Kings, Heirs or Upstarts

[Knight of the Rose]

When choosing who to fight your battles, what do you guys prefer?

I normally use my king to ensure he gets a couple extra starts before his sons come of age, to enhance my chances of getting better offspring. But when the sons start kicking in, I use the heir to make sure he has the biggest window of opportunity (age 16 -> death some 50-60 turns later) to become a master general, and making his sons optimal quality.

But lately I've thought about taking a 0-star quality unit leader and make exclusive use of him, adding titles to give those extra stars. This gives a little added role-play element as well.

There is also the 'green general' discussion hidden behind this question, but lest us assume it is off. For arguments sake, we are also not playing the Byz.

How do you groom your generals?

/KotR

[PershsNhpios]

I often have a poor, ordinary King with nothing more than a "Great Builder" trait and much influence.

The reason is because I am too commonly in situations where it is all too dangerous to employ the King in battles.
For example, in my last mediaeval campaign as the Scots, the King was used to take Britain, but then the heirs took Scandinavia and Denmark - and finally when the family was large enough I used the second generation brothers as military leaders, who achieved their sixth ranks.

Then they would become deathless generals after their first-born brother was crowned, and thereafter I could give them titles and forever have eight or nine star generals.
In this way I make sure the ruler's influence stays high, he remains safe, and my generals never die.
(Remember, a general who dies is replaced by someone completely similar.)

For the sake of roleplay however, I pick specific men to become military leaders, depending on what personality I assign to them.
In my AAR, the main leaders are three Princes, an artillery unit leader, and the Kaiser.

[Fagar]

I tend to use a general that I have groomed from the start.

One that was probably spawned say 2 stars and I was forced to put in charge of a large army as good generals were at a premuim and my resources stretched.

This general normally find himself defending against invaders and building stars and valour through hardened battle.

After i have consolidated I favour this man over the cream puff princes I normally get and use him in all my invasions.

By now he is as hard as granite and I retrain and regroup all his men so they have sky high valour.
They are my spear point, the steel I use to force my way into new territores and expansion.

It is now that I grant him titles to further boost his already impressive resume, turning him into a legend amongst men

This is the type of general I like to lead my armies.


(funny thing is he normally turns out to be a UM or similiar )

[Garnier]

In my current game, I've used my hero and a 5 star retired prince as my main generals, as unfortunately my king is 2 stars and I have neglected to take care of him... I am thinking of pulling off a civil war to fix this problem. I am going to need all the advice I can get on how to best manage a civil war. It's not too hard to win usually, but I want to do it right so I can get one of these superb generals to be my new king.

[Martok]

Unless my faction leader is a true monster of a general (i.e., Alphonse of Castille, Alexius Comnenus, etc.), I tend to keep him safe at home. If the opportunity arises, I may use him to invade a lightly defended enemy province or stamp out a rebellion, but otherwise I generally keep him out of harm's way.

[gaijinalways]

Martok posted

Unless my faction leader is a true monster of a general (i.e., Alphonse of Castille, Alexius Comnenus, etc.), I tend to keep him safe at home. If the opportunity arises, I may use him to invade a lightly defended enemy province or stamp out a rebellion, but otherwise I generally keep him out of harm's way.

I usually do the same. My king might get great builder characteristics, etc, but rarely will he be a great general.

[bondovic]

How do you groom your generals?

To answer this: I orchestrate rebellions a plenty. I want my first european tour to be led by a 4-star minimum general. After 4 stars the leaps are so great for levelling up through victories that you have to force action to see an increase waaay down the road. But up to 4 stars is doable without getting too tedious.