Faction Leader in ETW

[Roka]

I wouldn't say Victoria had NO power. The British monarch did still have a little pull left over in her era, even moreso because Victoria herself was a highly influential woman.

But there is no comparison between her personal power and the power of Catherine II. William III (as mentioned, the 'current' British monarch) held more tangible power than Victoria.

As to kings fighting battles, I dont think that ever happened in this era. Certainly heads of state sometimes attended a battle, but they never actually took part in the fighting as far as I know. For example, Alexander, Francis and Napoleon were all at Austerlitz (Hence, 'The Battle of the Three Emperors'), but none of them personally rode out.

I think that, by now, the probability of being killed by a random bullet was too high to warrant such actions. And nobility had started to value their own skin more too, possibly

only ten years before the games start date, king william II and king james VII were both present at the battle of the boyne

[Sheogorath]

As I said, royalty were certainly AT battles (I even cited Austerlitz), however, they were not WITH the troops, generally. The rare exceptions (like Charles) tended to prove the point that putting your leader in the front line is a bad idea.

[Megas Methuselah]

Your arguments are for naught, Sheo. We all now know that generals of any sort will not play a large part, if any, in battles now, other than be spectators, as well as direct and inspire the troops.

[Sheogorath]

Your arguments are for naught, Sheo. We all now know that generals of any sort will not play a large part, if any, in battles now, other than be spectators, as well as direct and inspire the troops.

I was arguing against leaders (and generals, to a lesser degree) being in battles

Although it seems a bit odd, I'm pretty sure a number of generals DID lead from the front. Even up until WWI. Look up Douglas MacArthur. He's a man that could have given Andrew Jackson a run for his money.

[knoddy]

perhaps elected officials will be former generals that didnt die?

its a possibility that after a certain age generals will retire and go into politics, to become Governors and politicians.

EDIT: we know that Generals ARE in game, but they are trained units, whereas monarchs and family members appear to not be in game as generals, just as monarchs and family members.

[pyradyn]

Fredrick was by all means near battles. Just like all monarchs, but just like Generals of the time they did like Fisher said did not actually fight. Fredrick was a lover....that is until him and a General tried to flee to England so he could become a painter and his Father had the General killed in front of Fredrick and he gave up the arts to a degree and became Prussia's best military mind whose letter's to his generals were used in Germany at least up till ww1.

On leaders leading from the front I do recall an instance where General Gorge S Paton rode in on the lead tank shooting and Panzer's and Infantry with a pistol. Brilliant General, probably not all there in the head though.

As for elected officials I hope they can be moved from city to city maybe but that would be a lot of agents if they were on the field the is if they were represented as agents on the map. I believe they are trying to less the clutter. But nothing can ever be more agent cluttered than the Original Medieval, way to many diplomats crunched up I couldn't even get my own. Then again I trained my assassins on my own diplomats and later bishops when they got better.

[Fisherking]

You will certainly find officers leading for the front all the way into WWII. Some Generals did lead from the front, especially in a charge but these were not always the field commander but suburbanite Generals.

Benedict Arnold lead from the front and he turned the tide and won the battle of Saratoga but was seriously wounded. Gates got the credit for the win, even though he was in the trenches and actually didn’t do much in the battle.

General Anthony Wayne also did. He even had his men carry him inside the fort at Stony Point, after he suffered wounds, so he could die in glory…he was rather lightly wounded actually…This may have been when he picked up the sobriquet Mad Anthony Wayne…

There are other generals of other nations also.

Marquis de Montcalm and General Wolfe died in the same battle.

Faction leaders might have been Generals and have great military knowledge and a few took the field.

Maria Theresia was no slouch when it came to military matters but I never heard that she took to the field in command.

That may be a random ability. We will have to wait and see.

[ArtillerySmoke]

You will certainly find officers leading for the front all the way into WWII. Some Generals did lead from the front, especially in a charge but these were not always the field commander but suburbanite Generals.

Benedict Arnold lead from the front and he turned the tide and won the battle of Saratoga but was seriously wounded. Gates got the credit for the win, even though he was in the trenches and actually didn’t do much in the battle.

General Anthony Wayne also did. He even had his men carry him inside the fort at Stony Point, after he suffered wounds, so he could die in glory…he was rather lightly wounded actually…This may have been when he picked up the sobriquet Mad Anthony Wayne…

There are other generals of other nations also.

Marquis de Montcalm and General Wolfe died in the same battle.

Faction leaders might have been Generals and have great military knowledge and a few took the field.

Maria Theresia was no slouch when it came to military matters but I never heard that she took to the field in command.

That may be a random ability. We will have to wait and see.

Hopefully it's how the "night fighter" trait worked in previous titles after Rome.

It would be cool if certain leaders either came "out of the box" with the ability to command battles from the front and others learned the ability over time.

An example would be a situation where your army was ambushed...and your leader got stuck in the battle but wound up winning. They would then learn the ability to command battles from that point forward.

Something along those lines would add an extra layer of depth and realism.