Matrix Games Forums

New at the game and starting my first play-through after putzing around to see where everything is. Still not sure about that, but started anyway.

Opening move I gave orders for creation of an Econ Council and next round I'm introduced to someone with Zero suitability for the job. I postponed the appointment hoping for a different candidate; no such luck apparently. I don't want to hire just to fire -- I presume that would come with some issues -- but I don't want him.

How do I dump this one and get a new candidate?

No need to dump him/her, may be useful later to send into battle, for example.
Early in the game it is a crap shoot per your selections of Council Members...but a fun & challenging one. imho
Due to your lack of 'Political Points' (early), you are limited in what you can do per relieving & thus reassigning, so be warned.
You should have some Junior Recruits to select from, but first...look at all your available personal to see who would be better suited to fill certain positions.
Many times that Secretary would be more suited/valuable as a legitimate Council Member.

Key stats to look at are the Cap Levels/Skill Stats, but do not neglect their Profiles & Personality...all play a roll in how they will, potentially, do & what you will have to deal with as the game progresses.
You may have to cave to their ideologies/wishes.

I will add, your Factions will offer you members to your pool if you agree to hire them at some point.

Early game relation is the most important anyway. If they all suck just pick someone who will stay at high relations. Remember to check your advisors for someone to grab. Generally advisor is a useless position to dump bad faction leaders into.

The game only shows you leaeders in the Reserve pool as candidates. If there is more then those, it follows the rules outline in "5.8.9.6. nomInatIons" of the Handbook. If you get nobody fitting, you have to recruit people via the cards (primarily a job of the interior council, but the Supreme command does get some lesser cards as well).

As Wtface said, relations is very important. Council leaders get a -/+50% relations bonus to the task, based on their Realtions.
But only +1% per average roll above 100.

For skill rolls (like the ones the HQ commanders have to do) Relations maters less, only a +/-20 points.

Thanks for all the help.

eddieballgame mentioned the Junior Recruits and zgrssd wrote about recruiting with the cards... After having a face palm moment, I played one of the Junior Leader cards and ended up with someone with a TR skill level and decent relations.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

You are welcome 'AChallenge'.
One of the first things I do at the beginning is to check out the current Council/Leaders.
I, generally, start with the Supreme Command Council (the minimum, so the selection is small) & go from there.
While the game, only, offers Reserve Pool Members as an option to fill an open seat, do not neglect the already assigned members.
They are also candidates to fill another seat of greater importance...to you.

Read the section in the Manual, starting at - 5.8. Leaders and Factions.
Note 5.8.2.1. Job Prestige, for example.
There is no need to have a Cap III, IV, or V Secretary or even a Governor that high for that matter. imho
Of course, there is nothing wrong with it either if you are fortunate to have rolled up a 'dream team'.
In the end the 'numbers' matter, so there is much to pay attention to...if you want to.

I have asked a similar question on this forum for similar reasons when I was more of a beginner. Maybe not so much how do I dump or replace a leader, but what would I consider when doing so?

Sometimes a game start will put me in the context of a city-builder approach, so I will look at the leader question from that angle. Other starting conditions make me look at it from a scientific or exploratory angle. Then other starts make me dive into the danger-management side of things, or scarce-resource-management thing, and the great thing is there always seems to be more depth to dive into when considering almost anything - but definitely with leaders and the right direction to go in vs game start.

Now I am nearly 800 hours of gameplay in and I can still come up with various answers to the which leaders depending on the game-start question.

And then, of course the plans meet the unfolding situation and the fun really starts...

I am guessing in a multiplayer game it goes to a whole new level but I have only played the AI so far and that has not gotten old.

Anyway - back to the game...

There is no need to have a Cap III, IV, or V Secretary or even a Governor

A highly skilled governor can be verrry nice ! (Some assets only care about relation though...)

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

There is no need to have a Cap III, IV, or V Secretary or even a Governor

A highly skilled governor can be verrry nice ! (Some assets only care about relation though...)

I, absolutely, agree & 'in the beginning', I thought they were the most important. [:)]

I try to get someone with decent cap for SHQ and interior council(but this position is not usually made early), many of the other council positions only generate more from BP with high skill, while some need it for actual card rolls(but in the beginning supreme council and eco are doing them too).
Generally governors are required to have same profiles as you so that you can get the production bonus from positive relationship(as very few important assets get bonuses from actual skill). You might want to have cap3 or something similar for large industrial cities but cap1 with right profiles is great use in less important places. For new zones I attach skilled advisor to the governor until the city stabilize. I find the advisor slots rather useless outside of helping out some other poorly skilled person who just got a new job, new zones usually have high unrest so its very useful there, sometimes in certain OHQs too.
Secret service and foreign affairs do skill rolls too, if you plan to use those 2 a lot.

You might want to swap out some of the council spots for more skilled leaders later, but having happy & loyal members is far more important that skilled one. Later with good interior council you can keep them happy rather easily even if they are not naturally happy and just get rid of the ones you dont like. And with certain profiles interior council gives cabinet/governors xp and easy rep.

I find it rather odd that military leaders are the ones whos relationship is least important, this is where i dump the left overs.

But this is just how I have been going at it after lot of games [:)]

Generally governors are required to have same profiles as you so that you can get the production bonus from positive relationship(as very few important assets get bonuses from actual skill).

A advanced consideration here is voting.
If you are running a democracy where every population, worker and soldier is allowed to vote, the Profiles of the Governors and HQ commanders decides how the bulk of the votes will fall.

If you are running something very opressive where only the cabinet can vote, the councilors allegiances mater the most.