General's Bodyguards' Size

[zhuge]

I don't think it's near that much. Shogun and Medieval only gave you a 1 for 2 increase never a 1 for 1.

Agree with you that that was how things were back during S:TW but Jerome mentioned that the situation has changed somewhat.
See https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=37001
I can certainly agree that the old system was better and more moderate but it appears that we're stuck with the new system until CA decides otherwise.

As for general bodyguard sizes, simple as that sounds, I don't think I've across a thread/post which has answered it definitively. I vaguely remember someone mentioning that it might be tied to the general's influence rating, but I can't seem to work out a good correlation. Perhaps a few factors are involved. Anyway, I notice that virtually all new generals start at 10 men for Normal unit size (on the battlefield this appears as 11 when you add the general himself). Agree that faction leaders and faction heirs appear to get more.
Since you tend to lose a few men (bodyguards) after a heated battle and their numbers appear to be automatically replenished each turn till the maximum, it's a bit hard to figure out the factors involved unless one keeps multiple saves before/after fights and turns.

Would be nice to know the answer though. I certainly could use a few more good men for a general's unit if I knew how to affect it.

[Red Harvest]

Just read through Jerome's info on this. ...more attack bonuses. CA went nuts with attack bonuses. It is no wonder combat is over in seconds. ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! This also explains why battles can actually take a little time in custom on medium, where you have no general stars and you don't have any inflation of stats for the AI. In the rare moments where the AI has a 10 star general on very hard it will get 7+10 = 17 attack bonus? And if instead the player has 10 stars (common) the AI will be getting +7 plus any generals stars (usually something like 2 or 3), while the human gets +10. That will put the human and AI one equal footing, but the kill rate is through the roof.

It would have been nice had CA used a more balanced approach--increase attack a little, increase defense a little.