Generals best left in cities or leading armies?

Hi,

I am new to Rome Total War and I see that the computer likes to send a lot of small armies around with no generals. The AI seems to keep the generals with the settlement garrison. Should I be following a similar strategy? I found that beating these small leaderless armies to be very easy. Do I really have to keep generals in towns just to make sure the AI does rip me off with a bribe? Seems stupid to me.

I am trying hard to like this game but something just isn't clicking with me.

Thanks for your help,

John

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Originally Posted by Veresov

I am trying hard to like this game but something just isn't clicking with me.

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Welcome to the club.

And, I should say, welcome to the Org ~:cheers:

If your general has management skills, sometimes they are better left inside cities. These generals are also good for taking out rebels in nearby areas, they can gain command stars against relatively easy enemies.

You don't always need generals in your stacks, but they do give bonuses (bonii?) during battle. Fighting without a general can get you the Man of the Hour, a promotion/adoption of the captain leading the fight. But you do want your family members doing some fighting, to get command stars and because their bodyguard units are usually pretty good. Going up against larger enemy armies, you will want a true general in the stack.

As for following the computers strategy...

[QUOTE=drone]You don't always need generals in your stacks, but they do give bonuses (bonii?) QUOTE]

Sorry in advance for this English lesson :p

Boni is more than one bonus.
Bonii is more than one bonius. Like Denarii is denarius as a singular.

Considering you will rarely get a Man of the Hour when you have a captain in command of a stack, it's preferable to use your family members as generals. A good method used by many is to use the young family members as generals and the elders as governors in the cities, for they normally have gained either influence or management skills.
With the new patch it's harder to bribe a stack but in case you don't have any choice, let a diplomat in the stack it will make the bribes rarer.

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Originally Posted by Ziaelas

Sorry in advance for this English lesson :p

Boni is more than one bonus.
Bonii is more than one bonius. Like Denarii is denarius as a singular.

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Thanks! Us colonists need constant refresher courses on how to speak the mother tongue. Next you'll be telling me there is a 'u' in armor. ~D

I always have my Generals trained in the battleground. If I have a shortage of Governers this training will be brief and will be sent back to Govern after only 5 or so years. If a certain General shows promise in the Battleground - he'll be leading armies for a while, and perhaps for the majority of his life. I always make sure to try to bring the Generals back home for their retirement, depending on if they have a family or not of course.

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Originally Posted by drone

Next you'll be telling me there is a 'u' in armor. ~D

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There is, sorry had to break it to you. Centre is spelt like this CENTRE not like CENTER.. lol enough with the learning..

Take generals out and have them do waht they're good for, fighting. That's how I play it.

look at the traits before you decide, some generals will never work out for the gouverment and vica versa

You get some absolute loser generals.. and they get small-time parts like managing towns, or if they-re loonies they cna go ahead as "scouts" *cough* bait *cough*

I've had some generals that actually make cities far less happy when they are govener so it's definateley a case of horses for courses.

I usually use a general in battle. As I tend to be very selective about who I accept into my family (three stars generally, unless I urgently need one - in which case I accept two - if the other traits are good) I have very few family members. This means that almost every battle I fight without a general ends with a man-of-the-hour-adoption.

I don't tend to bother with governing cities too much - I just leave it on auto-build once I get to a certain level (~20 provinces), I'll leave a family member in a city if it needs a population boost from slaving, or the influence is really needed.

[QUOTE=Ziaelas]

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Originally Posted by drone

You don't always need generals in your stacks, but they do give bonuses (bonii?) QUOTE]

Sorry in advance for this English lesson :p

Boni is more than one bonus.
Bonii is more than one bonius. Like Denarii is denarius as a singular.

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Uh, I don't know what language you're taking as a reference, but boni/bonii is not english. The correct word is bonuses.

Yeah yeah I know, pluralising words by adding "ii" behind is the in thing on the internet fad market now ~:)

Ahh, good old British English. Love it, lol... Especially when spoken with a nice Manchester accent. I believe in sending generals out to whack the enemy. None are ever left in cities, and in fact, none of mine have ever died in cities except by chance. Their horsemen are the heaviest unit you get in the entire game, so it would be prudent to use them.

Some generals are better at warfare and some at management.

Generals do tend to acquire stars quickly on the battle trail, but some are better than others.

Because I find that I only need to mount maybe two or three major attacks per turn, I don't need that many generals in the field. In my current campaign I already have 30 provinces after 40 turns and I only have about three campaigning armies, each with a pair of generals. The rest of them I use in my cities, to quell unrest, increase production and for receiving slaves from towns I capture and enslave.

I always felt the more generals I had in one army the more useful it would be. For example right now as Scythia the massive battles can be so time consuming to manage that sometimes a general unit can catch my horse-archers unaware (usually after they've been chased to the map edge cos I couldn't find time to recall them), and it is always useful to have a spare general's unit, or units to counter that enemy general's unit in the first place, and to act as strategic reserve.

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Sorry in advance for this English lesson :p

Boni is more than one bonus.
Bonii is more than one bonius. Like Denarii is denarius as a singular.

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Just to finsih off your English lesson's, the person somewhere above me is correct in saying that it's 'Bonuses' not 'Bonii/Boni'. Where did you get that from? ~:confused:

When a general becomes available, I will usually send him to a city with an Academy and let him "study" for a few years so he will pick up a few good retinue members and then I will send him into the field until his replacement comes along.

What happens is that he will eventually be a governor in one of the outlying provinces while a new young gun takes over control of his legion.

I try to make my generals as well rounded as possible.

When I have a general/governor who via V-n-V's becomes unsuited to one task or the other, I will leave him in the other task permanently. There have been times when I have ordered 60 year old generals back into the field because they had become so bad at running a city.

Occasionally a new general will come along and will have a vice that precludes him from being an effective field general. Negative morale, hit points, etc. Guys like that will be moved to a city with an Academy and I will try to maximize their management skills. They NEVER see combat unless the city is assaulted.

On the rare occasion that a general is good for absolutely nothing, he becomes a "rebel router", cleaning up rebels as they pop up. I have sometimes sent those kind of guys deep behind enemy lines to raid and wreak havok. If they die, no big deal. If they are able to stir up some trouble for my enemies, then it's just icing on the cake.

tc

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Originally Posted by Mikeus Caesar

Just to finsih off your English lesson's, the person somewhere above me is correct in saying that it's 'Bonuses' not 'Bonii/Boni'. Where did you get that from? ~:confused:

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My bad, I think I started it. I was trying to be funny, looks like I need to try harder...

Generals really depend. I tend to pursue blitz strats and these use and perhaps abuse the BG's power. Those BGs regenerate provided the character is not killed.

The game tends to try to balance the number of generals and cities so you get more breeding if you have only a few.

I like to take Athens and the prebuilt academy there makes for good studying ground for new generals. They will get some nice traits and head off for the front. I also transfer bad ancillaries onto deadbeats and use them as suicide cav force, often in my armies (not commanding). They can rally troops and also charge protected missile units, often taking them out at the cost of their own lives.

If a family member shows promise as a governor I'll keep him in a city. Otherwise I'll send them into battle. While a bad family member can do more harm than good in a city, even the worst family members can usually end up worth using in battle.

As a result I usually have one or two uber generals who lead all major offensives in an area, and a few other newbie generals in the field leading smaller armies. One of my uber generals often ends up as the faction heir/leader ~:cool:

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Originally Posted by Veresov

Hi,

I am new to Rome Total War and I see that the computer likes to send a lot of small armies around with no generals. The AI seems to keep the generals with the settlement garrison. Should I be following a similar strategy? I found that beating these small leaderless armies to be very easy. Do I really have to keep generals in towns just to make sure the AI does rip me off with a bribe? Seems stupid to me.

I am trying hard to like this game but something just isn't clicking with me.

Thanks for your help,

John

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Lesson # 1, Veresov: BE NOT WHO YOU ARE NOT! ~;)

Meaning? Meaning, a good governor should not be a general. All family members who couldn't govern should be a general.

Oh, btw, welcome to the ORG ~;)

Actually, once you get the hang of things, you may want to give yourself a challenge by just using captain led armies.

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Originally Posted by katank

I like to take Athens and the prebuilt academy there makes for good studying ground for new generals. They will get some nice traits and head off for the front. I also transfer bad ancillaries onto deadbeats and use them as suicide cav force, often in my armies (not commanding). They can rally troops and also charge protected missile units, often taking them out at the cost of their own lives.

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Brutii rules!

I use the deadbeats to shuffle the ancillaries about, so i can keep the governors in place to breed. Deadbeats are also great for breeding the one/two good ancilliaries in a town that has alot of stupid ones as well (just pack the deadbeat with the bad ancillaries of that town and wait for the good ones to pop, then drop by with your courier deadbeat.

I'd only really use the deadbeats in battle if they were absolutely full up with stupid ancillaries &/or past the 65yr mark.

The good ancillaries can be broken up into 4 main "paths"

• the grower (pop boosts)
• the builder (unit discounts)
• the trader (mass trade/admin bonuses)
• Battle (movement, morale and healing)

only sucky thing about brutii are the useless "priest of mars" (+2command attacking)...why would anyone want that sort of boost?

I usually pair my deadbeats with a good general in a stack and use them in battles. They may be useless characters, but they still have a useful bodyguard attending them which is a quite good combat unit, so that's how I get value out of them.

For reference on the correct plural of "bonus" please check your dictionary.
Or alternatively, check this online one: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bonus