building up generals help!

[unoanimo]

hi, i'm new to EB... i just wanted to ask some questions for the more experienced players out there.


i'm playing the seleucids and its great so far, however one thing really really really annoys me.

my generals don't seem to get command stars even after i've won 3 heroic battles straight plus they've got intelligent/charismatic/vigorous. i'm really puzzled especially because in the original RTW they get loads of command stars after battles like that. is it really like that or am i experiencing a bug?

i'm just gonna list down the whole story so you can have an idea of how upset i am because of the less than sufficient reward for my efforts :,(

for example, one of my generals just recently conquered the 3 eleutheroi cities in asia minor(pergamum halicarnassus and nikeia i think), and before that, he already took side and tarsos from the ptolemaioi. the first 2 battles for the cities(of egypt) were both heroic victories because of the size of the garrison(in tarsos they numbered 1500 and i annihilated them with my 500-man army with only 100 killed, and in side they were around 1900 and killed them all again with their 5-star general with the same force[added a unit of prodromoi,, all in all 500 again] and had 150 killed). i took pergamum(around 1300 men) with only 400 men, lost 100, and again annihilated them, and i got a heroic victory again. so what's really happening? am i experiencing a bug because my general won't get better? the remaining two battles were clear victories but i was still heavily outnumbered. the point is, my general isn't getting the command stars that he deserves.

another example was when i used two fresh generals(just came of age) with intelligent/charismatic/vigorous again. after i fixed up my economy after i got the cities i stated above(eventually had around 11k +/- 1k mnai each turn), i gathered some veterans as well as new recruits to take care of egypt once and for all, one because i'm drooling for alexandria(:P) and second because they've gathered 3 full stacks around sidon and preparing to attack my capital antioch just a turn away,, while in jerusalem they've got 1 and 2/3rds stacks ready to knock the walls of damascus down. so there, i got my 17 yrold general and the other 19 yrold and went to work. one i gave half-stack he other 2/3 stack with pretty advanced units(made sure they both had companions and silver shields :D)... the 2/3rds i used to smash the 3 stacks(in 2 battles) and the half i used for the 1 2/3rds(in 2 battles also). all were heroic battles not counting the battles for sidon and jerusalem. now i've taken memphis and alexandria and in the process won 3 more heroic victories and basically obliterated the military power of egypt(they can't even cough up a stack these days). to my shock and utter disbelief my two generals, despite winning loads heroic victores, <i>still</i> aren't looking as great as they should be. the 17 yrold(and the one with which i won most of my battles) has just 3 stars and 4 scrolls while the other has just 2 stars and one scroll.

i was so upset i started a new campaign and saved over the previous game.

can anyone help me with this? or is this really the way it is?

help! :(

and thanks to anyone who's kind enough to lend a hand :)

[Foot]

Command stars are not easy to get in EB. We use traits to represent how good a general is. There is good reason to. Morale-boosting traits apply to the whole army, whilst command stars only help out soldiers near the general. Next time your general wins a few battles check out his traits not his stars and it will show you how much morale-boosting power he has.

Foot

[DeathEmperor]

That's the way EB is designed my friend. ;)

It's really hard for generals to get command stars in for your generals in EB, unless they fight literally dozens of battles. that's the way the EB team designed it as instead of command stars (which only affect the soldiers around the general unit) characters can get morale boosting traits which affect the whole army. It's alos a way to balance the gap between the player and ai in terms of strategic and tactical prowess so it's basically the ai gets extra command stars while the player relies on his own ability as a strategist and tactician.

The system isn't perfect however, as every so often I've run into ai super generals who had both a lot of command stars and the morale boosting traits. Not a lot of fun to fight against those guys (actually for me it is. I do so enjoy a challenge :laugh4: ).


To sum it up don't worry about command stars. I did too when I first started playing EB, and now I can't believe I considered them so important before. You can however, eventually turn one of your generals into a 10 star Alexander-esque leader given enough time and battles and when you do it's an awesome thing :2thumbsup:

[unoanimo]

wow i didn't know that the traits were for the whole army! thanks!

[mcantu]

I had posted this over at twc when the same question came up there. Its what CA had to say about command stars (although Foot disagrees)

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=597041&postcount=15


It currently affects both morale and combat ability - we tried it for a while with just morale, but it ended up being not enough of a bonus. The combat calculations have changed so much from Rome to Medieval as to be unrecogniseable, so it's no longer easy to equate stars to experience.

As a rule of thumb it's one point of attack per command rank, up to a maximum of 10, and this can become negative for very bad generals. This combat bonus is applied to all troops under his command on the battlefield. Experience is one point of attack and one point of defense per chevron, plus a morale bonus as well.

The general's command also controls his radius-of-effect, which is set to 30 m + 5 m * command + 2 m * influence. This is used to award morale bonusses to nearby units (in addition to the combat bonus), and when testing which units are affected it tests the distance between the actual general's position and the centre-point of the unit being considered.


So according to this the attack bonus (from command stars) is applied to the entire army. The morale bonus is applied to units within a certain radius (and it looks like it can be a pretty large radius).

[bovi]

It seems it is not entirely accurate; it's a pretty old post so later patches may have changed things. If you pit a unit with 13 attack, 10 defence with no general present against a unit with 3 attack, 10 defence and a 10-star general (not taking active part), the 13 attack one will beat the 3 attack one.

[KuKulzA]

I dunno man, I just keep killin things... esp. if your a nomadic faction just keep ridin' and shootin'...
when you're a nomad, life is a drive-by... and you just keep shooting till you've got good stars :2thumbsup:

keep kicking butt and you'll get there :yes:

[kemozz]

i usually don't play out the battles on the map and i find that having no command stars will usually result in a loss when using the auto resolve battles (no cheats). this experience is rather frustrating. it appears that somehow the command stars play a role whn auto resolving battles on the campaign map. why won't the eb team relax the command star traits just to satisfy everyone. i've seen this topic come up on this forum a thousand times in the past year. i don't mind the other trait boosts that u guys have implemented but whats wrong with having command stars too. and why should it be so hard to get these stars specially that there are about a thousand other traits giving you negative command star. if you guess could fix this then great if u don't then it doesn't matter cuz this mod is still great

peace out

[glouch]

yes indeed!

[pseudocaesar]

I got Lucius Cornelius Africanus to 9 stars i believe, he walks around with 8, but when i attack he has 10, defends 9. Something like that, he is a legend, i conquered Africa, Greece and Egypt with him lmao.