OK, everyone wants to keep their drunken uncles (or maybe not get other people's) - fair enough.

I actually think the ancillary overload problem is the biggest one. Quintus starts with an aged retainer and now has a priest of Mercury. Both are useless for a general, but have pushed him up to his limit of 6 ancillaries, so he can't get a Carthaginian turncoat or any other ancillary from combat. It seems much better that I be allowed to pass them on to a governor who can actually use them. Similarly, we have a student in Roma in the academy and he's got 6 ancillaries, so his studies there for the next 15 or so turns are wasted. Even worse, the poor chap is clogged up with rather medicore ancillaries for the rest of his life.

On the consular army thing, I absolutely agree the Consular army/Legio/Praetorian army ancillaries should be for people with real armies. I just don't want to see them assigned in a way that destroys the associated trait without creating it in someone else. For example, if the Consular army ancillary goes to someone who can't be a consul, then the person with consul trait loses that trait. ie the Consular army ancillary and the consul trait are a package deal. I have no objection to passing on the consular army ancillary to a Praetor who can become a consul. But it seems wasteful to give it to a Legate and thus prevent the Republic having a consul at all. From a role-playing point of view, I propose the character with the consul trait be the "Second" Consul. When we have enough provinces to be eligible for a second consular army ancillary and second consul trait, we can just say there is some kind of triumvirate - a First Consul (who may or may not have a consul trait) and up to two Consuls with the trait.

It is all micromanagement and Consuls don't have to fiddle with them if they don't want to, it's just I am finding it frustrating not to be able to fiddle.