Awesome Generals

[Cowhead418]

I know that certain factions are more prone to having high-star generals (Byzantines obviously) but is there some kind of random generator for some factions? I am currently in the middle of an Egyptian campaign on Hard in the Early Period. The Spanish, my allies, recently attacked me and I lost two battles right off the bat. They have huge armies roaming around the Iberian peninsula but no navy so I had access to all their lands. I invaded with some huge stacks and set to manufacturing new armies.

All of a sudden a full loyalty, 4 piety, 5 dread, 6-star, 4 acumen 5-valour stud Saracen Infantry unit with an Expert Attacker trait pops up in Tripoli. In my past campaigns the highest star general I had ever trained in the queue was a 3-star chap. So while I'm like ~:eek: :bounce: Before I had to extensively train my generals in several battles before I would see any 6-star plus generals show up but this guy came along without me having to do anything! So what I want to know is what was your best general that came fresh from the training queue? Who was that legendary commander who led your armies to victory after victory? I know I'm going to have lots of fun with this guy. May he lead my armies to many victories over that filthy traitorous scum they call the Spanish!:charge:

[octavian]

it would depend on the faction every faction has a number of heroes who "spawn" with decent stats and traits. all heroes are predetermined and arrive at the same date in every game. somewhere around here there should be a complete listing of every hero in the game, their stats, and what year they arrive in.

0ct

[katank]

You got Saladin - Ibn al-Din or something. Yep, he's a hero and sweet one at that.

You should memorize what year heroes appear by browsing text files and build only a royal knight/ghuam BG unit that turn. This way, the hero is guaranteed to be that unit. The advantage is that the hero will be upgraded when you transition periods and can always be retrained.

In MTW, kings die but generals are immortal. It's pretty bad to have a Saracen inf as your star general since that unit is only useful as pinning unit and you don't want your general to be in extended melee. Heavy cav generals are the best for being able to gain experience by smashing flanks and also run away if necessary.

[matteus the inbred]

i have gained a five star straight out of the stack with the HRE, but i'm jiggered if i can remember his name, may have to browse my saved-games. got him killed on crusade anyway.
HRE also gets 4-star with 4-5 in most other characteristics called Henry the Lion (notoriously badly behaved but very talented noble under Frederick Barbarossa, made a guest appearance in AoE: Kings) whom i don't think is an heir (but i might wrong!)
i have to say that the HRE gets some top acumen guys later on (6-8), but total rubbish to start (something which Doug-Thompson points out in the Guides i think)

and yes, crusades are rubbish compared to bashing the French, i've now had two failures, and agree that Spanish generals can be outstanding when their crusade gets to Antioch first. good luck Cowhead418!!

[matteus the inbred]

just got given this guy in an English campaign last night around 1133 (that's the year...and now i think about it, probably the time as well) ...Sir Strongbow Fitzgilbert, Loyalty 9; Piety 4; Dread 6; Command 6; Acumen 5, a definite choice for the governor of Sweden i think! :knight:

is it just me, or do units of feudal spears produce level 1-4 generals nearly every time?

[Brutus]

just got given this guy in an English campaign last night around 1133 (that's the year...and now i think about it, probably the time as well) ...Sir Strongbow Fitzgilbert, Loyalty 9; Piety 4; Dread 6; Command 6; Acumen 5, a definite choice for the governor of Sweden i think! :knight:

is it just me, or do units of feudal spears produce level 1-4 generals nearly every time?
Not that I have MTW, but is Strongbow Fitzgilbert a hero as well? The leader of the Anglo-Norman invasion in Ireland was called that.

Cool ~:cool:

[matteus the inbred]

it is indeed he! although according to Wikipedia his real name was Richard de Clare...he ended up being King of Leinster and dying of a foot infection. athlete's foot must have been dreadful combined with chainmail socks...

i do love the attention to detail when real historical people pop up, even down to emissaries. although my 3-star bishop, Thomas a Becket, remains at large despite having just been murdered in a historical event...a medieval Elvis?
:saint:

[Kaiser of Arabia]

I know that certain factions are more prone to having high-star generals (Byzantines obviously) but is there some kind of random generator for some factions? I am currently in the middle of an Egyptian campaign on Hard in the Early Period. The Spanish, my allies, recently attacked me and I lost two battles right off the bat. They have huge armies roaming around the Iberian peninsula but no navy so I had access to all their lands. I invaded with some huge stacks and set to manufacturing new armies.

All of a sudden a full loyalty, 4 piety, 5 dread, 6-star, 4 acumen 5-valour stud Saracen Infantry unit with an Expert Attacker trait pops up in Tripoli. In my past campaigns the highest star general I had ever trained in the queue was a 3-star chap. So while I'm like ~:eek: :bounce: Before I had to extensively train my generals in several battles before I would see any 6-star plus generals show up but this guy came along without me having to do anything! So what I want to know is what was your best general that came fresh from the training queue? Who was that legendary commander who led your armies to victory after victory? I know I'm going to have lots of fun with this guy. May he lead my armies to many victories over that filthy traitorous scum they call the Spanish!:charge:
Welcome to the Org!

[petertmorgan]

is it just me, or do units of feudal spears produce level 1-4 generals nearly every time?

I'm wondering about this too. It seems to me that different factions have different units that seem to more consistently produce better generals from the start (like hobilars for the English, camels for the egyptians - I'm talking about early here)

Does anybody have any real data on this?

[matteus the inbred]

yeah, noticed the hobilars too! not really checked with other factions, though most of my Italian non-royal generals are urban militia, come to think of it.
would be useful to know...i would assume given no other evidence that higher quality units should produce better generals? (in all-round stats, not just command)

[Microwavegerbil]

In my experiences, the quality of the unit has pretty much no effect on the competence of the general. I frequently get 4 acument, 4 dread peasants, while getting knights:knight: with few or no ranks in acumen/command/dread.

To avoid having to use non-royal generals (besides the heroes you sometimes get) I try to use my King as much as possible, since higher command Kings seem to produce better offspring (or at least ones with high command).

[Martok]

There do seem to be certain units that are more likely to produce better generals, but only to a point. I know that when I play as the Spanish, nearly half of my Jinnette units are led by 1-2 star generals (along with an occasional 3-star); the same thing seems to occur with Bedouins when I'm playing as the Egyptians. If a general's rating is 4 stars or higher, however, he's almost always a "hero-general" who's pre-determined to spawn in a certain year, regardless of what units you're currently training that turn.

So take Octavian and Katank's advice: Look in the text files to see what years your faction's hereoes spawn, and then make sure you're training your best cavalry unit during those times. It's the one of the best ways of ensuring your faction's survival and success, especially in the early years of the game! ~:cool:

[Random_butter]

Though i played MTW like there was no tomorrow, i never really took an interest in my generals star command thingy.

Playing RTW it is one of my favorite things, generals characteristics. By far my faveorite and best general i ever had was Dodonis the Mighty. Orignally Dodonis of Some place i can't remember, when he took over britain Ireland and the Benelix he became Dodonis the conquerer. He then marched on the Julii in southern most Gaul took over Rome and became the mighty. He married into my family and becasue of his fearsome reputation i made him heir, and he was the leader of the Germans after that.

Then i downloaded and installed 1.3 and i can't play the campaign, sucks big time.
:charge:

[Weebeast]

Due to German's ambition to rule the whole Europe, many leaders were not interested to seek for path to heaven. The Pope himself even declared war with the helpless Byzantines who was the shield of the west. King of France, Philippe II, however, although he refused to attack HRE, he secretly assembled an army of 40.000 (it's less actually lol) men consisting of mounted knights and foot soldiers just in case the war reaches France soil. Having saddened by the news of Cicilian Kingdom of Armenia being destroyed by the saracens, Godfrey of Bouillon, king's son in law, appealed for a march to Jerusalem. Although it's less than what France could come up with, Godfrey departed in 1102 with 2459 men not including women and children. Philippe II also guaranteed that King of Hungary had assembled an army to join him in Croatia.

https://img290.imageshack.us/img290/133/godfrey12jp.jpg

Two years later (or eight years MTW time) Godfrey arrived in Lesser-Armenia in 1110 and his army had swollen. They captured the citadel where King of Cicilian Kingdom once stood 4 months later (or a year mtw time). There Godfrey and his generals including his older brother argued whether they should continue the march or to stay. Godfrey felt that he would never beat Khalifah's army in Antioch if they marched to soon without healing the army first (assume that Godfrey didn't know that Antioch was empty). However, he knew that his brother would refuse to stay and bring the rest of the men with him to Jerusalem.
https://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3152/godfrey25vo.jpg

So Godfrey began to advance and arrived in Antioch in early 1112 with the remaining men and was greeted by Khalifah al Mustali with smaller army of 735. The Khalifah knew he could not beat the advancing crusaders as the rest of his army was focused on the Seljuks in the north so he sent his emmissary to deliver the message that the Khalifah had been having a bad diarhea and couldn't honourably fight the crusaders. The muslims gave up Antioch unharmed. However, months later Jihad army was sent by the Khalifah to re-capture Antioch. Luckily, it was a failure due to the incompetency of the general.
https://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3773/godfrey35xj.jpg

The knights learnt their lesson the hard way and they agreed to stay in Antioch this time to heal up. Then they were saddened by the death of Baldwin months after they captured Antioch which soon followed by Godfrey's eight months later.
https://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2016/godfrey40ab.jpg

Philippe told the crusaders not to be worried or wavered and he sent a replacement to lead them to Jerusalem. Years later the crusaders captured Jerusalem but not Tripoli as the Byzantines already secured it first.