Newbie questions about MTW generals

[Sir Garlon]

I am puzzled by a couple of things about generals in MTW.

First, I am on my third king already (first campaign) but none of my generals seem to have died off. I know I can use an assassin to get rid of a general if I really want to, but do the guys ever die of old age!?

Second, I noticed I have one really awesome general - high Loyalty, high Piety, high Acumen, even a decent Dread, and best of all no Vices - but the problem is, he is in charge of a bunch of peasants. I would really like him to have better troops. Is there a way to get rid of the peasants but keep the general? My tech has progressed to the point where I don't see a use for peasants any more and I don't want to keep paying the upkeep on the worthless rabble.

Thanks!

-Sir Garlon

[Ludens]

First, I am on my third king already (first campaign) but none of my generals seem to have died off. I know I can use an assassin to get rid of a general if I really want to, but do the guys ever die of old age!?

In vanilla M:TW only the King, his brothers and their sons, can die of old age. All other generals, and that includes ex-royal heirs, will live for ever, barring incident with sharp (or blunt) objects. If you have the Viking Invasion expansion, however, they will die, but their succesor will have identical stats and V&V's. There is a command line that will make the replacements have slightly lower stats, though.

Second, I noticed I have one really awesome general - high Loyalty, high Piety, high Acumen, even a decent Dread, and best of all no Vices - but the problem is, he is in charge of a bunch of peasants. I would really like him to have better troops. Is there a way to get rid of the peasants but keep the general?

No. By the sound of it, your general is one of the historical heroes. The heroes are assigned to the highest ranking unit that has completed training in their sixtheenth birthyear. Off course, if you are only recruiting peasants, you naturally get a peasant general. The only thing you can do is make sure to complete the recruitment of more powerful unit in their sixtheent birthyear. You can find the birth dates of these general's in a heroes listing. I recommend Ky Kiske's (M:TW only, but also contains the general's stats) and Nefarious' (VI & M:TW). You can find the former here, and you can find how to obtain the latter in Froggy's beginner's guide to M:TW.

Welcome to the Org, .

[doc_bean]

Just use the high acumen general as a governor in a rich province, good governors are often more important than good generals.