A humble request: Generals as individual unit captains like in the oldest TW games

[General Maximus]

Years and years ago, in the old age of Shogun 1, there was a great feature. It was the feature that every unit was led by a unique commander.

In a full stack army in Shogun 1, which had 16 units as maximum (instead of today's 20), every unit, from peasant Ashigaru to noblemen Samurai, was led by it's own unique commander. These commanders had their own complete names. They had their own abilities and command stars. They led their units like 16 different organizations working under the command of one man.

What is more, these 'captains' had their own unique banners, and represented their own clan and family. They could lead their own mini 'factions' and govern their provinces if you defeated their master, just like rebels in RTW and Medieval II when you defeat a faction.

The best feature was that your family members could be assigned to lead their own units, instead of all of them becoming independent generals with their personal bodyguard cavalry units. I had my faction leader commanding my huge army, while the young faction heir had been assigned to lead a unit of infantry. There was another son of my faction leader that was hiding with a cavalry unit in the woods nearby. In another battle, my heir died when his gunner unit was overrun by cavalry.

This feature was continued in Medieval 1. But then it suddenly disappeared in RTW. The units got random commanders every time they were without a general. Those random commanders could not be seen at all until you make them leave the main army. Even then they had only first names with the title 'captain'. Once you merged them with an army, they were gone.

And neither could family members be attached to command units, they all were forcibly generals, all heavy cavalry. They could lead from above, but were fixed to that cavalry unit.

So my request to CA, after this long tedious post, is not to make unique banners or things, but to allow family members and characters to be 'embedded' into usual units like in Shogun 1 and Medieval 1. I understand that senators didn't lead individual cohorts, but the case was not the same for other factions. For example, playing as Germania, I would see a cousin of the ruling family member lead a warband.

It was a greatly immersive feature, and you could do roleplay by it. For example, you could say "I sent Ujimasa's spearmen there while Shinzaburo's gunners sneaked behind from the woods" instead of "I put sent those spearmen forward while hiding gunners behind." In Medieval 1, it was even better when you could see "Lord Edward's cavalry lead the charge while Lord Henry's archers marched closely behind to support him. Prince John's knights joined the battle after some time."

And most of all, I would love to see individual commander's full names back, instead of seeing it only when they become 'captains'. It would be great to know the name of the Centurion that led my cohort and saved me from defeat. With barbarians, I would love to see which clan that warband is being led by. If only units could be renamed like in ETW and NTW, but this system would work as great as that one too.

It made you feel attached with your units and their commanders, this could be a really grand feature that CA would also want for their players, since they want players to feel more attached with their armies.

Maybe allowing randomly named people to lead the cohort/unit/warband for a time, and then they might be promoted to generals if their performance was good, or if player wishes. That would be great too.

[Marcus Claudius Marcellus]

I always remembered this from Shogun and so glad you bought it up. Such a good feature for immersion as you said!

[SamueleD]

I guess it's a bit too late to ask for that... sorry, my friend.

Edit: but it was a good feature, yes, many things got lost in the passage from Med I to RTW.

[Kissaki]

Family members as officers of random units was only in Shogun 1. I Medieval 1, they always spawned as royal guards. Personally, I was very pleased with the change.

[Lockpick]

Say hello to overkomplex micromanagement, noone needs...

[Marcus Claudius Marcellus]

Say hello to overkomplex micromanagement, noone needs...

It's nothing to do with micro-management. You didn't have any control over the appointment of the commanders, they came with the unit when you recruited them, if they died, another was appointed. It was simply a nice feature some people enjoyed.

[Rhaegar1]

Not only is it to late, it also goes directly againgst the design philosophy CA is trying to achieve with RTW. They wan't to decrease the focus on individual units and increase the attachement en emphasis on armies. Adding family members and characters to specific units instead of to specific armies is kind of contradictionary to this I think.

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

it would be fun and anoying, Im in =)

[BunnyPoopCereal]

it would be fun and anoying, Im in =)

I really want to know how you think it would be annoying?

[General Maximus]

It is very true that I am late, maybe I should've posted it when it was still in development.

[Kraut]

ALthough I played Shogun 1 for years, I can not even remember this feature - or rather, I probably didn´t note it that much.

[Revan The Great]

I'd love this idea. Throughout history you hear a lot about the lesser officers - whether it's Alexander's phalanx commanders, or Caesar's centurions. I wish here were officers too...

[Shaun]

This was a good feature I remember from MTW, but it was a bit annoying to sometimes (often) have your armies commanded by a general who was part of a uni of peasants or basic archers or something easily killed.

[vietanh797]

This was a good feature I remember from MTW, but it was a bit annoying to sometimes (often) have your armies commanded by a general who was part of a uni of peasants or basic archers or something easily killed.

back then the commander are unchangeable which make your heir tend to be killed but now with new engine I think that's possible to bring back such feature since it is good and make sense. With a few tweak to let the commander can be change and voila we got an amazing army. Think about it, Alexander lead Cavalry in an army that have Parmenion, Scippo, Ceasar, Leonidas as heavy infantry commander, Hannibal as Elephant commander and Eumenes command the light infantry while Philips in charge of Siege units

such army will be awesome we will conquered the whole world with them

[BunnyPoopCereal]

It seems to me that the annoyance was user created rather than the feature itself being annoying.

[[N2]Kami]

Agree 100%. Even though I never play Shogun 1 but in Shogun 2 avatar mode, my Veteran have their own commander in custom unit name. Such a small thing but it brings up so much fun and satisfy to play with your own commander.

[General Maximus]

Exactly. In RTW I always wished for a battle where my Egyptian King and his five sons could fight in the same battle, without all being heavy cavalry bodyguards.

I especially wanted this in Napoleon TW, because Marshall Ney and Marshall Davout were forced to lead as cavalry units that took precious unit slots. If this feature was there, I could've easily embedded Marshall Ney to the cuirassiers and Davout to some other unit. Napoleon's army would remain realistic.

[Revan The Great]

Yeah, that's the main thing. I enjoy involving multiple family members in a battle, and wish I could give my Prince command of this unit, or that unit. I think being able to do this would add a lot of tactical options to the game. For example, attaching a family member to a Phalanx unit might give the phalanx unit and surrounding units (within a very small radius) better cohesion, but it'd be that much easier for him to die in battle, or be chased down when a battle is lost.

This is also historical too...often a taxeis of Phalangitai would be identified by it's commander's name.

[nomercysniper]

Not played S1 or M1, but I like the idea of this... Though I'd have to be able to choose which unit the general joined... Dont want his getting stuck with peasants when I have Praetorians.