Manius the Mad

[Octavius Julius]

Ok, I have this excellent general called Manius Julius. He has great command and influence and some management points too. He's young (about mid 30's) and I have great hopes for him. He's governing Iuvaium for about 10 turns now as I am building up an army that will hopefully crush the Germanians with him at the lead.

Then...he goes mad.

Why?

How?

The temple there is dedicated to Ceres but does this have any effect on him?

Is it random?

Anhow, now he's bloody useless, and he's gone totally mad (-3 in all of his stats).

Can it be cured?

[Sinner]

I can't recall what triggers the Insane & Deranged traits other than a new character - adopted or born - can start with either or both. I know both are self-perpetuating traits, so once a character has them they're effectively doomed.

If your general is as bad as you've described he's probably past the no going back level, so even trying to trigger the Sane trait won't help. The only cure I can think of is the console command give_trait... I believe the syntax required is give_trait "Manius Julius" Deranged 0.

[Siris]

Can you still use him in battle and as a family member? If so, being insane makes him more lethal! I'd love to have an insane General to command, that'd be funney as heck!

[Khorak]

Men are born with either Insane or Not insane as an invisible trait. If they're insane, then at some point in their lives they will end up with one of the 'our hats will protect us from the moon people' insane traits.

Bummer huh.

[Sinner]

Another approach is to compensate for the reduced stats by adding/exchanging appropriate ancilliaries and/or improving other beneficial traits.

Build up +13 Command from other traits and ancilliaries and that will give him the maximum of 10 even after his madness is taken into account. A few turns of rebel hunting will go a long way towards this.

Management and influence are harder to improve through traits, spending enough time in a city to pick up the one you want will often cause you to get a whole bunch of unwanted vices. Ancilliaries are generally the best choice, especially the Priests of Bacchus and Jupiter (for the Julii) who give a bonus to both and are easy to get, although you'd be best to use an otherwise useless 'surrogate' leader to acquire these, especially the former.

I've recently started using some of my useless leaders to 'carry' ancilliaries around on behalf of one of my better leaders. When the main leader is leading an army, I swap ancilliaries around to give him the best command, movement, morale, etc bonuses. When I need to use him as a governor for a few turns, he swaps ancilliaries with his 'lieutenant', exchanging combat-orientated ones for those that aid government. Since the lieutenant's poor traits means that he never exceeds the ability of the main leader in the stack, he never accidentally ends up in command.

Even the really old guys the family daughters bring home now have a use, being used as a dumping ground for the bad ancilliaries, travelling around my various leaders to pick them up until they die of old age.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Is it me or are all generals named manius absolutely useless? I've had the pleasure of having two generals named manius, and one went insane, thus becoming useless, and the other was very unpopular with the people, and drove the armies moral into the ground.

[Oaty]

He's governing Iuvaium for about 10 turns now

That's what caused him to go mad. It does'nt matter if you moved him from city to city or if you just let him stand in the field for a few turns. If they do'nt go into battle every so often they become irritated. As in Roman times it was a great honor to lead an army into battle.

The best generals for me work like this. sit in city for a few years go beat up someone for milk money then go back to the city or another city. It seems if you let them rest in cities along with conquering every so often gives you the best generals.

Heres what I do I leap frog conquerors 1 takes a city and the other comes along and takes his army and conquers the next city. So that 1 that just conquered gets some reenforcements then goes on to take some of his army back and so on.

[RZST]

thats a pain to manage though, specially if you have about 20+ or so family members running around your empire.

[TEP]

Is it me or are all generals named manius absolutely useless? I've had the pleasure of having two generals named manius, and one went insane, thus becoming useless, and the other was very unpopular with the people, and drove the armies moral into the ground.

Well, my family member Manius "the Lewd" Julii is deranged and lewd, so I think you are on to something.

[Octavius Julius]

Ok, I continued my game last night. He lived till he was 71 about! Oddly enough Iuvaium was still making money and the people were happy so I just left him there.

I read a funny story about Caligula, I think he was the third or fourth Roman emperor. He ordered some legions to invade Britannia, but then when they reached the shores he ordered them to collect sea shells and then fight the waves. Hmmm...very perculiar.

[Sir Toma of Spain]

[QUOTE=oaty]That's what caused him to go mad. It does'nt matter if you moved him from city to city or if you just let him stand in the field for a few turns. If they do'nt go into battle every so often they become irritated. As in Roman times it was a great honor to lead an army into battle.
QUOTE]

That's not true, in my Brutii game i had one General sit in my capital from the start of my campaign for about 20-30 years and he was still an absolutely superb general who had NOT gone insane infact the only bad trait he got was the cheepstake line of traits which i am trying to get rid of.

[Longshanks]

I read a funny story about Caligula, I think he was the third or fourth Roman emperor. He ordered some legions to invade Britannia, but then when they reached the shores he ordered them to collect sea shells and then fight the waves. Hmmm...very perculiar.

He also made his favorite horse a consul!
No suprise that the Army eventually did him in.

[Lord Ovaat]

Men are born with either Insane or Not insane as an invisible trait. If they're insane, then at some point in their lives they will end up with one of the 'our hats will protect us from the moon people' insane traits.

Bummer huh.

Yeah. Bummer. Same thing happens in my family. Never know when it will strike.

Oh, wait! You were talking about the game. Sorry.

[*Ringo*]

That's not true, in my Brutii game i had one General sit in my capital from the start of my campaign for about 20-30 years and he was still an absolutely superb general who had NOT gone insane infact the only bad trait he got was the cheepstake line of traits which i am trying to get rid of.

Cheapskate is not actually too bad. I can't remember the exact stats but it gives you a discount on training/building for very little negative cost.

I've yet to have a mad general, guess it's just the way i rule , what are the early signs? Or does it always go straight to raving looney?

*Ringo*

[Mikeus Caesar]

The general will just go stark raving mad in a single turn. I once had a general who did actually say something about 'our hats protecting us from the gauls'.