Can I buy a Command Star?

[SirGrotius]

Playing BI, latest patch (1.6).

I've read some posts that indirectly complained about how hard it is to get Command stars with the latest patches.

I've found things to be somewhat disappointing, for instance, my faction leader has one star (Alemanni), and a bunch of traits (about a dozen, the good and bad basically cancel out so he's totally vanilla). He's been victorious in about 6-8 battles--no losses. Most of those were clear victories, but he had a couple Heroic victories as well. I'm even playing on normal/normal.

Next campaign, I'll definitely use a higher difficulty level, but I am facing a very large horde on my borders, which I want to eliminate. Having a general with more than one star might help.

So...in what ways can one increase a general's command rating playing with the latest patches?

Thanks again.

[Barbarossa82]

I also find it hard to get command stars per se, although retinue members and traits which increase command in specific circumstances (e.g. when facing particular enemies, when defending, when outnumbered) are relatively easy to come by. However in my experience, because these are not actually altering the base command level of the general, they do not allow him to gain the "night fighter" trait, which is a real rarity.

I also find it odd that, while the majority of my generals have zero command, those who have one or two command stars are described as having rubbish command skills (in the tooltip which pops up when leaving the mouse pointer over the command stars on his info panel). This despite the fact that they are of above average ability compared to the bulk of my family members who have none. Either just having one command star should indicate above-average military skill, or generals should be born with an average of about 3, otherwise it doesn't make sense.

Most of the times when my generals gain command stars, it's as a result of repeatedly tracking down rebels and brigands and kicking their heads in with as few men as possible.

[Watchman]

Most of the times when my generals gain command stars, it's as a result of repeatedly tracking down rebels and brigands and kicking their heads in with as few men as possible.

FamiCav, especially in BI, is often some of the best bandit-cleaner available anyway and the exercise is good for the family members. At least in vanilla RTW I was able to train a decent new general by taking a newly matured fellow with a bit of talent (1 star) and spending about six turns mopping up bandits with him - by the time I shipped him to the frontline to take over command from his rather old war-hero uncle, he already had some 3-4 base Command stars plus the odd "Confident Attacker" trait. *Then* I gave him the old guy's Command-improving ancilliaries...

Remember: the more the enemies outnumber you, the easier it is to gain stars. 'Course, by the point your FamiCav has type three silver chevrons it is a rare bandit stack that isn't fighting at an army strenght *disadvantage* against just the general, and at that point getting more stars or traits gets kinda rare...

[orangat]

Does BI have very different conditions in the traits files compared to RTW to get stars?

[player1]

Yes conditions differ and are more severe.

But from the plus side, conditions in 1.6 are relaxed a bit compared to 1.4 version.

Just for the find here is the list of relevant triggers:

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0010_Standard_Battle_Attacker_Crushing_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.5
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodAttacker  2  Chance  90 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  6 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0020_Standard_Battle_Attacker_Crushing_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.7

    Affects BadAttacker  2  Chance  95 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0030_Standard_Battle_Defender_Crushing_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.5
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodDefender  2  Chance  95 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  6 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0040_Standard_Battle_Defender_Crushing_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.7

    Affects BadDefender  2  Chance  95 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0050_Standard_Battle_Attacker_Clear_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.5
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodAttacker  1  Chance  90 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  50 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0060_Standard_Battle_Attacker_Clear_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.7

    Affects BadAttacker  1  Chance  95 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  50 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0070_Standard_Battle_Defender_Clear_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.5
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodDefender  1  Chance  95 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  33 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0080_Standard_Battle_Defender_Clear_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds >= 0.7

    Affects BadDefender  1  Chance  95 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  50 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger crushing_victory_for_sub4_general_4BIpatch
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and BattleOdds >= 1.2
          and BattleOdds < 2.1
          and GeneralNumKillsInBattle > 2
          and Attribute Command < 4

    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger clear_victory_for_sub4_general_4BIpatch
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and BattleOdds >= 1.2
          and BattleOdds < 1.9
          and Attribute Command < 4
          and GeneralNumKillsInBattle > 2

    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  33 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger crushing_other_victory_4BIpatch
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and BattleOdds < 1.2
          and not I_ConflictType Normal

    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger clear_other_victory_for_4BIpatch
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = clear
          and BattleOdds < 1.2
          and not I_ConflictType Normal

    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  33 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0090_Standard_Battle_Any_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  25 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0100_Standard_Battle_Any_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleOdds > 1.3

    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  66 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0110_Standard_Risky_Battle_Attacker_Clear_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds < 0.5
          and BattleOdds > 0.16

    Affects GoodRiskyAttacker  1  Chance  100 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  15 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  33 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0120_Standard_Risky_Battle_Attacker_Clear_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds < 0.7
          and BattleOdds > 0.16

    Affects BadRiskyAttacker  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 
    Affects GloriousFool  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0130_Standard_Risky_Battle_Defender_Clear_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds < 0.5
          and BattleOdds > 0.16

    Affects GoodRiskyDefender  1  Chance  100 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  15 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0140_Standard_Risky_Battle_Defender_Clear_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds < 0.7
          and BattleOdds > 0.16

    Affects BadRiskyDefender  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0150_Standard_Risky_Battle_Attacker_Crushing_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds <= 0.16

    Affects GoodRiskyAttacker  2  Chance  100 
    Affects Brave  1  Chance  6 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  20 
    Affects GoodCommander  2  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0160_Standard_Risky_Battle_Attacker_Crushing_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds <= 0.16

    Affects BadRiskyAttacker  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 
    Affects Brave  1  Chance  6 
    Affects GloriousFool  1  Chance  100 
    Affects GloriousFool  1  Chance  18 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0170_Standard_Risky_Battle_Defender_Crushing_Victory_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds <= 0.16

    Affects GoodRiskyDefender  2  Chance  100 
    Affects InspiringSpeaker  1  Chance  20 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  100 
    Affects GoodCommander  1  Chance  75 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0180_Standard_Risky_Battle_Defender_Crushing_Loss_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and I_ConflictType Normal
          and BattleOdds <= 0.16

    Affects BadRiskyDefender  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0190_Withdraw_Before_Battle_Even_Odds_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PreBattleWithdrawal

    Condition IsGeneral
          and I_WithdrawsBeforeBattle
          and BattleOdds > 0.7
          and BattleOdds < 2.1

    Affects IndecisiveAttacker  3  Chance  100 
    Affects Coward  1  Chance  15 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  3 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0200_Withdraw_Before_Battle_Good_Odds_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PreBattleWithdrawal

    Condition IsGeneral
          and I_WithdrawsBeforeBattle
          and BattleOdds > 2.1

    Affects IndecisiveAttacker  8  Chance  100 
    Affects Coward  1  Chance  50 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0210_Standard_Battle_Crushing_Victory_Infantry_Commander_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and PercentageUnitCategory infantry > 90
          and BattleOdds < 1.6

    Affects GoodInfantryGeneral  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0220_Standard_Battle_Crushing_Defeat_Infantry_Commander_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and PercentageUnitCategory infantry > 85
          and BattleOdds > 0.7

    Affects BadInfantryGeneral  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0230_Standard_Battle_Crushing_Victory_Cavalry_Commander_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and PercentageUnitCategory cavalry > 55
          and BattleOdds < 1.2

    Affects GoodCavalryGeneral  1  Chance  100 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger V0240_Standard_Battle_Crushing_Defeat_Cavalry_Commander_VnV_Trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess = crushing
          and PercentageUnitCategory cavalry > 55
          and BattleOdds > 0.7

    Affects BadCavalryGeneral  1  Chance  100 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Stone_wall_siege_attack_success
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Siege
          and BattleOdds < 2
          and I_BattleSettlementFortificationLevel >= 2

    Affects GoodSiegeAttacker  1  Chance  90 
    Affects GoodAttacker  1  Chance  15 
    Affects GoodEngineer  1  Chance  15 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Stone_wall_siege_attack_fail
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Siege
          and BattleOdds >= 1.2
          and I_BattleSettlementFortificationLevel >= 2

    Affects BadSiegeAttacker  1  Chance  99 
    Affects BadAttacker  1  Chance  20 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  15 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Stone_wall_siege_defend_success
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Siege
          and BattleOdds < 1.2
          and I_BattleSettlementFortificationLevel >= 2

    Affects GoodSiegeDefender  1  Chance  90 
    Affects GoodDefender  1  Chance  18 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Stone_wall_siege_defend_fail
    WhenToTest PostBattle

    Condition not WasAttacker
          and IsGeneral
          and not WonBattle
          and BattleSuccess >= clear
          and I_ConflictType Siege
          and BattleOdds >= 1
          and I_BattleSettlementFortificationLevel >= 2

    Affects BadSiegeDefender  1  Chance  99 
    Affects BadDefender  1  Chance  20 
    Affects BadCommander  1  Chance  15 
    Affects Drink  1  Chance  8

Notice the bolded triggers.
Those are added in 1.6 patch, to help a bit with Command star gain.
Althouhg some of the other triggers are tweaked slightly compared to 1.4.

[orangat]

In that case I would just edit the traits to make it easier to get stars since the AI is probably cheating on command stars and traits anyway.

In RTW its odds<1.6 with any victory to get goodcommander+1. And odds<2.1 with clear victory to get goodcommander+1.

[player1]

There is no such thing as AI cheating to get command stars.

[orangat]

I have another thread about AI cheating since I think the AI gets help with money and fogofwar and others have mentioned po and traits as well. So you think the AI never cheats in anyway or just in traits?

[player1]

Since whole VnV system is open to moding, including triggers for gaining traits, I can see AI doesn't cheat in that particular department.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why RTW (non-BI) battles even on Very Hard get easy after a while.
AI leaders never get enough stars (lots of both wins and loses), while human controlled ones win a lots of victories and gain lots of stars.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I usually have one general with like 10 stars and all the others have 1. I use the same general in most my campaigns...

[Slug For A Butt]

Let's hope you don't have an accident with him.

[Mooks]

You never gain any stars on bridge battles.

You barely gain stars defending against hordes.

Most of the time your best generals develope traits like "Indreffent attacker" Or "Overly cautios" Which makes no sense since they also have "military genius"

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Let's hope you don't have an accident with him.

Nah...some one else steps up to the plate and becomes 'the man'.

[Watchman]

Most of the time your best generals develope traits like "Indreffent attacker" Or "Overly cautios" Which makes no sense since they also have "military genius"

I've had guys who start out with "Indifferent Attacker" cheerfully gain "Confident Attacker" from about their second bandit-hunting trip - the fellow's obviously working off his weakness.

Makes quite a bit of sense to me.

Beats me how you can gain "Indifferent Attackers" to your top generals, but then again I tend to win my attacks which probably has something to do with my habit of methodically ensuring I have enough of whatever troops I need to win. Too much Sun Tzu, I guess. "Overly cautious" I've never even seen - that might have something to do with the way I employ my FamiCav as elite shock cavalry though. Does your general sit back in the battles and let the soldiers do the killing ? I understand such unmanly inaction tends to trigger some negative traits.

[orangat]

A character can be a bad attacker and a military genius because the traits are not mutually exclusive. Military genius is a rating of the general's innate skills for military matters if he is lucky enough to born with stars. Losing/winning battles affect the (bad) or goodcommander and goodattacker traits.