Making all units generals - some questions about the effects

[Maltacus]

I am thinking of trying out a mod (Broken Crescent 2.3 if that matters) and changing all units except the ships to general's units. I have a few questions related to the effects of doing that.

1. Does a unit get any change in morale just from being a general's unit (just being a bodyguard but not the commanding general's bodyguard)?

2. How does the game determine the hitpoints of a general, and is there any difference between family members and other generals (assuming traits, ancillaries and all other things are equal)?

3. Is there any kind of limit on how many generals that can exist in a campaign simultaneously or how many units in the EDU that can be generals units?

4. Can generals that are not in command gain traits from battles?

I am expecting the following changes to gameplay in general:

- Regenerating units will benefit the ai which cannot retrain units
- Casualties will be more or less chaotic and sometimes unbalanced since entire units will be wiped out even if just a few soldiers fall, if the general falls
- The economy will be harder to manage since the units can not be disbanded
- Not being able to retrain units will make it harder to defend remote settlements against regular attacks


5. Are these assumptions correct? Have I overlooked some important change I can expect?

[Cobi Wan Kenobi]

I might be wrong but I thought that only one type of unit in a faction can be a general. Either infantry or cavalry etc.

[Maltacus]

Only one unit can be the one that forms the bodyguard of family members when they come of age, or marry one of your factions ladies, but you can make other units into generals too. They will spawn a general that is not a family member when recruited. For example, Stainless Steel 6.2 features recruitable Late Era Bodyguards later in the campaign, while the family members still get Early Era Bodyguards when they come of age. This gives the player the option to recruit some extra generals.

[Cobi Wan Kenobi]

ohhh gotcha

[Bungo Baggins]

I don't expect all those things to be new to you, but maybee you can use one or two thoughts...

1. Does a unit get any change in morale just from being a general's unit (just being a bodyguard but not the commanding general's bodyguard)?

I don't know this, but would only expect changes when a general dies and cannot add personal morale bonusses any longer.

2. How does the game determine the hitpoints of a general, and is there any difference between family members and other generals (assuming traits, ancillaries and all other things are equal)?

I don't think so. Apart from traits and ancillaries adding hitpoints generals get the same stats as their bodyguard. (Animation is different though and can change survivabillity as well through shorter stagger etc)

3. Is there any kind of limit on how many generals that can exist in a campaign simultaneously or how many units in the EDU that can be generals units?

Don't think so.

4. Can generals that are not in command gain traits from battles?

They at least will not get rewarded for victories with GoodCommander traits (tested). Could be true for all traits, not sure.

I am expecting the following changes to gameplay in general:

- Regenerating units will benefit the ai which cannot retrain units

Likely

- Casualties will be more or less chaotic and sometimes unbalanced since entire units will be wiped out even if just a few soldiers fall, if the general falls

True, a player could abuse this for example by always directing his cavalry charges at a units left flank.

- The economy will be harder to manage since the units can not be disbanded

True, might cause AI factions to go bankrupt.

- Not being able to retrain units will make it harder to defend remote settlements against regular attacks

I don't think so. Those settlement usually cannot retrain the good units anyway, so the bodyguards regeneration will befit armies in distant regions.

Additionals problems that might occur:

- The unit will not be show with their symbol, but the generals portrait in the HUD.

- Generals might be unwilling to form big armies and instead all walk around the map alone.

- They might get a variety of traits not intended for them. This could be avoided by giving every "real" general a trait that is required to get more traits or ancillaries.

- The AI might behave strange in battle.

- Autoresolve will cause many soldiers to die, but most generals to survive. Thus AI factions cannot hurt each other and will have ever bigger armies unless a city is sucessfully sieged or the faction has no money left.

[Maltacus]

Thanks, very good points!

About the retraining - I was thinking of a fortress or citadel where the army regeneration will mean a slower retraining than retraining the "normal" way, should have mentioned that.

I had overlooked the autoresolve phenomenon. That will really lead to some strange effects, especially if generals walk alone.

AI economy can be solved partially I think, by the "Carl the taxman"-or-whatever-it's-called script. I wonder if it exists for Broken Crescent, though. It is intended to keep AI money just above 0, which, together with making buildings cost just 1 florin for the AI, should make it produce buildings consistently even when being bankrupt. It seems to work decently in Stainless Steel at least.

[Taiji]

Probably the main problem is that the AI will never recruit them.

[Bungo Baggins]

About the regeneration - Does being in a castle/citadel change the automatic regeneration that each bodyguard unit gets? I was not aware there might be a difference as bodyguards (which every unit would be in your mod) even regenerate in open field.

[Maltacus]

Probably the main problem is that the AI will never recruit them.

How do you mean? Is the AI unable to recruit a unit when it is a general's units?

@Bungo Baggins
I've never thought about that before. Now that you mention it I recall having an ai general escape to a castle from a field battle with his bodyguard more or less wiped out and the next turn he had full strength (a little over 20). Don't know if the same would happen for my own generals, maybe it has to do with him being an ai general.

[ErmanesTheSecond]

Its possible, esspecially if your doing it in Vanilla with new units you make.
I made a French Gendarmes Copy Unit for My New Byzantine Generals Unit, it works, now the Byzantines have two Gen's Units.