AI Command Stars in EB

**tomdidiot** · December 25, 2007, 02:09 AM

How on earth does the AI get so many command stars for its generals?

I mean, I have a general, who's been fighting for around 20 years in-game, and he has a grand total of 2 (3 when defending).

Meanwhile, I'm facing AI generals with 5-8 and (once) 9 command stars!

**MarcusAureliusAntoninus** · December 25, 2007, 03:58 AM

The AI is given command stars through hidden traits in order to increase the difficulty and effectiveness of the AI.

**tomdidiot** · December 25, 2007, 04:10 AM

What do command stars do? They're +1 Att, +1 Def +1 Morale per each star, right?

**Juvenal** · December 25, 2007, 04:22 AM

Command Stars are not as powerful as you might think.

They are good in auto-resolve, but on the battle map their effects only apply in a limited area around the general (just like Eagles).

This means that in EB, AI General's bodyguards are generally very very strong. I often see enemy cavalry bodyguards pushing head-on into a couple of my infantry units and surviviing long after the rest of their army is defeated. The general himself gets extra hit-points from the command stars, so he is even more difficult to kill than his bodyguard.

Unless you auto-resolve a lot, don't worry about AI command stars. It is morale bonuses that are the most useful, because they apply to your whole army, you will need to look through all your general's traits to determine his morale bonus effect.

**Charging_Knight** · December 25, 2007, 04:43 AM

I particularly enjoy it when these maniacal hyper generals charge headlong into my maniples of principes and get speared to pieces and slaughtered...I had one battle where I wiped out 5 Lusotana generals all with a minimum of 5 stars to 8 stars!

**gaius valerius** · December 26, 2007, 08:53 AM

the command stars dont matter much in personal battles, but in autoresolve they are more important. your generals get enough command stars but they are like +1 when fighting this, +1 when fighting that... etc... i personally like to see a general with a lot of stars cuz thats cool

if you want a lot of stars? you have to fight battles, and battles, and battles... and more battles yourself

for example i'm playing pahlava now and damn my general has 6 (regular) command stars, thats my all time high

the thing is when playing a faction which requires you to fight battles yourself like the nomadic faction or romans or actually each faction without phalanxes your generals will get friggin lot of stars.

biggest problem is the marian reforms. roman units suck ass in autoresolve (especially against succesors). so you long for the marian event time and time again and when the year 172 BC approaches you start looking for that general. when you've finally found the guy with the right traits he needs 3 FRIGGIN COMMAND STARS... those are SO FRIGGIN HARD TO GET. cuz from about 70 family members 2 had more than 0 command stars, 1 had more than 1... and they were all old guys, so i had to train that general from scratch. i gave him an army, and i started fighting the strongest rebels i could find, those were in noricum were 4 friggin rebel armies protected their capital. it took me over 6 battles to get that 2nd star. then i got my faction leader killed at sea to receive the extra bonusses that would give my heir the extra stars to trigger the reforms and omg was i happy that i got them but omg did i had to go through friggin hell to get it

my point being, getting stars to trigger reforms SUCKS