Province governors?

[Insigna]

When choosing province governors how important is acumen? Should I worry about having more dread instead? Also Should I keep Governors in the provinces they govern for the added loyalty? Do they get any other benefits from staying in there provinces they are supposed to govern?

[Cruelsader]

It depends. Acumen is not that important if the province has low agricultural and trade income. However, in general, I would say that acumen is easily the most important characteristic beacause it is the only characteristic you cannot "compensate." That is, you can ignore low loyality by putting the governor into an army lead by a loyal general. You can subsitute piety and dread bonuses by increasing the size of the garnison in the province. But you cannot compensate for acumen and you need income.

I have heard that keeping governors in their provinve adds loyality. I am not sure. I have not heard of any other benefits. However, I have noticed that any general in a provinve with lot of building activity tends to get builder virtues (regardless of being the governor or not).

[Ulair]

Hi Insigna,

For me, acumen is the number one factor for govenors, with dread next and then loyalty. Piety I tend not to worry about.

I'll almost always look for govenors with 4 acumen or more, then from those pick the one with the highest dread. Unless their loyalty is 4 or lower, they're in. The one exception is in a newly conquered rebellious province where my troop-stack is small and loyalty is dangerously low: I'll go for high dread to start with until the population's settled down a bit, then sack him later and bring in the smart guy.

Cruelsader's right: acumen is the one stat you can't offset by some other means, and money is everything in this game .

As to keeping govenors in provinces: the folklore around here is that it makes no difference to loyalty but increases the risk of the govenor getting bad V&Vs - lazy, corrupt, drinker, that sort of stuff. Many folk stack govenors with the King which, they say, helps guard against this. It also improves the general's loyalty (and means he can't rebel in a civil war anyway since he's with the King).

HTH!

Cheers,
Ulair

[Ash]

I usually aim for a minimum of 4 acumen for every province. Low income ones like Navarre and Wales can do with 3 acumen though.

Usually, most Trade provinces should have 4-acumen guv'ners and more. Some provinces though have high farm incomes with no trade, like Normandy, Provence etc. 4+ acumen is preferable as well.

[ichi]

When choosing province governors how important is acumen?

very - all of the above replies are correct about this.

put your highest acumen guys as governors of your most productive provinces.

Should I worry about having more dread instead?

If you have a high acumen (>3) gen who has high dread use him in a province that you have conquered that appears to be rebellious, maybe like one of a different faith.

Also Should I keep Governors in the provinces they govern for the added loyalty? Do they get any other benefits from staying in there provinces they are supposed to govern?

No. I try to keep the really high acumen guvs at home so they don't accidently get killed, but if I need them I use them on the front line.

ichi

[padmewan]

Always check [b]all your units before you go assigning those titles. When I was playing last night, I was so focused on moving my 4-acument generals to ungoverned provinces that I forgot to check my new units at the beginning of the turn. After assigning the titles, I found that one of my new AUM units had a general with SEVEN acumen!?!? Forgot what the name of his virtue was, but it gave +3 acumen over a "natural" 4... amazing! Not sure if it's worth sacking the current Antioch governor, who's got more "balanced" stats (2 piety, 2 dread, but only 4 acumen) for this guy. The Antioch gov. would probably be pretty pissed...

[mfberg]

Regularly check you governors, disband/unseat those with lower acumen for those with higher acumen. You might keep one high acumen general around just in case say Flanders or Antioch suddenly develops a case of the "I need to be invaded" blues.

mfberg

[aldarion]

Not sure if it's worth sacking the current Antioch governor, who's got more "balanced" stats (2 piety, 2 dread, but only 4 acumen) for this guy. The Antioch gov. would probably be pretty pissed...

If you sack a governor, does anything more happen than him simply losing the bonus stats conferred by the title? The manual hints at an ex-governor becoming unhappy (so perhaps he'll be more likely to rebel?)


This is my first post, so hello to everybody! I've been reading these forums for a few days and there's lots of useful stuff here - thanks for helping to improve my skill at this amazing game

[Ulair]

Hi, aldarion, and welcome to the org.

Generals stripped of titles lose a point (or so) of loyalty - not usually a problem unless they're around the 4-5 borderline traitor mark . I often just disband the unit of a disloyal govenor (unless it's a Viking Huscarle or something equally useful ).

[Procrustes]

I would sack him. Put the guys with the most feathers in charge of your most profitable provinces. If you leave him there and do a couple of farm upgrades he is likely to get the "steward" virtue - +10% to farm income. Watch your new units, and watch the V&V's that you earn each year - there are a number that increase acumen. They go to the guy who is the top of each stack, so if you have a choice make your govs the top of stacks, or at least place guys with 4 feathers at the top of stacks - perhaps you will get someone who is "educated" etc.

The only time I use high dread is if I'm worried that I can't handle a rebellion. If you have enough troops to garrison then rebellions aren't a problem, or you can let them happen to a province where you have a good gov and make money from both the prisoners as well as the farms/trade that the province can give you. (I took Livonia in a recent game, gave them a four feather gov, built farms and trade but no happiness buildings. I could get rebellion after rebellion - especially after I kept killing all the rebels turn after turn and the populance started hating the guy. The rebellions got bigger and bigger, and more teched the more tech I built in the province. I'd get 1000-1500 extra florins from confiscated lands after each rebellion, plus all the money I was making on trade and farms. I also used the rebellions to train up some pretty good generals and heirs. I finally got so I felt bad for the populance, so when the king died his heir replaced the gov with a nicer one and all the rebellions stopped. I'm saving that bastard for when I take Lithuania from the massive Byzantine army that has been sitting there for decades.)

[mfberg]

If you sack a governor, does anything more happen than him simply losing the bonus stats conferred by the title? The manual hints at an ex-governor becoming unhappy (so perhaps he'll be more likely to rebel?)

If they start with sufficient loyalty they should be okay, but I train low ranking units in high loyalty provinces just for governors. I train and kill at least 1 peasant unit per turn looking for those 5 acumen govs so I can keep a constant set of replacements for those govs who develop anti-acumen/anti-tax/anti-trade vices.

mfberg

[ajaxfetish]

If you really like guy you want to sack you can always do something to raise his loyalty back up afterwards like offering him an alternative title or your daughter's hand in marriage. You can soften the blow a bit and perhaps even make him feel more honored than ever before. Maybe he's got 8 command stars but his acumen's crap so you don't want him ruling Antioch but still need his loyalty. If he's your son-in-law and running the Sinai he won't feel so bad, he won't be hurting your income, and you can send him straight to the front to dominate your foes.

[ajaxfetish]

If you really like a guy you want to sack you can always do something to raise his loyalty back up afterwards like offering him an alternative title or your daughter's hand in marriage. You can soften the blow a bit and perhaps even make him feel more honored than ever before. Maybe he's got 8 command stars but his acumen's crap so you don't want him ruling Antioch but still need his loyalty. If he's your son-in-law and running the Sinai he won't feel so bad, he won't be hurting your income, and you can send him straight to the front to dominate your foes.

[Insigna]

Thanks for all the help!