Multiple Generals in an army

**Zenicetus** · 07-12-2005, 22:14

Sometimes I've been using more than one General in an army, especially early in the campaign when I'm stretched thin, and I need more cavalry. But does that handicap the career development for the junior General in the stack?

In other words, do all the bonuses from successful/heroic battles (command stars, battle traits and honors) go only to the senior commander? Or is it divided equally between the Generals?

I tried a search on that topic but didn't find anything specific. And I haven't been playing the game long enough to spot trends like this. I'm just trying to figure out if I should be going out of my way to avoid putting more than one General in an army, even though that's occasionally very useful.

**Krauser** · 07-12-2005, 22:37

I think it only goes for the general who is leading the army. The one with the gold star I think is the one that will get bonuses from battle. The ones with silver stars are just generals helping in the army. I'm pretty sure they don't get anything. I think it's fine to do that in the beginning though.

**Marcellus** · 07-12-2005, 23:37

I think Krauser is right. I can't imagine that a general who is not actually leading an army will get experience from battle.

And welcome to the Org, Zenicetus!

**Malrubius** · 07-13-2005, 02:22

Yeah, most of the triggers use the IsGeneral condition to only give traits to the guy in charge of the stack that is the main stack in the battle. The secondary generals and the ones in other stacks won't pick up traits this way, so it's best to keep them separated unless you need them as a heavy cav unit.

**Zenicetus** · 07-13-2005, 03:10

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I think Krauser is right. I can't imagine that a general who is not actually leading an army will get experience from battle.

And welcome to the Org, Zenicetus!

Thanks everyone! I feel like I'm climbing onboard here a bit late, but at least I'll have a little time to catch up until BI is released.

I've started to redistribute my Generals to separate armies, now that the early campaign is over and I have Macedon and Greece locked down (playing as Brutii since it seems like the best introduction to the game).

**Papewaio** · 07-13-2005, 05:29

They do get unit experience though and this can be a useful thing to toughen up a potential general or a use for an otherwise useless family member... who makes a pretty tough regenerating cavalry.

I sometimes have a second general in an attacking stack (besieged defender is another story). I give the second general the job of defending the gold general and breaking the enemy where it is too risky to lose the commander.

**sapi** · 07-13-2005, 08:47

I sometimes have a second general in an attacking stack (besieged defender is another story). I give the second general the job of defending the gold general and breaking the enemy where it is too risky to lose the commander.

If you ever have a surplus of generals you can make an entire army of them...I did this once with the julii and steamrolled the brutii legionaries with 13 rejuvinating cavalry units :)

Got to be careful of autoresolve though...

**dgfred** · 07-22-2005, 17:07

Originally Posted by Papewaio

They do get unit experience though and this can be a useful thing to toughen up a potential general or a use for an otherwise useless family member... who makes a pretty tough regenerating cavalry.

I sometimes have a second general in an attacking stack (besieged defender is another story). I give the second general the job of defending the gold general and breaking the enemy where it is too risky to lose the commander.

That is what I use my second, and sometimes 3rd generals for

**Ciaran** · 07-22-2005, 19:40

Originally Posted by Papewaio

They do get unit experience though and this can be a useful thing to toughen up a potential general or a use for an otherwise useless family member... who makes a pretty tough regenerating cavalry.

I sometimes have a second general in an attacking stack (besieged defender is another story). I give the second general the job of defending the gold general and breaking the enemy where it is too risky to lose the commander.

And a second general doesn´t collect the "scarred" attributes as well, I believe. They´re the downside of having your family members fight, they might loose them a lot of influence.

**swirly_the_toilet_fish** · 07-26-2005, 04:01

As I have played, I generally take the sons of Generals into battle as soon as they come of age and have them take charges into light units for the experience. Once they reach three chevrons, I keep them in a province that has numerous slaves to subdue the small rebellions (usually on their own) to gain the "scarred" trait, command stars, etc. Generally speaking, by the time they're 20 they have at least 3 more stars, and five chevrons. This makes for very powerful early cavalry, usually within 10 to 16 turns.