Schooling

[BOSSate9]

Another question. Is Rome the only faction that can send young family members to academies? Do the other factions offer that? Also, do you just move the guy into the settlement or is there something else you have to do?

[Carados]

I think all the "civilised" factions can build an academy and educate family members/generals. The Greeks even start off with some! I'm not 100% sure of the intracacies. But if you put a general in a settlement with an academy then after a couple of turns they will eventually get some new traits and/or anciliaries to bolster their retinue. The benefits these give range from include increased command, better management, more influence, a combination of them all, bonuses to law, decrease in squalor, building discounts, tax bonuses and so on. I value them so highly that the academy is the first thing I build as the Romans.

Barbarians don't benefit from these buildings.

[pannonian]

Rome is the only faction that forces you to send young FMs to school. Before they reach 20, FMs have the student trait, which IIRC prevents them from getting the goodcommander trait in battle. Since they can't get useful battle experience from leading armies, one might as well send them to a city with an academy in until they reach 20 and can get the military tribune trait.

[Quinn Inuit]

Hmmm...do you think it would help make the AI keep students in a city if I gave them a blanket -3 command whilst a student, or is that not a real problem?

[FriendlyFire]

There's a seasonal quirk to the retinue system: with the four-turns-per-year script, most retinue are created in summer, with a few more sometimes arriving in autumn. And a family member needs to have sat in a city with an academy for at least one season before he'll get retinue (I think). So, move generals into cities with academies at the end of your winter turn, leave them there during spring, and they should get retinue in summer.

[Quinn Inuit]

That's interesting, thanks. I didn't know that.