Great men

[Martok]

Indeed. Crossbow bolts and (if they get a lucky shot) artillery crews are generally the most cost-effective way of bringing down jedi generals.

[macsen rufus]

I find it varies from faction to faction - playing as HRE it can take a while before any decent generals turn up, and you usually rely on those heroes (Albrecht der Baer being a major asset ). If I find someone who shows promise in the early game, then he'll get a lot of the jobs going to boost his stats and earn some V&Vs. Generally by the late era (assuming a start in early) then I typically have three or four 8 or 9* generals, and a dozen or so who are 5-7*, the rest being reasonably competent "also-rans". One of the best generals I had in one HRE campaign was a mounted X-bow, who ended up at 8*, valour 9 + VnVs, max weapon upgrade, and could trash kataphracts in melee.

I often find myself wishing the old king would hurry up and die so a bunch of "uncles" can be converted to governors to take advantage of their high command/acumen/etc etc. If in the process they get good provinces that add to their star-rating, then so much the better

When it comes to taking out enemy generals, I favour arbalesters. I usually keep my arb line with fire-at-will turned off, wait til the enemy are close, then toggle fire at will back on. That way you get an instant, mass salvo, which rips through the enemy charge and often as not causes most units to rout. Add to this one "sniper" unit targetting the general, and you can take out a RK unit quite quickly. Another favourite for this style of tactic are bashkorts, holding formation & position, with fire-at-will off until the right moment. A line of bashkorts like this can totally eliminate a unit of chivalric knights before their charge hits home. If any do survive the mssiles then they land straight on the spear points in such diminished numbers it's another insta-rout. These tactics are particularly suited for those Jedi-generals with the kamikaze tendency

[The Unknown Guy]

I seldom use "fire at will" I find it tends to make units waste ammo. I pick useful targets by hand (for instance, spearmen will seldom deserve bolts. They might deserve arrows, if there are a lot of them massed in one place)

[Knight of the Rose]

It migth be slightly off topic, but I'll give a little shout-out for "fire-at-will". Yes Unknown Guy, I agree that it is very often a waste of ammo, and I always keep it off. But in cases where I'm being rushed by the enemy and have slow loaders (x-bows, arbs) I fire once at maximum distance. If the enemy is slow (footmen) I give it another shot. Then I turn off "skirmish". And then I wait.

I wait for them to come closer. And closer. Closer still. And then, at "can you see the white in their eyes?"-distance I turn on "fire-at-will" and they shoot instantly into the enemy at point blank range. Sometimes (usually when I'm not playing expert) the shock of being under fire and at the same time loosing a third of their numbers in one second, routs them immediately.

But mostly, FaW is bad for you.

/KotR

[Haccapelite]

I had totally forgotten about the historical heroes. I don't usually get much help from them, since at least when I'm playing, they almost instantly start to find those extra toes or prefer beer as a refreshment over water. Poor Birger Jarl dropped from a five-star expert attacker to a one or two star general in a mattr of years, and with the Turks, the historical heroes have nearly all faced a simular destiny. (Oh, expept that one who charged into the rear of a unit of cataphractoi who were surrounded from three directions with spears and camels and heroicly died the same second when his ghazi-unit hit the enemy rear.. Well, you should never underestimate the power of a heavily armored horse-rear, I guess. )

[Vider]

It migth be slightly off topic, but I'll give a little shout-out for "fire-at-will". Yes Unknown Guy, I agree that it is very often a waste of ammo, and I always keep it off. But in cases where I'm being rushed by the enemy and have slow loaders (x-bows, arbs) I fire once at maximum distance. If the enemy is slow (footmen) I give it another shot. Then I turn off "skirmish". And then I wait.

I wait for them to come closer. And closer. Closer still. And then, at "can you see the white in their eyes?"-distance I turn on "fire-at-will" and they shoot instantly into the enemy at point blank range. Sometimes (usually when I'm not playing expert) the shock of being under fire and at the same time loosing a third of their numbers in one second, routs them immediately.

But mostly, FaW is bad for you.

/KotR

Thanks KotR and everyone who discussed FaW. This is something I never really learned much about, and last night I used this tactic to kill off a Pope to get rid of my excommunication. I don't know why the Pope was sitting in Rome with other units (2 ballista) but after his successor asked for peace I have been able to use those crusades I built.