Generals not getting command stars?

[teja]

Another really good help to improve your generals apart of Atilius good points can be found here at the board. I guess you already know it but it fits perfectly into the topic of general improvements. It is almost related to RTW without BI. However we already pointed out some differences above.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45969

I like this thread really much because it answers most questions and gives a good view about the trait system.

[Hurin_Rules]

Thanks Teja,

That's a great thread-- very useful.

[Hurin_Rules]

Ok, i've tried and I'm getting really, really frustrated.

Playing on VH/VH, I have found it almost impossible to get a 1:2.25 or lesser ratio and still have any chance of actually winning the battle.

Example: There's a rebel army with 1 unit raider cavalry, 2 peasants, 2 levy spearmen and one Saxon keel spearman. Now, I have my one general unit. If I take anything other than one or two barbarian peasants with me, I have less than 1:2.25. If I take virtually ANY other single unit with me-- e.g. just my general's cavalry and one other unit (I've tried with francisca heerban, archers, etc.) I can't actually win the battle. I've tried again and again. How in the world do you win a battle with such brutal odds?

Grrr.

It seems like one has to be better than Alexander to get a single star in this game. That just doesn't seem reasonable to me.

[Atilius]

Hurin_Rules,

Just to clarify: the odds need to be less than 9:4 in your favor, so you can have an army strength better than double your enemy's and still be able to trigger the event that helps you get battle stars if you win. You don't need to be outnumbered (4:9). In fact if you are heavily outnumbered and still manage to win (your battle axe smoking in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog) you will get some additional goodies such as "good risky attacker" or the like.

[Hurin_Rules]

Hurin_Rules,

Just to clarify: the odds need to be less than 9:4 in your favor, so you can have an army strength better than double your enemy's and still be able to trigger the event that helps you get battle stars if you win. You don't need to be outnumbered (4:9). In fact if you are heavily outnumbered and still manage to win (your battle axe smoking in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog) you will get some additional goodies such as "good risky attacker" or the like.

AHHHHHH. That makes SOOOOO much more sense. Thanks!!!

I'll return when I've tested it more thoroughly then.

BTW, that story about Gothmog's troll guard is the reason why I adopted my name :)

[Hurin_Rules]

Ok, I tested out a few things tonight.

First I played as the Franks. I fought several battles against rebels with a general that did not have the 'confident commander' trait. I did have a problem in that although I could get 'clear' victories, I couldn't for the life of me get a heroic victory. In one battle, I took two sword heerbans, an archer and my general against two peasants, two spear levies, one saxon keel and the enemy general. The odds were lower than 2.25 to 1 (I think they were actually 2:1 or 1:1. No matter how brutally I beat the rebels-- in one battle I destroyed every unit and soldier they had (309 men), at the cost of 5 casualties on my side. This only qualified as a 'clear' victory. I never got the 'confident commander' star.

Then, getting increasingly frustrated, I fired up the old RTW and played as the Brutii. I fought one heavy peltast, one cavalry archer and three peltasts with a couple of equites and a couple of archers. The battle odds were again below 2.25:1. Here I wasn't at my best and took maybe about 20 casualties, and the enemy general and a few soldiers managed to escape. This qualified as a 'clear' victory, and I didn't expect to get a star, but lo and behold I did get the 'confident commander' trait.

What does this tell me? Well, the sample size is obviously too small for any scientific conclusions, but it seems to me that it IS much harder to get stars in BI, especially as the barbarian factions. Again, I've played my entire Frankish campaign and only had one commander once get one star. I have no idea if this is a bug or by design. But it does seem odd. Perhaps Tela is right, and barbarian factions that can go to horde just don't get stars as easily.

One question: any one have any information on how the quality of the battle (average, clear, decisive or heroic victory) is calculated? It seemed like I could not have done any better as the Franks-- killing an entire army of 309 troops at the cost of 5 men on my side! Why did this not qualify as an heroic victory, I wonder?