What does your general do?

[Che]

You don't always get a choice of what kind of unit your general is in, so what do you do if he's part of a good hth unit? Send him with the rest of 'em? It's a little easier if he's an archer or ashigaru which you wouldn't dare send out in front, but how worth is the risk of sending him in if he's a no daichi or yari cavalry?

[Dark Phoenix]

You do not want to have your general as a ashi they rout to easy. If your General is in a mellee unit you do not throw him in with the other units. Ifyour general rout it will affect the rest of your troops morale.

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DoragonPhoenix of the Clan Doragon

[solypsist]

Actually you do get a choice of who your general is, whether it's in multiplayer, custom battle, or campaign.
While sometimes you may get stuck with an Ashigaru general, you can always remove him from your army (in campaign mode) and then the next unit with the highest honor gets the spot. This sometimes won't matter if your army is mostly made up of ashigaru, though, or similar cheap troops like archers. In multiplayer and custom, the first unit you purchase is always the general.
The problem with removing a general with high honor and yet useless ability (musket generals, which are extremely rare, but serve a good enough purpose in this example) is you lose the morale and honor bonuses he'd give your army even if he wasn't actually doing any fighting during the next battle.

[theforce]

I always have my general to be a melee unit. And most of the times l use it to flank

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Don't use only honour, use theforce, too.
http://www.darksideshogunclan.cjb.net
Enter the Darkside...

[Slyspy]

Why waste a good general even if he is in a poor unit. A yari or even teppo ashigaru taisho is not the end of the world so long as he still provides the honour bonus. He's better than nothing. You just have to keep him out of trouble. At least it does mean that he is not going to be involved in the thick of its, and probable unlikely to die in general melee and send your army running. If he does get killed then its probably your fault for letting the enemy get to him. I think it worse to have the taisho in a monk, nodachi or yari cavalry unit where the temptation to charge into battle is more likely to get him killed.

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"Put 'em in blue coats, put 'em in red coats, the bastards will run all the same!"

[BakaGaijin]

A concept I came up with recently, but haven't really tested to any good extent yet, is placing your general in a decent melee unit and placing him to the rear center of your main combat formation. The idea is that his presence right behind the front line gives a morale bonus to the melee troops and with good melee skills, he can also shift to protect the flanks from being overwhelmed, if need be.

You can also take the "traditional" route and place your general in a cavalry unit while still using him in that function. I'd imagine that putting him in a Cav Archer units would be very nice, since he could provide decent fire support and at the same time bring more HTH punch into protecting your flanks than a unit of foot archers.

[Dark Phoenix]

I normally have my general just behind the second row of my troops.They do not lose morale as quickly when they are seperated from the general.

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DoragonPhoenix of the Clan Doragon

[TooCool]

> so what do you do if he's part of a good hth unit?

I put the general in the third row (first is range troops and second is HTH). When enemy is in melee and that one of my HTH unit begin to root, i send my general to help this unit. (in other words: to "full" a hole in my line)

[ShadowKill]

I would think that sending your general in the place of a routing unit would be bad because then he has a higher chance of routing (IMO i never even allow my gen to be anywhere near the fight only then can i be sure that he will not flee so basicly i fight with only 15 units Because the chance of my gen making it into battle were i put him is not posible

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Fear not the sword to your front, but the blade at your back.

"Cutting down the enemy is the Way of strategy, and there is no need for much clever refinement of it"

"After a great fight between two mighty tigers, even a common dog may defeat the survivor"

Clan Shades
Shades

[ShaiHulud]

Folks...My reading on generals says that morale checks made by units look to see if an enemy unit is between them and the Taisho and that nearness to the Taisho affects morale. Thus, a cav Taisho, out attacking enemy flanks would likely have a negative effect on friendly morale.
You can best test the Taisho nearness effect in a bridge battle. Send units to defend or attack far from the Taisho and, when they get somewhat battered, they will begin to worry. Throw the Taisho in, as well, and even lowly ashi will fight for a LONG time while suffering terrible losses.

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Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks

[TooCool]

ShadowKill:
Thanks for your advice, i will think about it but i don't really send my general to replace a routing unit but i send my general help an unit whose has a "flashing" white flag (it's not routing but it would soon if it has no support). In other word, i use my general as reserve. In the most of case, after that i send the general, the weaking unit stop to have a "flashing" white flag. (Hope that you will understand what i try to say!)