And I learned a few new things here so hopefully it will be continued.
In the meantime, let's have a skill discussion since many questions arose when reading the first post. I'm taking a skeptical position (if my experiences give me reason to do so) here with the goal to ultimately come to a deeper understanding :-p
1. Plain Fighting : Plain Fighting works everywhere, except when on Mountains and Jungles. Plains are basically everywhere so it's a very useful skill. The difference is evident in Govorov especially.
Certainly the best among all terrain skills but it also makes you not use the defense bonus provided by cities/single buildings, forests, mountains and there are rivers, swamps, desert and snow tiles which also don't grant bonus damage. Heck this might even be the reason why Leeb can be considered better than Govorov: "limited" movement/positioning and 2 less damage than these "+12 when attacking" skills. And if Govorov is on a heavy art he will not profit form PF when enemies sneak up to him and attack him at close range.
I rank it just below SF, because, like you said, no defense buffs, and cities give all kinds of fun things.
I rank it above SF, if works in urban settings and the only "major" general with it is Govorov, you won't need defense anyways.
2. Fire Suppression : Reduces certain % of enemy's attack. Great skill
It works only when being counterattacked during our turn, so statistically, Guerrilla is better.
The appeal to this is that it is consistent, which IMO puts it far ahead of Guerilla, but...
Guerilla/Blitzkrieg is mathematically superior, though consistency is good.
3. Plunder Supply : Restores certain % of hp on killing units. Very good, especially on Heavy Tanks. Even more so if you can kill enemies multiple times.
? killing one stack or the whole unit and which numbers are we talking (roughly, for example after killing infantry - heavy tank)
One Stack, and the numbers we are talking about are 12% of a stack.
4. Leadership : Reduces the cost of recruiting troops by 50%. Really great skill, especially on a free general like Bock. It makes putting Bock on Heavy Tanks viable. Just know that stacking your general with Tank costs 36, whereas stacking a Heavy tank with Leadership costs just 25.
It's a little confusing, the numbers should be 36/18 for medium and 50/25 for heavy tanks. Btw I love this skill, it's a shame no strong general has it.
Bock would like to have a word with you on "no strong gen has it."
Bock basically has 3*s with no skills. Just an economic general, like Gamelin or Badoglio. It's like getting Bagramyan in WC4 in terms of output.
9. Economics : Gives certain extra gold when in cities. Situational again, but great when put to use. Have this general capture most of the cities for maximum output.
? will this also work on oil platforms and ports
It works on any building tile, regardless even if it produces money, and it works everywhere in AG. So, yes.
10. Jungle fighting : Gives certain extra damage when in Jungles. Very Good for non ranged units because forests give +2 defense. Good for ranged units.
One could argue that ranged units have more choice when positioning because they don't need to stand next to the target, so they can make better use of "rare" terrain
I would say the opposite. Ranged units are slower, and really hard to position into Jungles.
14. Logistics : Great for navy units. Especially considering that Ships are expensive to heal and land units are not.
Imo it's a "nice to have" at best. And, since it's a fixed amount of 8 HP/round it even becomes worse when progressing in the game.
I completely agree, but it still isn't bad, like Plunder, although Plunder does get better.
The only significant generals that have Logistics are Mountbatten and Nagumo, and Plunder is very limited, only on Rundstedt (significally).
17. Machinist : Gives certain increase in HP when replenishing. Has more effect if your General has stars. Still, an ok skill.
? stars=more HP via promotion? if so then I think it becomes worse, I'd really like some opinions here
Stars = Less HP. Still, a gold machinist restores 1/2 HP rather than like 1/3.
18. Samurai : Prevents morale drop. Great skill
I agree and would rank this way higher
I would say that since it is only present for the Axis and they get Special Forces that can do that, it is inferior to other skills.
Only Yamashita and Kuri have it and you really only want it early on as you can't save your infantry across the map in 2 turns, but you have Guderian early on. Worse than Plunder, one of the reasons I now consider Rundstedt to be better than Yamashita.
23. Ace forces : Your units gain exp more faster and level up more faster. I don't really care about units levelling up. But it's a good bonus.
Becomes next to useless when tech becomes lv6 because then there is only one more level up.
Nah, it is still good on infantry as they are constantly filling, and losing XP. Nice to get it Back.
Unless you can constantly/consistently cram damage in, AF will be a burden, as all F2P Top 3 Infantry have a defensive skill.
25. Elastic Defense : Goes BOOM BOOM! when infantry attacks ships. Bad otherwise.
? why is this good in the given example
Because it is great, especially on coastal artillery. Reduces significant damage, like 10% if you have a decent SF.
It's good to have when you are in need of a defensive general. Model is the only significant general who has it, and he can tank some hits.
26. Amphibious : Bonus damage when attacking enemy units from sea. Extremely situational. In fact so much that it's a bad skill.
? Does anyone have experience with this? Is the full damage calculated with the navy stars or with the land unit stars?
It just happens to be that bot amphibious generals have equal stars in inf and navy... but with the aura from Donitz I can confirm that it's the navy stars that count.
Navy Stars are the ones that count, yup.
28. Scout : Meh, only useful if you want to use your general as a punching bag for the enemy or for generals whom you use to scout. But who would use a general for such purposes?
?has anyone ever leveled up by means of this skill
Rule, Ushijima, Ushijima rules today! To no other gens shall we be slaves! In the endgame, pretty much a better Ace, Earlier on, Ace is better. But yes, I have done upgraded a ton with Ushijima.
Scout is better, all of the generals that need/can effectively use AF (besides Monty) cannot provide good enough damage.
Crowd tactics is missing and, according to Gerd von Rundstedt, quite decent
It costs resources to maintain a high(er) number of stacks on your generals and while this is easiest achieved with infantry they also take the most damage when focused.
CT requires a good defensive generals and a steady stream of money which you will most likely use for better purposes.
they generated a few more questions
