What to do with useless generals?

[Alcorr]

Some inquisitor is gonna get him, lol.

More on topic, the debates of this thread have led me to try something: I ran duplicate tests except for one thing: In one I used a bodyguard unit, in the other I modified that unit to have only 1 HP but twice as many members. Results follow:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The first 2 sets are charges I controlled, against AI Dismounted Feudal Knights. 1st is with NE Early Bodyguard in default config:

enemy killed/bodyguard lost
58/4
58/1
58/2
59/3
59/3

13 total dead bodyguard

Same thing, but bodyguard having 1 HP but 40 men:

enemy killed/bodyguard lost
57/2
56/6
61/3
58/6
60/6

23 total dead bodyguard

The last 2 sets are AI NE Early Bodyguard vs. Armored Sgts controlled by me.

First w/ normal bodyguards:

bodyguard lost/enemy killed
11/73
13/73
11/74
8/73
3/73

46 total dead bodyguard

Now with bodyguard w/ 1 HP but 40 men:

bodyguard lost/enemy killed
15/69
25/72
16/67
19/73
27/75

102 total dead bodyguard

The end result is that they performed nearly identically in terms of percentage of unit lost by the end of combat. That is to say, in terms of losses (percentage wise) and kills, a unit of 2HP cavalry w/ 20 members is equivalent to a unit with identical stats but only 1HP and 40 members. As the bodyguard generally have better stats than normal 40-man cav units, they will typically outperform 40 member cavalry units save for the few who have competitive or even better stats.

There is one other factor I noticed in all the tests though... experience. By the end of combat, the standard 20-man general's bodyguard unit in all 10 runs I put it through always accumulated 1 bronze chevron. In the 10 runs involving the modified 40-man bodyguard unit, never once did it accumulate 1 bronze chevron by the end of combat. I've already speculated in another thread that experience is driven per-man, and this find would be in keeping with that. Due to the lower unit size, the 20-man bodyguard unit much more quickly hits its experience breakpoints. 1 bronze for instance seems to need 2.0x unit size in kills to achieve. For the 20-man unit, this is only 40 kills, which it does pretty much without fail upon a successful charge. It should be noted that they don't need 40 kills total though... they need an average 2 kills per man. If only 15 survive, then they need 30 combined kills to be 1-bronze. For a 40-man cav unit, though, they need ~80 kills, an unachievable number against a single unit. They COULD gain a single bronze chevron if enough no-kill members died, leaving 60+ kills between the remaining 30 or less members, but in practice it doesn't generally go this way.

For me at least, the much more rapid experience gain, coupled with the fact that they automatically regenerate, makes bodyguards clearly preferable to pretty much any other cavalry.

Well you guys can say what you want, I always find 40 cav units of more use. Perhaps it is because the 20 man gen unit may be better for fighting, but 40 men is better for running down enemies which is all i use my cavalry for anyways. Seriously, the battle AI is so bady I don't think my hvy cavalry have actually ever killed any enemy that hasn't already been fleeing....

Only about 1/4 of the unit (~10 men) is actually in a good position to connect with a charge, and that's assuming a frontal attack. In side charges, this is even less. The narrow nature of a general's unit gives it an advantage here as well, as the same 10 men in the middle are in great position to charge, it's just that they are higher quality troops now with bigger attack and charge bonuses than most cavalry. If more than 20 men at a time could be reasonably expected to connect with a given charge then your argument would be valid, but as they typically do not, it holds no water.

10 men?!?! Thats simply not true. Not to mention normally when the units charge 4-5 cavalry will be lost on the charge even when not facing pike units. I always get at LEAST 20 to hit on target, often times more...

I always use my second and third ranks of cavalry in the unit to connect. Do you have the patch?