The Jobs of Generals

[Rodrico Stak]

How do you manage your generals? What skills do you try to train?

What I do is have a general lead an army (and have a second general come with him, if they are going far away on a Crusade/Jihad or attacking an island), take a settlement, and then settle there, and so I try to train governorship more than leadership skills. Then, I send another general (the only settlements I like to leave without governors are castles, since you can't adjust their taxes anyway), who takes the majority of the previous general's army, and conquers another settlement, and settles there, and so on. The only time I really train a general to be a fighter is when he will be in an area that I know will see a lot of combat, such as Italy, Britain, or the Holy Land.

So how do you manage your generals?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I do it the other way. I never use governors because they get weird traits. I use generals for what they where born and thats is to fight and lead an army.

[Pyrebound]

I use them as governors, and if i decide to attack i pick up a general from a city with 2 governors or from a close city which does not really need one.

[Ältester der Motten]

I usually split my generals up this way:

1/3 Governours, 2/3 Generals, of wich one half is trained to be chivalric, the other one to be dreadful.
The Governours are deployed where it provides the biggest use, for example at big cashcows, or a major city with only yellow or even worse faces etc.


The dreadful and chivalric usually fight alongside, each one ALWAYS with his own stack, and what is to be done with the captured enemys/ invaded settlements is based on wich general is actually the one with whom I personally attack.
That is, if I attack with a chivalric general, no matter how many dreadful generals may assist, I do NOT eradicate them.
And when it's a dreadful general with whom I attack, I do NOT release them/ simply occupy. Ransoms are a usual decision made with both kinds.

[Snizel]

I use them as governors, and if i decide to attack i pick up a general from a city with 2 governors or from a close city which does not really need one.

I do exactly the same as you

[NobleNick]

I use most of my generals in battles, but will leave them in newly conquered cities for a while, if needed.

I like to bunch up my generals a bit. For instance, last night in my Moors campaign (Vanilla 1.2 M2TW, difficulty = H/H) the Faction Leader and 3 other generals joined 16 spear-chucking Desert Cavalry, to make a full stack of 20 cav units. The Moorish stack beseiged the Venetian city of Zagreb. Zagreb had a garrison of 2 spear militia and 2 crossbow units; and an almost full Venetian stack stood next to the city: 2 generals; 3 Italian Militia; 5 Italian spear militia; and 9 Armored Sargeants (19 units total outside the walls, plus the 4-unit garrison).

The small garrison foolishly decided to sally, confidence bolstered by the large stack of reinforcements.

The 4-unit garrison dutifully vacated the city to face the 20 units of cav. The 16 units of Desert Cav went 8-on-1 against the 2 units of crossbows while the generals attempted to get past the spears and into the empty city. It was messier than planned, because some of the enemy routed more quickly than I had thought, and plugged the gate trying to get back into the city. But the generals did get to the square, and to my amazement, butchered all the rallied Venetians without a single bodyguard casualty. The 3-minute timer started about the time the 2 generals from the Venetian reinforcement stack arrived at the gates. The Venetian generals were quickly eliminated with the last of the desert cav's javelins; and I got about half of the desert cav units inside the city gates just as the 3 units of enemy militia and 14 units of spears arrived. I let the first spear unit get one-quarter of the way inside the gate, before pouncing on it from all 3 sides with the desert cav (now out of javelins) which were just inside the gates. Keeping one general on the city square (to keep the timer running) I ran the other 3 generals back to the gate to join the fray. Two or three of the Venetians units routed immediately, and the rout dominoed to the other Venetian units. But the units wanted to rout to the city square, even though that route was blocked by my cav. Soon there were about 14 flashing white flags fighting to get into the blocked gate. Desert Cav never had it so easy against Armored Sargeants. The final tally was something like 400 out of 1100 lost for the Moors versus about 1900 out of 1900 lost for Venice. And about 1500 of those were spears. It was a Heroic victory.

The long-winded point I am trying to make is: A large contingent of generals can be used as a very strong and effective hammer, to tip the battle at a point of your chosing.

[King_Sulieman_YHWH]

Why not use the Generals as Governors, while using the Family Members as Generals?

This way, your Family members wont sit around collecting bad traits, not getting new good ones from fighting, etc.

But your less important general characters will.

[Chicken in a Bottle]

I often just leave generals in settlements unless they show promise for something. More often than not, my generals do not persue chivalry or dreadfulness.

[Rodrico Stak]

I often just leave generals in settlements unless they show promise for something. More often than not, my generals do not persue chivalry or dreadfulness.

Yeah, I have to say that 80% of my generals have 0 or 1 chivalry/dread.

[pwijnands]

I usually mod some files before I start a campaign. I decide if I want dread or chivalry characters and make changes so that I only get one of either. I also remove stupid traits/ancillaries that governors acquire when building stuff like brothels or having more than 50.000 at the end of a turn.

[Rodrico Stak]

I usually mod some files before I start a campaign. I decide if I want dread or chivalry characters and make changes so that I only get one of either. I also remove stupid traits/ancillaries that governors acquire when building stuff like brothels or having more than 50.000 at the end of a turn.

I deal with the 50000 limit by having a very simple policy. Never have less than 10000 unless its important, try to stay around 20000.

[pwijnands]

That's too much micro-management for me when my empire is large (50+ regions). I have 700.000 at the moment in my current campaign with 70+ regions and goes down when I do the occasional building queue turn (add buildings by cycling through all settlements) and up again when some cities have finished building.

[homefry]

What is this 50.000 700.00 5000 limit you are talking about?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

As soon as you get more than 50,000 florins your governors will get all kind of nasty traits that make them corrupt etc. To build buildings gets more expensive. The income from tax, trade and farming will drop.

[homefry]

Hmmm. That's interesting.

How do buildings get more expensive? Do you mean the computer jacks up the price for all buildings once you get to a certain level?

And what file is it to prevent this 50,000 florin limit?

[DrunkNIrishMan]

Your governors get traits that increase the cost of buildings or training units once they've reached the corruption threshold (50,000).

[homefry]

Your governors get traits that increase the cost of buildings or training units once they've reached the corruption threshold (50,000).

Yeah, that's why I never keep my generals in settlements.

You can do everything proper and neat, but they ALWAYS pick up negative traits. I've done things where I only build religious buildings and the game still gives him a foreign fruitcake! (and yes, I destroy all those tavers, inns, etc.)

[Skyline Pete]

I just let them get whatever traits they end up with. Then I try to roleplay the character according to what traits they've got.

IE My utterly insane Faction Heir took 4 groups of merc cav and rampaged through Britain before dieing.

[Samir]

I currently have a german general who refuses to die. His traits are so bad its unbelieveable, so he (yes he alone!!! suits his insanity traits ) declares war on france.

Believe it or not, he conquered 2 cities by siege and sent at least 2 french armies fleeing back to Paris. Dunno why but he just does not want to die for his country. I am hoping for a death of him soon, as I need peace on that border and he only has 10 Bodyguards left so just a couple of hundred french militias to go

Generally I keep most generals as military commanders. Money aint much of a problem later on and goveneurs tend to accumulate too many bad traits so that you loose more money than you would gain.

Especially heirs and family members with a realistic chance to become heir, have to earn their spurs on the battlefield. I dont mind if they become scarred, cruel and harsh leaders then.

[alvinthegreat]

I have "frontline" governors and "normal" governors. Frontline governors are (preferably) situated in castles with an army behind their backs. They tend to have at least 3 or 4 stars in command and a couple in chivalry with ancillaries geared towards fighting (i.e siege engineer, veteran warrior ect). They wage most of my wars, and thus gaining every more experience.

I leave my incapable general in my "back" area, where they serve as governors based on their stats. Lesser governors serve in smaller towns, whereas better governors serve in bigger towns (to maximize income/happiness)