increasing generals command rating

[mikey]

If i command the battle myself i can hardly ever increase a generals command rating, but if i leave the game to automatically work out the results of the battle no matter how small the battle i get more increases that way.

Anyone got any ideas

[MiniKiller]

maybe it uses them more randomly or rushes the gen's into battles i dunno.

[Ludens]

Perhaps you are figthing with generals who already have high command ratings? They will require more victories to rise a level.
BTW I have heard that you get LESS increases in command rating when you auto resolve. Perhaps it isn't a simple 'victory-counter' and the number of casualties for both you and your enemy are also taken in the calculation.

[NobleJms]

For some unknown reasons, I found out that my generals command rating increases if you put them long enough in a castle, keep, or any fortifications. Does anyone find out the same thing? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/handball.gif

[Sociopsychoactive]

Nope, not unless you succesfully defend that keep several times.

The first few stars are easy to get, and therefore can be attained by auto resolving easy, small scale battles, but to go from 4-5 or higher takes a major battle or several.

I've found that it;s not just number of battles, it;s also kill counts and such, when trying to train up two pathetic heirs I insited revolts in provinces in order for them to fight the rebels. They were 0* and 1*, and it took three battles for the 0* to get 1, and 5 battles for the 1* to get 2, and all the battles were against miniscule amounts of rebels. In a large scale battle, say defending against a crusade, I've had a general go up three stars in three battles (starting off with 0, ending up with three).

[motorhead]

@Sociopsychoactive
- are you sure no V&Vs affected the command ratings you saw? Heirs often get one of the pride vices which subtracts from command. So, an heir may start with 2-stars, minus 2 for pride so effectively 0-star, but he has to earn enough victories as if he were trying to attain his 3rd star. Since he was born a 2-star commander he needs 2 more victories to attain his 3rd rank, minus the penalty for pride, and he'll show up as having just 1-star.

The general moving up quickly may have picked up a good virtue such as skilled attacker/defender.

From a post from another thread:

Quote[/b] ]Stars are gained in the following fashion...

Generals Stars (Ranks)

Rank Net Victories
1 1
2 2
3 4
4 8
5 16
6 32
7 64

[maestro]

To get my Generals to increase in rank and valour I always play the battles myself. That way you can use your general's troops to target massive, weaker troops like peasants and urbane militia. Try using weak, cheap troops like peasants to lock the eney units into melee combat then charge them from the flank with your general's squad. You'll score massive kills for your general and quickly gain command, valour and combat V&Vs.

Al'

[katank]

command is great but morale is perhaps even more important.

to gain either, just target masses of weak troops. i build up my heirs by sending them on frontal single rank charges against peasants and the like.

use the steppes for this. pull every last man outta da province and then set taxes to highest, voila instant rebellion.

i use lithuania and livonia for this usually and shuffle back and forth.

confiscate lands can also make you very rich

[myself]

This is something i've been doing a lot lately, hope it helps.

I use a one unit defense tactic comprised of a fast mounted missile unit, in my case i use the Boyar but any faster units are better. When ever there is a rebellion about to break or you know of an invasion to one of your provinces (usually i reload after a faction invades one of my provinces), I send in my one unit general. Don't auto resolve the combat, instead command it yourself and try to stay alive for the 30 minute countdown. If the enemy is a slower unit, you can usually take some shots at non missile units and score some kill. Otherwise just run and run til the 30 minute timer is up. When the time is up, you win, and this counts as a victory and count towards your star. In addition you will probably get skilled last stand and one of the skilled defender vices depending on how many times you've done this and how many you've killed. Use the speed up time whenever you can.

[Mysterium]

Has anyone else noticed that when auto-resolving with a powerful general, the general is the only guy left in his unit very often? I'll occasionally auto-resolve when I've got a good general outnumbering the enemy, and I'm alway a little disturbed that he's the sole survivor. It's like the computer doesn't want to kill him off, because that would make me mad (and it would) but it's still sending his unit in harmls way.

[myself]

what is the outcome of the auto resolve? does your general win with just him left in the army? or does he flee with just himself left in the army? If he wins the battle with just himself left, it might be that he has the mightwarrior vice chains... in the case of legendary warrior he'll have 20 health, and as most enemies have 1 this means he'll out last quite a few enemies that come his way and also gain valour faster which will add to his resilience. If on the other hand your general ends up getting captured and is being asked for a ransome, the computer probably wanted to keep him around to make sure you lose some money (just my guess). on the third case if your general flees by himself, its most likely that when the computer is calculating out auto combat factors, his health is was the only thing that kept him from being wiped completely til he was able to escape. These are all just my speculations tho... i could be way off. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif