Making Good Generals

[Belisarius00]

I have a general I think is quite good. He is called Amulius Brutus, and I'd like any advice I can get about:-

(1) How I can improve him further
and
(2) How I can avoid the bad traits (if possible)

This is what I have so far for this character (so far )

Name: Amulius Victor
Command: 10
Management: 2
Influence: 5
Retinue: Veteran Centurion, Greek Turncoat, Military Tribune, Chirugeon, Herodas
Traits: Superior Commander, Natural Born Leader, Political Animal, Intelligent, Roman Hero, Conqueror, Good Attacker, Butcher, Been in the Wars, Bloody, Faction Heir, Social Drinker

Any advice you can give will be appreciated

[Iññsomññi]

I'm not entirely sure, but there are various things you can do to improve your general, such as walking into AI set ambushes and being victorious, which will help to give your general increased stats in an ambush, as well as using him in sieges so that he gets traits such as siege expert etc.

I don't really have much idea on how to get influence + management traits, I apologise :s

[ninjabanana]

I might be wrong, but don't you get management and influence traits by having the general hang out in an academy city for a few turns?

[Chris Death]

Best is to make a decision first: do you want him to become a good general (military)
or a good governer (civil) - besides a faction leader and it's heir you won't find too many
of the universal kick-ass general/governer in one piece. Getting good traits here usually results
in getting bad traits there and vice versa - have a general out in the fields all the while
for example causes impotence - having him survive a few assassinations turn him into cowardly
but raise up his personal security etc. etc.

If he got already 10 commanding stars then go on use those 10 stars instead of wasting them
to make the perfekt manager with influence out of him.

~S~ CD

[HanatielHawk]

I have a general I think is quite good. He is called Amulius Brutus, and I'd like any advice I can get about:-

(1) How I can improve him further
and
(2) How I can avoid the bad traits (if possible)

This is what I have so far for this character (so far )

Name: Amulius Victor
Command: 10
Management: 2
Influence: 5
Retinue: Veteran Centurion, Greek Turncoat, Military Tribune, Chirugeon, Herodas
Traits: Superior Commander, Natural Born Leader, Political Animal, Intelligent, Roman Hero, Conqueror, Good Attacker, Butcher, Been in the Wars, Bloody, Faction Heir, Social Drinker

Any advice you can give will be appreciated

There are several ways in getting generals special abilities. The one that you'd should know is the most important to keep your roman empire stable and clever: Academies. Each level of academy improves the chance of generals in that city gaining ancillaries and traits (good ones).

If you want a general who's perfect in combat let him go to a school untill his 25th? you should decide what age. And put the general into an army and let him fight against enemies (in-empire generals should gain command quickly enough by defeating annoying spawning rebels).

If you want an influence general you should let him go to school a lot. This should increase his influence.
If you want your generals management go up let him govern a city (and build a school in that city, this will let him gain management and influence.)

If you want a perfect general suitable for the throne this is what you should do:
Search in your empire for a general who's in your opinion young and eager to learn and has none of really bad traits (such as agression). A general whose influence or w/e is already high from the start is also a very good choice. Make the suitable general the faction Heir if you already know he's gonna lead your empire. If you don't know, wait a couple of turns while other generals are also at school. When they're 20 you can start making decisions and when 25 you can decide whether the generals in your schools are suitable for the throne, for government of cities (generals who're not throne-suitable or battle-suitable enough should be selected out of influence. If you have a hard time with a city the one with the highest influence in this category should govern this city. Important cities should be governed by management and influential generals. When 25 you should be able to send them away on the mission you thought of them. When you've found your perfect faction heir, let him go to school until his 25th (my recommendation) and let him fight several battles to get his command high. The school must be the highest school in your empire. Let him govern that settlement as soon as he's comming of age. Just let him govern that settlement and his influence and management maybe command will grow well.

This is the way I keep my roman empire stable and strong, stronger than in the beginning because all of my generals were specialised since I started using this tactic

[Belisarius00]

Thanks for the advice. Since the save game was rather early, I hadn't gotten very far with developing my cities. I'm definately increasing the priority of academies for my cities. Found the suggestion for keeping characters 'in school' for a few years interesting, and specialised for each task

On a side note, got a weird addition to Amulius' traits list; he has Good Attacker (+2 Command when attacking) AS WELL AS Hesitant Attacker (-1 Command when attacking). Rather frustrated at that - first blemish on my general, though I suppose something negative was going to happen eventually.

[Ciisar]

If you want good Commander of Legions, then try to attack enemy if you have less troops than him. I made so in SPQR mod. I fought with rebels at Italy and traits came like mud at raining day.

[Snappers]

Keep your genaral on the move (even if its just walking around his provence and back to the city)
Sitting in the city without moving is asking for bad traits, keep the tax level high in cities with governors