Great men

[Martok]

So here's a question I don't think I've ever seen asked here before:

When it comes to generals, do you usually focus on cultivating only a very few army commanders (but with uber stats and abilities)? Or do you tend to spread the wealth and have a larger number of good-but-not-great generals (4-6 stars)? Or do you even really pay attention to such things?


I've realized that I seem to lean towards the former. While I don't consciously have a specific plan per se, most of my campaigns usually end up with my faction fielding a good number of generals that have decent but unspectacular stats. It's pretty rare for me to have an "uber-general" with 7 stars or more, unless he happens to be a Hero who has an extremely high command rating to begin with.

I'm curious as to what other people do.

[Knight of the Rose]

IMHO, one of the most important factors is out-maching your enemy in valor. Yes, due to the combined arms concept, you need to keep, say camels away from spears. But if you have high valor camels against low valor spears, then you have a good shot at coming out on top anyway. I'll show that in the next update on the camel-campaign due shortly. As another example: Once as France vs. Byzzies, I saw Treb.Archers (vanilla) cut through FMAA as they were peasants, and this was only due to the fact that my 3-star general was facing a 8-star enemy.

So I believe firmly that one *very* high-command (8-9 stars) general is worth much more that 3-4 with 4-5 stars.

It depends on the map ofcourse - as simultanious action in multiple regions demand many decent generals, but (armies being equal) I tend to retreat when the enemy commander has 3-4 stars more than me, hold firm when equal, and only attack with my über-general.

I find that it is somewhat rare, that you need to fight 3-4 battles a turn anyway. But that is just the way I play the game.

/KotR

[I of the Storm]

I try to spread it and have a couple of generals with good abilities and 4-6 stars. Since the AI doesn't have that many 9ers either it works well. Should I happen to have a handful of former princes with many stars (Byz e.g.), I try to cultivate them further, of course. Same goes for recruited heroes. I clearly remember an Albrecht der Bär who appeared almost maxed out in every ability once...

[Jxrc]

Really depends which faction I am playing as.

For some factions you can easily get a just a few provinces to guard (Spain, Elmo, Aragon, Sicily, Denmark) so you can max out just a few generals. For others it's much more complicated to get short land borders (HRE, Poland, Hungary, Italy ...) so you're probably better off with several general wityh a few stars than with one uber-general.

Whom you face is also quite revelant. IF you're up against a faction with great generals (byz, eggies) it might be wise to try to have one very good general with a chance to win one decisive battle rather than having all your 4-5 stars general beaten one after the other ...

Finally it goes without saying that it all depends on what kind of heir or historical generals your get ... Some faction are blessed with nice heirs (Spain, Byz, Elmo) while other gets loads of nice historical general (England, France, Egypt) rather early. With any of those factions you usually end up with enough decent generals to be able to max out some of them with titles.

"an Albrecht der Bär who appeared almost maxed out in every ability once" .... Lucky you. He has normally just four stars and get pride or chinless wonder one year after I get it ....

[drone]

I probably spread it out more than I should, but that's mainly because I don't really plan out my invasions and armies, I just look at what I'm up against and adjust accordingly. In my current campaign, I've got a couple of 6-7 star generals, but I use others in smaller battles. My style is strategic mobility and opportunism, if I see a weakness I jump on it with whatever I have available.

I do tend to use my heir a lot, I like to get him experienced and leveled up before he takes over the kingdom.

[Ironsword]

Well, usually, at the beginning of a campaign I have a just a couple of warmasters, (6+) and use them in a remorseless advance across the map.

Later, when the marshals palace and admirality are built I spread out my generals, as the AI can stab you in the back over multiple territories. But by then with a few victories under my belt I can usually get a few 4* generals generated randomly.