Stars on General/Admirals

Do the stars on the leaders add any bonus to stats,i no 6 stars is better then 3 but do they add anything to stats and hi to all, use to play Medieval game long time ago by-passed Empire game came to this vial steam download

I'm not completely sure but I think stars only affect morale of your units - more stars, more morale and more reliable units. And generals with more stars deploy units on the battlefield after ones with less stars so they can see the enemy forces during deployment.

I remember the good old Rome:TW where stars actually raised attack and defence values. Those were times when you really feared facing good generals on the field.

In playing my first campaign (im a custom battles kind of guy), I noticed Murat's stars kept fluctuating, I'd see him with like 9 on some turns and then as low as 3-4 on other turns. Not really sure whats going on there... Cavalry general + winter months = not so good?

Originally Posted by klesh

In playing my first campaign (im a custom battles kind of guy), I noticed Murat's stars kept fluctuating, I'd see him with like 9 on some turns and then as low as 3-4 on other turns. Not really sure whats going on there... Cavalry general + winter months = not so good?

As mentioned, Murat's a cavalry general. If you have him command a stack of >50% infantry, his nice cavalry general bonus doesn't kick in. If you give him more than half stack of cavalry, he gets the full bonus, but you'll be limited tactically. Usually if you want Murat to operate independently, give him horse artillery and lancers. You can easily smash infantry- and cavalry-heavy armies with the horse-and-cannon, and his army moves fast on the campaign map.

As far as I can tell, command stars give morale bonuses to units within the general's radius, and the more stars, the larger this radius is. It also has a large effect for autoresolve battles -- Wellington commanding fencibles will likely win an autoresolve against a captain-led stack of line infantry and militia, even on VH.

Originally Posted by valentinian

As mentioned, Murat's a cavalry general. If you have him command a stack of >50% infantry, his nice cavalry general bonus doesn't kick in. If you give him more than half stack of cavalry, he gets the full bonus, but you'll be limited tactically. Usually if you want Murat to operate independently, give him horse artillery and lancers. You can easily smash infantry- and cavalry-heavy armies with the horse-and-cannon, and his army moves fast on the campaign map.

Ahh, you're so right! +rep!

I had him stationed in Paris while I was pumping out new units for other armies. One turn he'd have full stars (because 4 cav units got recruited) while the next he'd go down to 3-4 (when swaths of infantry were created). That makes total sense and is cool. Do we know the number required to acheive the bonuses? Is it a % of total forces in the stack perhaps?

I'm going to have to try the horse arty/lancers stack combo for a Murat army... might I through a few curassiers up in there too? He can patrol the Channel coast and repel invasions from Brest to Amsterdam with that map range.

This is really useful info - I always used to buy the general with the morale bonuses, and wondered what the point was of the more expensive generals with no morale bonuses. Now I know.

Originally Posted by klesh

Ahh, you're so right! +rep!

I had him stationed in Paris while I was pumping out new units for other armies. One turn he'd have full stars (because 4 cav units got recruited) while the next he'd go down to 3-4 (when swaths of infantry were created). That makes total sense and is cool. Do we know the number required to acheive the bonuses? Is it a % of total forces in the stack perhaps?

I'm going to have to try the horse arty/lancers stack combo for a Murat army... might I through a few curassiers up in there too? He can patrol the Channel coast and repel invasions from Brest to Amsterdam with that map range.

About 40%, I think, and your other unit types' numbers cannont exceed the unit type that can offer bonus to the general. Example: If you have 8 cavalry and 11 infantry in Murat's stack he won't increase his stars, but if you have 8 cav, 4 art (preferably horse art, horse art are considered as cavalry) and 7 infantry he will have 7 stars.

It depends on what units you put in his stack. I usually gave Murat more than a half stack of cavalry (usually Carabiniers and Cuirassiers plus Dragoons, historical accuracy), which makes his stack useless for attacking and I always send him after Napoleon's butt to provide reinforcements. Put a lot of artillery in Napoleon's army and you will see his stars increase, and cavalry in Murat and Ney. (Look at his abilities for more info)

Jack Lusted told us in the MP forum that a general's stars raise the overall morale of all your troops on the field (in addition to the ones in the displayed area of effect).
You can tell by units coming back from routing quite frequently with a high star general.

Also, isn't the "inspire" ability only available from a certain star count? I didn't investigate this especially, but was under the impression; it certainly isn't there all the time.

From what I understand about stars it works something like this:

• The more victories or 'special tasks' a general accomplishes in battle the more stars they gain. (I have also noticed that a general who doesn't engage in battle often or is left idle often loses stars over time).

• A general with the most stars gets to deploy second and thus allowed to view their opponent's unit set up first.

• Stars also increase on generals/admirals depending on what traits they have, so for instance, if a general has a '+1 command in attack' the general will gain one more star in the specific battle if attacking - and each command trait stacks up to produce a final star count for the battle only.

As far as 'more stars = more morale' I have always been under the impression it was a specific general's traits that increase morale, accuracy etc rather than the stars. This can be easily mixed up though because generally, a general with more stars is likely to have more traits which boost effects more. (This may not be correct but just what I have observed)

Originally Posted by chimpey24

As far as 'more stars = more morale' I have always been under the impression it was a specific general's traits that increase morale, accuracy etc rather than the stars. This can be easily mixed up though because generally, a general with more stars is likely to have more traits which boost effects more.

Yeeees but I don't think Jack Lusted would mix this up; he's a CA employee, so I would trust he knows what he's talking about.

Good overview chimpey24, only missing mention of the advantage that more stars give you when auto-resolving battles . In regards to morale, you also raise a valid point (and it was a belief I was operating under for quite some time as well) but what daniu said above you is correct.

A general with stars grants his all units under his command a hidden morale boost; the more stars the greater the boost. This differs from the morale boost granted by attributes (for example 'Hero of the Army, +3 morale' or something) because you can see the morale stat increase due to a general's attributes on a unit's stat screen during a battle (so a unit with a normal morale of 6 would have a morale of 9 in the stat screen when operating under the aforementioned attribute).

With the hidden 'star morale' bonus, however, you won't see the stats increase, but you will see units that are normally just 'confident' have a state of 'eager' instead. You can test this in a custom battle; bring a general staff with an Old Guard and on the field the Old Guard will most likely be 'confident.' Bring Napoleon and they will be 'eager.'

Ah right I understand now.

I've never really noticed a significant boost just from a general's stars so thus why I havent realised about the 'hidden star morale' bonus. But thanks for the tips and info I'll be sure to look for them details next time I play.

I think the general's stars affect the ability of rally, inspire and perhaps also increases the morale around him in that circle, while the traits affect all units' morale.