The command stars, and you

[Ethan Smith]

Be careful Blacksnail, you are treading on my dreams.

[blacksnail]

It is what I do best, sadly.

[Afro Thunder]

OK, now that I've determined that the AI's generals do get "bonus" stars, does anyone know how these stars get awarded?

[Spoofa]

I find Command Star's easy to get.

Typically if I use my generals wisely they tend to get command star's, typically at least four before their retirement.

Even if they lose they sometimes get command star's.

[Thaatu]

Auto-resolving gives tactician/leader related traits more often than a "real" battle. In my Seleucid campaign my current governer of Judea is Alexandros Syriakos. He has command 10, management 9 and influence 10. I used him in his youth to battle rebels and other independents west of Babylonia, most of which I auto-resolved, and I promoted him to lead the second field army. After I secured the Levant I retired him to governership, as he's pushing 60.

My Aedui king has command 7, but he already had 3 when the game started if I remember correctly.

[nediak]

With my makedonian campaign I have auto-resolved a few battles because I have grown very weary of commanding every single battle. I recall (on the few occasions that I did this) that I lost an inordinate amount of men compared to them. For example, taking one of the cities in southern italy with two thousand men yielded me 600 casualties with only 300 kills... and that was with an army of silver shields and royal guards against eporite (sp?) rabble levies and militia (450 soldiers in the army that I attacked).

Granted, this loss was with a general with no stars and against a captain, so there were no morale boosts that i'm aware of.

So my point is, I wish that some of my generals had command stars so that i could auto-resolve a few battles. I hate to whine like a wimp, but at this point of my expansion I have to fight 2-3 battles every turn/end turn and I'm weary of it. Plus, who doesnt want their general with a half-dozen shiny stars next to his head?

[Dan_Grr]

You should then use auto_win. Auto_win is, in my opinion, the "real" auto-resolve, and even then, there are battles that I use auto_win and think that I still have too much casualties. I've tested this several times fighting the battle and losing something like 100-200 men. With auto_win I've lost 600. With auto-resolve it's a joke, instant loss. But that heavily depends wether you're fighting a general or a captain, specially if you're seiging a city, now there the auto-resolve is completely ridiculous.

There are times when it's fair game to use it, and others when it's not. If you have 200 levies in your army against a 2000 batallion of elite units you're going to win anyway a Heroic Victory if you use auto_win. For me, auto_win is reserved for the pesky cities and some annoying generals and armies that I know I can win over... always.