Second Generals

[crackerjack1348]

Does having a second general in your army help at all? Does it increase moral or anything? I like to have my main general with the bulk of the army and another with the horsemen who leads charges and the like, I just don't know if it's actually creating any bonuses for me. Thanks.

[Samir]

bodyguards do fine against all units, they are probably the best unit compared against single units.

they kill basically anything, even Spearmen. Tough bastards those bodyguards and their general. Until professional pikemen come into play a general (especially those with +hitpoints) are almost unstoppable. (except horse archers)

so the more generals you have in one army the better for you.

Especially in the early game armies with more than one general can make a pretty huge difference. Later in game when there are gunpowder units and professional pikemen they loose some of their momentum though and the battles get more focused on units strength and weaknesses as well as positioning and strategy.

the only thing is that you dont get positive or negative traits ancillaries for your second/third/fourth general (which can be a sad thing occasionally if you get good ones)

[clandestino]

They don't add moral or command bonuses but themselves have wery high moral and they will fight to do last man if nesessary and that can influence other units' moral.

the only thing is that you dont get positive or negative traits ancillaries for your second/third/fourth general (which can be a sad thing occasionally if you get good ones)

I think they get scared trait?

[Unknown Soldier]

Er..you can tranfer ancillaries to the others.

Also massed cavalry charges in the early game just sweeps away any infantry, but you have to do it right.

[Samir]

you cannot transfer all ancillaries and you cannot transfer any traits.

also traits that you get from active fighting like brave, scarred, battle dread, etc always end up only with the first general of a stack.

[clandestino]

I herd about transfering retainers also but I wasn't able to do that. Guess another urban legend?

[Samir]

well you just have to edit the descr_ancillary.txt file and set all ancillaries to transferable=yes

but some ancillaries are not transferable for a reason as they should reflect certain achievements probably. I dont think the AI transfers ancillaries, so if you change it it has only minor impact, but you can still create super generals with the right ancillaries.

[Thompson45cal.]

There not actually a 2nd general, just a 2nd unit of general's bodyguard.
They're excellent units though.

Hell, sorry, My bad, I'm living in the multi-player world, not the campaign.

[crackerjack1348]

I kind of hate how indestructible the generals are though. I was thinking about giving them 1 hit point instead of two, but I figured with the AI making crazy charges with their generals all the time that I would kill pretty much all of their family members. Since I don't get any bonuses for having generals in my army I've started creating an all infantry and archery army led by my main general and then keeping a few units of cavalry commanded by a lesser general within a tile of the main army so that they can come in as reinforcements. It works pretty well, especially with the kingdoms controls for reinforcements. I think it's more realistic as well. I've read descriptions of battles where kings have had trouble maintaining control over the knights and now this is a reality for me.

[Marcus Fulvius]

one nice thing ive noticed is that if for some reason you do lose your primary general during a battle... the 2nd general in your army takes over. basically, rather than suffering a complete loss of morale and command ability... you lose only about half the morale you normally would when your general dies/is captured and any traits/ancillaries your second general has comes into play once he gets a "battlefield promotion".

[candle_86]

question if your general gets captured and then you eradicate every enemy soilder does your general get liberated?

[Seb]

As far as I know, the defeated cannot take prisoners. So the ones who would have been held captured had he win are released and counted in the healed guys.
Although I could be WAY wrong here, it's just what I always thought happened from in-game experience.

[Marcus Fulvius]

nope... pretty sure you're right seb.

only winners get prisoners.

the only thing im not sure of with a general captured early in a battle, before you win the battle...

is whether or not your general that was captured will pick up any traits from the experience... such as "dislikes..." or former captive, or whatnot.