Increasing General Traits

**Suthseaxe** · February 09, 2014, 03:22 AM

I read, when besieging Taras, that my army had resorted to rationing and that, to stop this, I need to increase my general's logistical traits. Is there any way of doing this? That and command traits; I have one general who has won every battle he's ever fought (that's only 3 or 4, but it's still more than nothing!) and he only has 1 command star.

**Killzone_040** · February 09, 2014, 03:54 AM

Well, as far as I know, the only way your general gets any logistics traits is by learning them himself. They just pop up at random and I've found that putting them in settlements with schools increases the odds of getting them, but all in all it shouldn't matter too much as long as you keep the army from starving (which is -3 morale). It might be so that they get logistical traits the more they campaign, but I'm unsure if that is correct.

The command stars are a definate pain in the 'behind'. It's been made harder for the player to get them, to counter the stupidity of the A.I. and give them a fighting chance. It is also very dependent on your general, any with the Intelligent/Charismatic/Energetic (Might not be using the correct terms) traits will have a better chance at excelling as generals. This isn't a garantuee, and even if they excel at them, it often takes around 20-25 battles for them to reach 4 or 5 command stars.
Only fight battles with the most promising generals and you will reach about 5 stars, though getting above 3 should make you grateful.

**Entropy Judge** · February 09, 2014, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Killzone_040

The command stars are a definate pain in the 'behind'. It's been made harder for the player to get them, to counter the stupidity of the A.I. and give them a fighting chance. It is also very dependent on your general, any with the Intelligent/Charismatic/Energetic (Might not be using the correct terms) traits will have a better chance at excelling as generals. This isn't a garantuee, and even if they excel at them, it often takes around 20-25 battles for them to reach 4 or 5 command stars.
Only fight battles with the most promising generals and you will reach about 5 stars, though getting above 3 should make you grateful.

IIRC, fighting 'against the odds' also improves your chances of getting Stars and/or Command-boosting Traits. Your general doesn't *need* to be good if you have the quality and/or numbers to simply smash aside your opponents, after all.

**Suthseaxe** · February 09, 2014, 04:33 AM

Great, thanks for the advice. I'll have to build schools now that I kicked Epirus out of Italy and have some respite!

**Ownager** · February 10, 2014, 01:42 AM

It definitely hurts role play though. Educated Hellenistic generals with less stars than barbarian generals?

**Entropy Judge** · February 10, 2014, 03:36 AM

Neither 'Barbarian' nor 'Uneducated' are the same as 'Stupid' or 'Unskilled,' though. After all, Brennus and other Celtic leaders did defeat Hellenic generals in the 281 invasion.

**Killzone_040** · February 10, 2014, 11:32 AM

That's true, keeping your stack low on numbers, as in filling only about 10-15 unit slots should cause you to be outnumbered. If you manage to slaughter the entire enemy force while outnumbered, you're almost bound to get good traits every other battle, if not every single one.

**Suthseaxe** · February 17, 2014, 03:32 PM

Is there a way of resetting command stars to normal? I've just played and lost 3-4 consecutive battles when I outnumber the enemy simply because they have 5 or 6 comand stars and I have 1 at the most. It's kind of beginning to just get irritating now, not challenging or fun. I had at least a unit of each hastati, principes and triarii fleeing in terror from ligurian mercenary spearmen when they had only just joined battle. That makes no sense.

**Entropy Judge** · February 18, 2014, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by Suthseaxe

Is there a way of resetting command stars to normal? I've just played and lost 3-4 consecutive battles when I outnumber the enemy simply because they have 5 or 6 comand stars and I have 1 at the most. It's kind of beginning to just get irritating now, not challenging or fun. I had at least a unit of each hastati, principes and triarii fleeing in terror from ligurian mercenary spearmen when they had only just joined battle. That makes no sense.

I think something besides Command Stars is going on in that case, because I can take Low-Command (or even Captain-Led!) armies up against the Central European Defenders and their 10 Stars and my guys don't break immediately. Are you playing on Hard or Very Hard Battle Difficulty? Does your General have any negative traits or Ancillaries for Morale? Are there any Fear units around, or anything else that would shock your guys?

**Suthseaxe** · February 18, 2014, 12:57 AM

I am playing on hard (is that a recommended setting?). My general may have some minus morale traits actually (something about stoning a legionary to death) and there are shock units in the army but I'm quite sure they weren't engaging me at the time.

**Entropy Judge** · February 18, 2014, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by Suthseaxe

I am playing on hard (is that a recommended setting?).

Recommended Battle Difficulty is Medium; playing on Hard or Very Hard gets you some ... odd results because of the stat bonuses AI units get.

My general may have some minus morale traits actually (something about stoning a legionary to death) and there are shock units in the army but I'm quite sure they weren't engaging me at the time.

Fear units don't need to be engaging your units, they just have to be close enough to them.

**Suthseaxe** · February 18, 2014, 01:05 PM

Aha, the hard difficulty may explain it. Is there any way to change the difficulty back? (I have no time to play tonight, so I can't investigate). If there is, I'll give that a go and thanks for all the help!