General's Traits

[Royalark14]

For whatever reason I never seem able to get any of my generals to have high traits in anything. I am petrified to let any of my generals save the king out as they always have miniscule loyalty. Furthermore, even though I had a general (king) who had 6 command stars, when he got into a battle he sunk to 0 stars. Last example, my new prince fought a battle and killed 4 generals, including the prince and king of my enemy, and yet he now has the trait of unproven in command and thus has -1 command. What must I do to improve these traits? In vanilla this never happened to me, so just need some help.

[Wolfgrin]

You're right ot use your king in combat. That will raise his authority (and stars, hopefully). The more authority he has, the more loyalty your generals will show. To get good traits for any general, having them participate in the battle is usually good, and will often get your man the "brave" trait. I'm surprised your king-killing general didn't get that. Do NOT have your general ride down fleeing units, unless you want some dread related traits. Keeping military minded generals in castles is often better than keeping them in cities. OTOH, keep admin generals in cities, preferably ones without brothels and taverns (so they don't get adultresses), but with town halls to cut down on corrupt traits. Whenever you can, release prisoners. That brings about chivalrous traits. Guilds also convey good traits on generals in their cities, such as Intrepid Explorer, Pious, and Good Trader. The absolute best, though, is having generals in cities with a university and library (and a military academy when applicable.) They should pile up the good traits, especially if they have the "scholar" attribute.

Some traits are inherited. Some are assigned before you receive the general. And a lot of traits seem utterly random as to why they appear. Some of the other guys on this site have a much better knowledge of what begets what, but the above suggestions should help you.

[Royalark14]

Great that helped a lot! Also, are some traits plain random? For example one of my kings was a humanist and eventually atheist (ironically also had the religious trait), is this caused by anything? Also is there a way to prevent something progressing? Ie one of my generals was once paranoid but is now fully insane.

[Notimeforaname]

Great that helped a lot! Also, are some traits plain random? For example one of my kings was a humanist and eventually atheist (ironically also had the religious trait), is this caused by anything? Also is there a way to prevent something progressing? Ie one of my generals was once paranoid but is now fully insane.

You can get the aethiest line of traits from sacking/exterminating lots of cities or spending lots of time in cities without churches but otherwise favorable religion.

Paranoid is triggered by failed assassination attempts against your general for one thing. It is progressive. Eventually he'll be driven insane.

[Tetsu]

Guessing having him in a city with a high level chuch and lots of priests would help fight off atheism... I've yet to try grooming my generals so. Should probably start to try it.

[Notimeforaname]

For whatever reason I never seem able to get any of my generals to have high traits in anything. I am petrified to let any of my generals save the king out as they always have miniscule loyalty. Furthermore, even though I had a general (king) who had 6 command stars, when he got into a battle he sunk to 0 stars. Last example, my new prince fought a battle and killed 4 generals, including the prince and king of my enemy, and yet he now has the trait of unproven in command and thus has -1 command. What must I do to improve these traits? In vanilla this never happened to me, so just need some help.

The kings loss of command stars in garrison vs. battle is probably due to his 'overconfidence' trait. If you fight lots of battles where you are highly favored to win to by having a larger/superior army your general will gradually become overconfident. There are several levels and the final level is something -6 command when attacking and other sundry nastiness. You need to fight battles with even or worse odds to scale that trait back down. In other words, abandon military logic and fight with at least one hand tied behind your back.

[ryoma]

It is? My explanation was that my generals were just born crazy, and the trait showed it's progression throughout their life.

[Gwyn ap Nud]

I liked having a humanist king.
Made for good roleplay.

[delra]

So you can drive enemy king and prince insane by flooding them with assassins? That kind of explains what happens to Hungarian rulers every time I play evil Byzantine...

[obbob]

well, assassins can either make them insane or making them extremely security wise. The reason a missed hit will reduce the chances of later ones is because of them gaining security traits