how do you train a quality combat general?

[Macilrille]

resting helps? I never knew that and rarely have time, but thanks.

I find that the proper Roman way of having your youths studying strategy in military academies from coming of age till 20-ish then having them be tribune for a while till they are 30, then govern cities for a while, then command armies works well with some generals. Those with the right traits that is ;-) and I think that what it comes down to is a combination of governing in cities with high level educational building and actually commanding will do the job.

[soup_alex]

resting helps? I never knew that and rarely have time, but thanks.

Resting is something all of your worthwhile generals and FMs should indulge in on occassion; it's bad enough suffering from supply-related morale penalties when your general is on extended campaign without exacerbating the problem by having him repeatedly making a full move each turn (Forced Marching and Tired etc. penalties combined can be truly horrendous). I didn't realise that your generals would "reflect" on actions from previous turns, though: many thanks for the tip, Malrubius!

...about how long could this after-the-fact learning potentially remain, though? A turn? Two? Five?

[Ardri]

I downloaded Konny's mod which gives command stars in relation to the experience, so 25+ battles is +4 command stars. I really do enjoy that change to the traits. The one thing I don't quite understand is why most of my generals get the hesitant attacker trait even though I don't often wait til the end of a siege to attack a city.

I will say I just decide when a boy comes of age if they are going to be a general or a govern. I base the decision on their stats, but moreso I let the situation dictate. If I am just undertaking a new war or at a time of "relative" peace. If they are to be a general I have them make the circuit through my cities picking up the proper retinue members.

[Fluvius Camillus]

My generals never rest, their unstoppable armies kill everything on the way and they do the job. Getting better on and on, no time for the feeble. They only rest in Rome to triumph and replenish their men. I only educate them on young age then they hack and slash trough the enemy!

This looks like one of the results....



Actually I should show you one of my best generals with it to prove my point.

EDIT:

YAY those Epirotes from my other campaign are slower

[soup_alex]

YAY those Epirotes from my other campaign are slower

Rome: Total Domination by 195 BCE
Epeiros: Total Domination by 190 BCE
Clearly this is a serious game balance issue that needs to be addressed in the next patch. I refuse to play this ridiculously unbalanced release until the bias is corrected

[Fluvius Camillus]

Rome: Total Domination by 195 BCE
Epeiros: Total Domination by 190 BCE
Clearly this is a serious game balance issue that needs to be addressed in the next patch. I refuse to play this ridiculously unbalanced release until the bias is corrected

Now dont take me for the standard EB player. The thing I did is an extreme exception. I only chose to play the fastest I was possible to do!

Other people play more historical and slower. The game really is not unbalanced I just totally rushed against extreme odds.

Play this awesome perfect and historically correct mod, play it like you want to do it. Dont mind me

[Βελισάριος]

You breed them.

It's simple, really. Survival of the fittest. First, you send them to the Agoge, then if you have Academies, send them there... then let them breed. Spawn children like crazy.

Finally you have them butcher the enemy, particularly where odds are against him.
And, of course... those family members you don't like... send them off to a heroic death, or out at sea never to be heard from again.

And yes, starts are pretty to look at... especially when the star column is bigger than your general on the campaign map.

[soup_alex]

Other people play more historical and slower. The game really is not unbalanced I just totally rushed against extreme odds.

Sarcasm, Fluvius!

I'm still a little staggered by the speed of your campaign success, though: but I suppose the vast majority of my FMs (and I never seem to have very many) are left to govern the most profitable and the most unruly cities I possess, while perhaps one or two are one campaign (sometimes rotating) and one "trains" at schools and brigand hunts. I'd like to be able to try a speed run some day, but I'm not a very rapid or aggressive player and I don't often tend to think very far in advance—only on occasion laying a plot when the chances of several conditions being met are very strong (and it's not as if you can rely upon the AI to do much at all, apart from rapidly balloon when one faction has a slight advantage over its neighbours; commit all of its troops to engage your greatest concentration of troops when it attacks, or leave everything on guard stance on the highest available hill when defending).

My generals... tend to do alright (if not always brilliantly). As I seldom have many significant leaders in the field at any one time, I can concentrate all the best combat ancilliaries on one character and indeed switch them to "meat grinder". They may not become superhuman within a season (their bodyguard might!), but they'll certainly only improve with age, heh heh.

[Tiberius Claudius Marcellus]

That's just sick