Generals and Traits

[Vikingmad]

Basically, I am playing a slow chivalry campaign as the english. I am neutral or allied with all catholic factions except the HRE. My goal is to let all the factions really build up their forces before I attack. In the meantime I have taken out most of Egypt and now concentrating on Turkey.

I have a habit of putting a General in every city. Anyway I did an exercise of removing a general from everyone of my cities and every case the city made more money. All my generals had 'bad trader' 'corrupt' 'extravagent' traits.

So using the console I removed all their traits and gave every general 'good administrator' stats and high chivalry. Great all my cities started making more money. But then not 3 turns late every single one of my generals got the 'bad with taxes' and 'extravagant' trait. Every single on.

This never annoyed me when I didn't care about it before, but now it is driving me insane. I feell like quitting this game dammit. :furious3:

[Ethelred Unread]

have you got the town hall line of buildings in each city?

IIRC these stop the governors getting bad admin traits - you also need to make sure the tax rates aren't too low (or too high) as this also gives bad traits.

[Vikingmad]

have you got the town hall line of buildings in each city?

IIRC these stop the governors getting bad admin traits - you also need to make sure the tax rates aren't too low (or too high) as this also gives bad traits.

I have a town hall in every city - every single one. As for taxation I set that to the computer to decide.

[PBI]

Also make sure you have at least a grain exchange in every city.

But once your treasury reaches a certain size (50000 I think) all you generals will start picking up bad traits regardless, there is nothing you can do about this.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Also make sure that you don't build a brothel. That will also give your general some bad traits.

[cassu]

you can always spend so that it dosent reach 50k :beam:. i always try to spend so that i have 20-40k but it becomes nearly impossible in the late game

[ataribaby]

Hope you find this post from another thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=101395) useful:
Firstly, never let any general end his turn in a town/city that doesn't have a finished Grain Exchange. I always get the Grain Exchange built first before anything just so that I can get a general to govern there safely. That way they avoid the Bad Trader traits (10% trade penalty for each level).

Next get your governor to build lots of good buildings; that is have a general stay in the city for the last turn of completion of the building. Never have a governor complete a building with Normal or Low taxes. Best to move him outside if you can't manage not to do that without red faced people.

Try for the 'Good With Taxes' traits each time you complete a building. Make sure you set the tax level to Very High and try and get the population happiness to blue (75% or 80% - no more, no less) by moving garrisonned units in and out until the people turn blue in the face. This is sometimes impossible so don't worry if you can't do it every time: it's an odd set of circumstances to acheive but the rewards are worth trying.

After 'Good With Taxes' there's 'Thorough Taxman' and then 'Cruelly Exacting Taxman'. Each level gives a 10% boost to tax income.

You should aim for each general to build at least one church and one town hall. That way they'll have a chivalry point for 'Fair In Rule' and another for 'Sense of Justice'. Get them to go on a crusade for at least 2 chivalry plus chivalrous retinue, and any settlement you take with a general, choose to Occupy Settlement - roughly 1 chivalry each time.

Your governors will get 5+ chivalry in no time, and for each point there's a population increase boost of 0.5%. A 10 chivalry governor boosts the city's growth rate by 5%!

Lastly, always move your governors at least one square out and then back into the settlement before you end the turn. That way they avoid the majority of bad traits from brothels and inns and the like.

Job's a good 'un, and don't forget to look at Kobavelli's The Prince : a guide to breeding the perfect statesman (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=86130)

[Anonymous II]

...you also need to make sure the tax rates aren't too low (or too high) as this also gives bad traits.

I'm not sure if I agree with the low taxes. My experience is that the governor mostly get good traits by collecting low taxes. First of all, he becomes chivalrous, he also gets some traits that says he's fair to the population or something like that. My governors always make sure the cities earn more than a city without a governor this way.

I agree with the "too high" tax point of yours though. If I want to tax a city's population with very high taxes, I make sure not to have a governor there.

me :scholar:

[St.Jimmy]

you can always spend so that it dosent reach 50k :beam:. i always try to spend so that i have 20-40k but it becomes nearly impossible in the late game
Couldent you just give it away? Playing as a catholic faction you could give it to the pope? (or any other faction if you wanted to be on good terms). I like to sack cities and break aliances so my gens pick up bad traits anyway. Dident realise you picked em up for just having to much money.

[PBI]

I suppose you could give it away, but by the time you're amassing that much money the chances are your economy has already reached critical mass, so the fact that your governors pick up a few bad economic traits doesn't really make much difference.