Investigation of general bodyguard size

[Simetrical]

Would you care to share your own data, rather than calling A.Saturnus' data wrong with no reason provided and then proceeding to state a hypothesis that the data we do have flatly contradicts?

-Simetrical

[Dearmad]

Calm down. I was simply poiting out that the data gathered so far is not the whole story, clearly- as it doesn't correlate into a relationship.

In one of my games, all 6 generals' cavalry matched the formula: 2*influence + base- 3 generals were identical in stats except for influence and had no personal security vnv. Their command stars appeared to have no influence, but it could other factors combining to create that papearence. More testing is required, since the generals can age and gain stars, and other qualities that may also affect the formula.

IMO the data you fgathered is not the complete picture.

[Simetrical]

Dearmad, you appear to have been vindicated. I have just established that Influence unequivocally changes bodyguard size. Your formula doesn't appear to hold, however; cursory testing with toggle_perfect_spy shows that there appears to be yet another independent variable. I'll look into this more later.

-Simetrical

[magnum]

Currently in the process of collecting data, but a cursory look at what I have so far seems to indicate that Personal Security is the main factor that controls bodyguard size. Each point of personal security equals 2 bodyguards, with values possible values ranging from +9 to -3. Some things to note though for others that are collecting data.

1) When an event occurs that INCREASES bodyguard size, the unit does not immediately increase, but increases 1 man a turn until it is the correct size. (This is on large.)

2) When an event occurs the DECREASES bodyguard size, the unit DOES NOT lose men automatically. Until the unit is involved in combat in which one or more of the bodyguards are killed, it will stay the same size. Once they've been killed they simply don't regenerate.

Once I realized that personal security was definately affecting bodyguard size, I discovered #2. My faction leader had a unit size of 52 with a Pet Lion (+1 security) and a Gladiator (+1 Security). I transfered these two retainers to another leader and that leaders bodyguard did in fact increase from 24 (base size on large) to 28. However, my Faction Leader's bodyguard stayed at 52. Several turns later my Faction Leader was involved in an autocalc battle against some rebels and lost 20 men. His unit regen'd back up to 48 (which was the expected size.) So if you are seeing a bodyguard size that doesn't appear correct, think back to when his personal security might have changed and has he been in combat since then.

I've not finished collecting data, so I can't in any way say that personal security is the only thing that affects bodyguard size. I can only say that so far its the only variable (ok, other than Faction Leader and Faction Heir) that I can say definately has an effect. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll be able to post a more detailed explanation of how a generals bodyguard size is determined.

[player1]

Well, Faction leader and Facition heir have higher personal security then other leaders (they are more difficult to assassinate).

[Simetrical]

I've verified that the effect goes beyond that, however. Even if you remove the PersonalSecurity effect, heirs/leaders still get substantially larger bodyguards.

-Simetrical

[magnum]

Yes, not counting personal security, Leaders get +14 bodyguards and Heirs get +8 bodyguards. (Thats on large unit size.) Haven't tested the disenherited yet. They may or may not get anything.

Faction Leaders also get +3 Personal Security and Faction Heirs get +2.