The Effect of Generals

[Wodeson]

Is there any way to tone down the effect of Generals on the battlefield in respect to their star rating improving units' combat effectiveness?

[Re Berengario I]

Nope, it's hardcoded. Making harder for them to acquire stars is possible though.

[alpaca]

Moved to modding questions.

[Foz]

Is there any way to tone down the effect of Generals on the battlefield in respect to their star rating improving units' combat effectiveness?
Is it really overwhelming? Truth be told, I hardly notice anything different when using high command generals. Even when using no-name captains it's hard to tell a difference. The only way I know when I don't have a general fighting is that I have to do without the freaking awesome bodyguard unit...

[Wodeson]

I don't honestly know for sure how big a difference it makes, but you've fought the Mongols right?

[EdwardL]

well the impact of generals in MTW2 isnt as potent as it was in RTW. dont even ask about MTW1, those generals were beasts

[econ21]

therother reported that his tests with RTW suggested no bonus from command stars to attack stats, contrary to what a statement here by CA staff, and EB works on that understanding. therother is very systematic and careful in his work, and his conclusion fits my casual observation too. There is a morale effect, of course. I assume M2TW is the same as RTW in this regard.

PS: anyone wants to test this, just mod the descr_strat.txt and fight out first turn battles with generals with different command stars. therother's done this and found no difference.

[therother]

Appreciate the confidence, but I think I'd place more weight on your casual observations TBH. I was not really particularly thorough with my testing on this occasion: battle map mechanics aren't really my thing.

Anyhow, if I remember the original post by Jerome corerctly, he did hint that it wasn't quite so simple as 1 point to attack per command star but I never got round to robustly testing it. For example, one possible theory is that the bonus is 1 point per command star subject to a maximum of 50% of the original attack stat. This would mean that peasants (the unit I used) would get no attack bonus from a 10 star general, whereas a decent unit would get a fair bonus and an elite unit would get the full bonus. I think that would be a good way of handling it, as it would neatly remove the somewhat unrealistic situation of a 10 star general making a bunch of disorganised rabble into a reasonably effective force, whilst still allowing a good general to have an effect on better trained troops. I don't think that is how it worked though, but I never did the tests to rule it out.

As an aside, the morale bonus definitely worked as advertised in RTW.

Edit: Jerome's explanation and my observations.