The Winning First trait

[Afro Thunder]

Either that, or, after the battle, you can select your general, open the console, and type the following command:

remove_trait this BattleDread

[Quickening]

Okay I replayed the battle in the exact same fashion except this time I didn't get the Winning First trait.
The only differences were that I took one less regiment of spear militia and that I didn't wipe rebels out completely. There were a handful of peasants left alive this time. Interesting.

[Carl]

Basically to avoid it you need to engage the enemy in melee with no missiles then hit him from the flanks/rear at the same time and hit his general with something real hard, (missiles are permissible here), the idea being that you force a chain rout before the enemy has taken many losses, and pull out your troops once the enemy begins to rout so you take minimum prisoners.

[Foz]

Basically to avoid it you need to engage the enemy in melee with no missiles then hit him from the flanks/rear at the same time and hit his general with something real hard, (missiles are permissible here), the idea being that you force a chain rout before the enemy has taken many losses, and pull out your troops once the enemy begins to rout so you take minimum prisoners.

Good luck doing this in an assault, especially since the enemy cannot route once it reaches the square. Most of the time I end up killing the enemy to a man - I have yet to find any reasonable strategy for taking and holding the square without entirely annihilating the enemy force in the process. The best remedy is probably to avoid having really superior odds (2:1 or better) if you must attack w/ a chivalrous general, and to simply use dedicated dread generals to do all your butcher's work. That's what they're there for... and then you actually WANT to have them slaughter everyone to get those dread points.

[dopp]

There's a separate trigger for sieges (I could be wrong) to avoid that from happening.

[sapi]

@Foz, just to answer your strat question:

Send a few infantry up against the main defenses and slip some HAs in through the sides to take and hold the square.

They can't retreat from the walls thanks to your infantry and so you'll face them piecemeal in the square

[Foz]

@Foz, just to answer your strat question:

Send a few infantry up against the main defenses and slip some HAs in through the sides to take and hold the square.

They can't retreat from the walls thanks to your infantry and so you'll face them piecemeal in the square

I'm playing catholic factions a lot at the moment, lol.