I had an idle idea about how generals could be better handled in a game like this.

In MTW there was the problem of generals being like Jedi, with so many hitpoints they simply would not drop dead. This was obviously done so the general wasn't murdered four seconds into a fight. But it sucked, to be honest.

Now in RTW the generals have been toned down, and have this annoying tendency to drop dead at the drop of a hat. Not to mention the bloody inconsistency. I've seen generals die instantly upon impact when charging swordsmen whilst fresh and unhurt. I've seen them furiously stabbing hordes of chosen swordsmen to death.

The problem in both cases was, I think, that the general is treated just like every other man in his unit, and the scales have swung every which way as they try to balance this out. You could be handing the enemy their bottom on a platter, but your general whom you have no real control over in the melee gets killed in a fluke, or you could be losing and your general kills everything. My idea was a 'last man standing' rule. What this would mean is that the general is invulnerable until either his whole unit has been killed, or it routs. He has no special additional stats beyond the rest of his men, he just has a kind of 'character shield' until everything actually goes all wrong.

This would work especially well with factions who would have infantry bodyguards for their generals, like barbarians, and would allow these men to actually battle from the front.

Thoughts?