I go to war, generally all veterans, and I never want to "waste" an elite on a direct city attack, so I keep cranking out veterans and using them, and by the end of the war, I have tons of elites, but at most 1 GL out of the whole deal.

I play on a huge war, and the principle of perpetual war is a little tricky there, as I can have up to 6 borders to worry about at a given time, if I'm on the big continent...

...so in other words, I think my problem is actually something that I saw recommended as a GL-generating technique on this thread: oversaturation of troops.

It's a possbility, ne c'est pas?

[Arrian]

Yahweh,

I tend to generate many (if not most) of my leaders using obselete units.

That may sound odd, but bear with me.

My first round of wars will typically be with swordsmen and horsemen. Sometimes I will use archers even earlier. Anyway, with my most common approach (large sword/horse attack), I will often end up with a goodly number of elites by the time my early waring winds down. So when I continue fighting with Knights, I keep my old elite horsemen & swordsmen around to knock off weak targets, and often get a slew of elites out of that.

I almost never upgrade elite units until they generate a leader. I've generated leaders from using elite horsemen alongside Cavalry. I often end the game with leftover elite Knights, Cavalry, etc alongside my Modern Armor. To me, an elite unit that lacks an asterisk is a unit that hasn't done its job yet.

-Arrian

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Trust me, Arrian, I do the same thing. I just don't seem to get the same results.

I've kept elite archers up until the age of tanks, or later.