Explanation of Suicidal Generals from CA

[Kull]

Its not that generals shouldnt be thrown into the fray, its that timing when to use generals is tricky. Too soon and they get chopped, too late and they're ineffective. There must be some way to mimic human calculations as to when to employ them.

There probably is. Most good generals - and all great ones - could sense when the enemy's morale was at it's weakest, and knew that was the time to "throw in the reserve". Since this is a game, unit morale level is a mathematical number, and hence potentially "knowable" by the AI. The recommendation which follows is probably not moddable, but should be "codable" if CA really wants an elegant fix to the problem:

Given that unit morale is a mathematical value, it should be possible to hold back the AI General until such time as he "knows" an opposing unit is about to snap, and then - and only then - would the AI release the General into the fray. Better yet, you could adjust this "knowledge" using a factor based on the General's Ranking (number of stars). For example: During a battle, as soon as the first enemy unit sees it's morale fall to a critical value (such that one more shock would surely break it), this value is immediately passed on to the AI, which factors it. If the AI General has 1 star or less, there's only a 40% chance he'll get the order to attack. If it's 2-3 stars, maybe it's a 50-60% chance, and so on until you get a 5-star or greater general who will be given the unfactored number and will always know "the time is right". The corollary to this is that AI generals who never get that message will withdraw rather than fight at all - which I suspect is the more realistic historical outcome anyway.

(Note: The number of stars and corresponding percentages are just examples, the real values would have to be playtested to find the optimal combinations)