Well my understanding may not be supberb.

However CA has stated in a interview, and I don't remeber which one. That generals will now not be as useful in combat as in previous games. They will die far easier, they are not as armored, etc.

Basically the idea, that generals are now just a normal unit of soldiers, not a uber unit of elite guards.

There was even a whole topic on these forums about how people were scared that now a few sharpshooters could just randomly kill a general and troops would route.