Spread the love or keep it focused?

[Orvis Tertia]

I've been wondering what other players' experiences are with the question of whether it is better to use your faction leader and heir as conquering generals, thus building up their command attributes, or whether it is better to give many of your family members some time on the battlefield, thus raising everyone's level of skill.

I've kind of been vacillating back and forth on this so far, but I'm not far enough into my campaign to know which course reaps the greatest benefits.

[fey]

I think it's better to specialize your family members. You probably need at least 3-4 battlefield generals -- depends on how many armies you are fielding, how old your current generals are, etc. -- and the rest should concentrate on city management. The trick is to have a few young family members with a couple of stars so that they can suppress local brigands or organize some kind of defence to an invasion from an unexpected side...

Fey

[Orvis Tertia]

Well, I've been wondering how your faction leader's reputation as a commander affects your success with the senate and the populace. I've also wondered how much your faction leader's management ability affects your empire, if at all. If they are both important, then it would be important to make sure your faction leader and heir both get plenty of experience in both areas.

[camulos]

I was just about to make a thread regarding how people use family memebers but I'll post here instead...

What I've been doing so far is sending the family members off to every province i conquer and having them govern in. However, I'm doubting this is the best approach.

As I said in the Scipii strrategy thread, I have several family members who have aquired vices making them become "mad" ie Flavius the Mad, etc. I think this may be a result of having them govern some of the more remote areas I've conquered.

Once I get this loony bloodline out of power I plan to rework it a little bit.
1) I will keep my faction leader in the capital city.
2) I will only govern the bigger cities with family members (Carthage, Syracuse, etc as Scipii)
3) I will try to develop more good generals and armies instead of having a single conquerer.

The one thing I'm not sure about is how the Academy works. Will the family members gain skills just by hanging out in a city that has an Academy or does it just boost their initial stats? If they improve by just being in that city it would make sense to keep the majority of your younger family members there to develop instead of sending them out to remote cities where they develop vices.

[Red Harvest]

Spread the love, but not just to family members (OK, that sounds a little wierd.) When you see very small enemy forces, send out a couple of good units without any family members to clobber the invaders. This will often allow you to invite this new captain into your family through adoption or through marriage. I'm finding this handy in new far flung provinces with a shortage of governors.

[camulos]

Spread the love, but not just to family members (OK, that sounds a little wierd.) When you see very small enemy forces, send out a couple of good units without any family members to clobber the invaders. This will often allow you to invite this new captain into your family through adoption or through marriage. I'm finding this handy in new far flung provinces with a shortage of governors.

That's good to know. Do you need to have single daughters available for this?

[TinCow]

In my campaign I have found myself with three main fronts, one very hostle, one semi-hostile, one relatively peaceful. I keep one good command general on each front. The two who are defending (peaceful and semi-hostile) currently spend a lot of time developing the frontier... building watchtowers on hills and forts at choke-points. The other keeps pursuing my goal of eradicating the stinkin' Gauls.

The rest I use to manage my best cities and to deal with the random rebel armies that seem to pop up every once in a while. It's worked well so far. Also, it seems like it is MUCH easier to gain command stars than good management skills. Give a newbie general a good army and let him trounce a few enemies and he will go up rapidly.

[Ulstan]

"That's good to know. Do you need to have single daughters available for this?"

No. He just gets to be an adopted son of the faction heir (if you were wondering where he fits in in the family tree).

The only time I have had this happen was when a unit of equites killed a single brigand unit of velites to the last man.

[camulos]

"That's good to know. Do you need to have single daughters available for this?"

No. He just gets to be an adopted son of the faction heir (if you were wondering where he fits in in the family tree).

The only time I have had this happen was when a unit of equites killed a single brigand unit of velites to the last man.

Excellent. How were his command/management/influence ratings?

[Ulstan]

Oddly enough, he was the best governor I have gotten so far, but a crappy general :D I congratulated him on his victory and promptly chained him to a desk in a port city. ~;) Had like 2 management and no command stars iirc.

(Beaurecrat or something as a virtue I think)

[denmj]

Little note on this.

The limit is 4 children per head of family.

Head of family is male member.

[Ivar the Terrible]

I've been sending my new family members with no command stars out to get a little battle experience before chaining them to a desk. It makes them stronger in case they have to defend the province.

It seems the senate has a preference for well rounded men.