Training Generals

[Holy Harry]

Heya, made this thread as I couldn't see another specific one for what I wanted to say.

I have real problems training up my generals, no matter how many battles I win their command stays the same, and only when I play as Rome do my generals get substantial management or influence (as Rome it seems excessive as they get it so easily), but still no command. I have a general who spearheaded the campaign to take the whole of Greece, and after atleast 20 victories his command hasn't changed. Am I doing something wrong or what?

[Trebudude]

Are your generals actually getting involved in the fighting, IIRC they have to fight to gain command stars.

[Disco]

Do they have negative traits? That will slow you down. Evaluate your new generals and decide which ones are better off serving in the military, and which ones should become administrators. Maybe it's just my luck, but my recruited tribunes often get bad traits and it takes a long time to get them up to 3 stars, which is quite a good general in this game (imo).

To make your generals better on the battlefield, use them combined with another cav unit to charge missile troops or other heavy cav (particularly general units) and do hammer & anvil strikes on the backs of bogged down infantry. Between that and giving them a workout chasing down routers, you should see some improvement. Keep in mind that generals "regenerate" to an extent, and use them as much as you can without suiciding them.

Another thing you can do is go into battles with a disadvantage or at even odds. Crushing inferior armies does less for you than winning a hard-fought victory.

Finally you can transfer good fighting-related ancillaries to your main generals from your other characters.

That's all I know, but I'm very interested in hearing other ways.

[Holy Harry]

I only use generals with positive traits to start off with, and the majority are young. I auto-resolve most of my battles, not sure if that makes a difference but when I do fight I use my general as another unit of heavy cavalry, and they normally get a good amount of kills, particularly once a chain rout has happened.

I get a lot of those medals and awards or whatever they are playing as Rome that give you honour, respect and advancement or something like that, but they don't seem to do anything that I notice. And yeah, I never get a general above 2-3 stars unless he has already started out that high or higher. If I'm lucky I might raise the command by 2 stars, but thats rare.

[RafoutRoud]

I only use generals with positive traits to start off with, and the majority are young. I auto-resolve most of my battles, not sure if that makes a difference but when I do fight I use my general as another unit of heavy cavalry, and they normally get a good amount of kills, particularly once a chain rout has happened.

I get a lot of those medals and awards or whatever they are playing as Rome that give you honour, respect and advancement or something like that, but they don't seem to do anything that I notice. And yeah, I never get a general above 2-3 stars unless he has already started out that high or higher. If I'm lucky I might raise the command by 2 stars, but thats rare.

You auto resolve most of your battles? Why bother playing this game tbh....that aside...

Heroic victories , victories against the odds (generally speaking) , ancillaries, commanding on the field and getting the general involved big time in the fighting, to the point of having his unit go to 1/3 fighting strength helps gain stars...but heroic victories do it pretty well.

I don't have any trouble training leaders...and I focus on only 3-4, maybe 5 at a time. I mean, the mod itself has pulled the reins in on what it was like before - having generals born with 6 command stars and gaining 4 more in one battle...you just need to keep working at it.

[Holy Harry]

You auto resolve most of your battles? Why bother playing this game tbh....that aside...

I auto-resolve battles because I cannot be bothered to fight atleast 5 similar battles a turn when my armies have the odds to win. Battling in this mod is much better than in vanilla, but its still got plenty of non-challenging battles that I really cannot be bothered to waste my time doing. I play the important battles when the odds are against my men, or just if I feel like it. Thats how I play, I enjoy playing the game that way, so please keep opinions like that to yourself.

[RafoutRoud]

I auto-resolve battles because I cannot be bothered to fight atleast 5 similar battles a turn when my armies have the odds to win. Battling in this mod is much better than in vanilla, but its still got plenty of non-challenging battles that I really cannot be bothered to waste my time doing. I play the important battles when the odds are against my men, or just if I feel like it. Thats how I play, I enjoy playing the game that way, so please keep opinions like that to yourself.

1 turn or 0 turn campaign?

Also, that's where general training comes in. If you auto resolve because there are so many non-challenging battles , then you need to change your turn type, the difficulty or make things harder for yourself. Going against logic, put together a ragtag force with some reliable infantry or cavalry - one or the other will do.

You just won't get your stats up by fighting *easy win* battles or avoiding fighting mano e mano often with your gen.

[dvk901]

It is relatively normal that Generals will have few stars. The high star General in RS2 is going to be pretty rare.

[Smerka]

It is relatively normal that Generals will have few stars. The high star General in RS2 is going to be pretty rare.

And thats the right direction. Great generals should not be widely available. But if a general manages to take all of greece then they should be given some command for the feat. Personally my generals have been getting command and my highest so far is 5 star so I m happy and still waiting for that 10 star who will take the whole world.

[ricandy144]

Watch your high star general carefully, as long as he lost his loyalty, he won't be good to have the honor travelling around your empire! Especially when you assign him a full legion to go conquering, he disappear soon. 2 of my generals go with the wind together with legion VII, VIII, can I rebuild my legion again according to RSII rule?

[RafoutRoud]

I don't use the *years of the good emperors mod* or the new beta for 2.5...but getting a high command general isn't hard. It takes longer to do it...that's all.

Does 2.5 and the *years of the good emperors* make it harder? and how?

[ricandy144]

I don't use the *years of the good emperors mod* or the new beta for 2.5...but getting a high command general isn't hard. It takes longer to do it...that's all.

Does 2.5 and the *years of the good emperors* make it harder? and how?

Oh, you meant the five good emperors submod? As far as I cope with is the Spartacus revolt by the time I am in war with South Galleci.

[dvk901]

RS2 uses a hidden trait called the 'battle_counter'. This trait has nine levels, and is driven by other triggers that relate to different kinds of battles which will give points towards this 'counter'. The battle_counter in turn drives the military command structures of all factions other than the Romans, who still use the 'GoodCommander' trait that in turn gives the stars. The reason for this multi-leveled approach is first of all, to prevent ALL generals from gaining a gob of stars for very little effort. The second reason is that a lot of different kinds of battle triggers can be taken into account, some granting more points towards the counters, and others less, and they all don't have a direct effect on the traits that give the stars. For example, a battle where your 20 unit army snuffs a rebel army with 4 units may give you one or zero points towards the counter, whereas an evenly matched battle might give you 4 or 5 points.

The third reason is to minimize the bug in RTW where multiple battle triggers may fire at once if you meet the requirements for them. This way, rather than directly rack up points towards the traits that grant rank or stars, they only give points to the counter which in turn will give them as various levels are passed.