Unit Upgrading

[tellapan]

How do you overcome this problem. If you play in early and have a general who is blessed with many stars, as time marches on he and his unit rapidly get left behind by newly available units. I know I can send him back to his region to upgrade his armour and replace his casualties but he would still be no match against opponents that have been made available later in the game. Does this meaan I have to keep fielding armies in 1350 with a unit of Urban Militia in them because my best general started off as one? In the case of Royal Knights I know that the if that is the case then I can upgrade through the game and maintain a powerful unit but if your general is attached to vanilla archers or Urban Militia, what do you do?

[Arciel]

Relegate him to one of your inner provinces and try to train a new general using the better units. Leave him in charge of your defences as a precaution against suprise rebellions and re-emergences. Or alternatively, use him in your field armies but just as a flanking unit. That way, you still get the bonus for the command stars and have a decent unit in the form of your general.

[tellapan]

Seems an awful shame to develop a 9 star general and use him as a flanking unit - he'd be minced in no time. Similarly to leave him in a back water seems a waste of his morale modifiying properties

[Arciel]

Seems an awful shame to develop a 9 star general and use him as a flanking unit - he'd be minced in no time. Similarly to leave him in a back water seems a waste of his morale modifiying properties

...You do have a point there...hehe.

[SCRIBE]

Wow, thats a pretty crumby position for a notable general, but a very noble one, he's that type of guy that doesn't want to leave his original unit for a unit that's higher in the social ladder. Now that's keepin' it real.

lol anyways, since you have an ownage general in a rather basic fighting unit, just try and use him against minor enemies like rebels or enemy field armies that doesnt use heavily armoured units or specialized units that would turn your general into mincemeat cause his skill with the poleaxe and his tactics won't save him there! Use him to take out a vanilla army of spearmen, archers and such. You better watch for your general. Always have a better equipped unit around to protect him. Don't use him to charge attacks. Never leave him alone on the battlefield.
But in a siege battle, you can just use him to bolster the morale of the entire army with just his presence. That's what I do, ie I use my 8-9 star general to lay seige to a place, but his kataphract unit doesn't have to lift a finger, since his presence is there on the field.
And most definitely, get a promising general with stars of 3 and start using him to win the battles. Most notably, get a heavy cavalry unit or infantry to become your general's unit.
Good luck friend.

[macsen rufus]

Definitely upgrade him all you can, try to top up his unit with high valour survivors from the dregs of other similarly outdated units. You can end up with a fully-teched high valour unit which can have considerable punch if used carefully. In my current XL Genoa campaign I have an 8-star general who is a mounted X-bow. With his valour now at 10 (on the battlefield icon, campaign map never shows above 9), and a weapons upgrade or two, this unit actually has higher attack stats than my raw, teched up High Royal Knights. Even katanks run from him

[tellapan]

That sounds a good plan...I'll try it. Thanks for the advice

[Martok]

There is another option, although it can be rather time-consuming (in addition to which some players consider it be cheating):

You can keep track of which years your "hero" generals appear (I know you can also look it up in the game files, but I forget which one), and then make sure to train your best unit in that year. No, it's not a perfect solution; but some people feel it's worth doing so if it saves you the frustration of having an uber-general commanding a unit of lowly spearmen.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Here is a questions about heroes - are heroes random unit types, or are they always the same unit? I have noticed that Nur Ad Din is always saracen infantry. Where can I read a good explanation about heroes - do they only appear in a certain year, and if you miss it, you never get them? To me it appears that they are the first unit of a certain type you train, such as the first saracen infantry you train. I am most probably wrong, and I am sure this is explained somewhere in great detail.

[Martok]

Well I'm not a stats guru, but I should be able ansnwer your questions at least in a general way:

Here is a questions about heroes - are heroes random unit types, or are they always the same unit? I have noticed that Nur Ad Din is always saracen infantry.

To me it appears that they are the first unit of a certain type you train, such as the first saracen infantry you train. I am most probably wrong, and I am sure this is explained somewhere in great detail.

Any hero generals that you *start* with will always have the same unit. So in the case of the Egyptians', who always start with that 5-star commander in Arabia (I'm blanking out on his name), he's always in command of a unit of Bedouin Camel Warriors.

It's different for hero generals that show up in the course of the game, however; and I'm admittedly less certain as to how they work. It was originally thought that they were put in command of the best unit you're currently training in the year that they appear; but I believe this has since been proven to be incorrect. In my experience, heroes seem more likely to show up in your most developed province, much like how new kings appear. I can't say that I'm correct either, however--I confess I don't pay enough attention to where hero generals appear. There is probably a pattern and/or algorithm that determines where they show up, but no one seems to know for sure what it is.

Where can I read a good explanation about heroes - do they only appear in a certain year, and if you miss it, you never get them?

Unfortunately, there really isn't a comprehensive guide regarding heroes in MTW, so I can't help you there. But yes, heroes always appear in a certain year; you won't "miss" them. The only way they *won't* show up is if their faction has already been destroyed. There are also "rebel" heroes, such as William Wallace and Robin of Locksley, but I won't go into them here.

[Kavhan Isbul]

I think the camel Egyptian general was called Shahinshah or something like that. It would be interesting to test the theory, but I have never had Nur Ad Din, who appears, and is not there from the beginning, as something other than saracen infantry. This of course may be due to the fact that I build plenty of units of these type, but I think when I have seen him for the AI he was saracen infantry again. Somehow I cannot imagine him to appear in a unit of peasants, even if this is the only unit built in the particular year when he is supposed to appear. I do not know if the same principles are followed for strategic units too, but the first English Bishop is always Tom Becket. I probably need to do some experiments.

[Martok]

I confess I often quicksave in the first 10-15 years of my Egyptian campaigns--just so that when Nur Ad Din appears, I can reload the turn and make sure he gets the best unit available (which often times is still only Bedouins). I know it's not very fair, but I really hate it when he shows up commanding a unit of Desert Archers....

[macsen rufus]

Heroes are definitely preset in one of the game files (I'm getting rusty - spend too much time playing, too little on modding now ) but I think it's the "Faction specific" or "Names" file. They can be "set" for date of birth and for a specific province. If this means the date of birth comes along and you don't own the province yet, then the first unit you train in that province when you DO take it, will be your hero. If the hero is not "province specific" he can appear anywhere in your empire, on or after the date of birth.

I don't really sweat it over heroes. Just say "Ooh, a hero - how nice" when they show, but don't go to any lengths at all to prepare for them showing up.

Oh, and yes, you can have "hero" agents too (like Thomas a Becket, Guy of Gisbourne etc)

[Martok]

Oh, and yes, you can have "hero" agents too (like Thomas a Becket, Guy of Gisbourne etc)

Ah, Guy of Gisbourne. My favorite assassin in the game.

The Spanish also get a hero Inquisitor, but I forget his name. He's great to have aroud when you need to fry someone, but the dude's scary....