Matrix Games Forums

Ralegh on Generals

You can get new generals in a few ways:
- there are some scheduled to come on board during the game - they usually come on in your capital. These guys are listed in my briefings with the turn they come on (in months from the begining of the game)
- sometimes captured generals will swap sides
- after a decent battle there is supposed to be a chance of a new general being created - he would be at the site of the battle. I haven't ever seen this work, so I think there is a bug.
- there is an exploit where you can convert a general from a corps on loan to your nationality, and he stays yours for the rest of the game - it will probably get fixed inthe next patch

Generals can be killed in detailed combat, but not quick combat (so they are immortal in PBEM). They don't retire.

The strategic rating of generals is applied to their army/corps when moving on the strategic map - it increases the unit's chance of carrying out the movement orders you give it.

The tactical rating of generals improves the combat ability of the units under them, and the morale rating helps the units under them to rally, and to change formation.

By 'under them', a general 4 or 3 star general in an army affects all the divisions in the army, while a 2 star general can affect all the divisions in the same corps. All generals can be allocated in detailed combat to a particular unit, and help that unit in addition to their larger influence.

Note: in quick combat this is all taken care of for you (and even though only 3 generals have their protraits shown, and reinfrocing generals aren't shown, all generals DO influence the quick combat).

Generals also influence the amount units are spread out when they come into detailed combat.

Tips:
- In Detailed combat, generals are initially allocated randomly - you should move the cav generals to cav units...
- The morale boost of generals is fabulous, and in my mind much more important than their tactical abilities. Once my units start routing, I put a general with them to increase their chance of rallying. Or if I pull a unit out to rest, I try to give them a general to help them boost their morale.
- You can allocate a general to an allied unit in battle, but if you do you won't be able to transfer him to any other unit - he will stay with them for the rest of the battle.
- In swapping generals about, you can use caissons as a temporary holding spot...
- Some generals give additional movement points to the unit they are with - in different battles this can be useful in different ways.
- When reinforcements arrive, consider moving their generals into the fray immediately - you don't have to wait while the units march forward.

Very interesting, how likely to get squished are they in combat. I ask from the point of view of whether a couple need to be saved in case of disaster ?

Personally, I thought it had to be in the order of hundreds if not thousands of casualties. But then, I lost a general recently, when his cavalry unit charged, and took 11 casualties. I guess he was number 11. [:@]

Its a probability calcuation, based on the number of casulties as a proportion of the unit. From memory its something like (prop killed/3).

So if 1500 men die from a 3000 man division (prop killed 1/2), its something like 1/6.
If 1000 men died from a 10000 man division (prop killed 1/10) it would be 1/30.

I've been using Napoleon for about 10 years now, and he still hasn't got a promotion to 4 stars. Wellington however, got captured early on by me in the game yet he's 4 stars........in fact I've never seen random generals pop up in Paris nor have I ever seen any of my generals promoted. What's going on? Patch 1.1 installed.

I believe you need 1.2 (shortly)

that was fixed, so it works better, and improved so it works even better

Promoting Generals you already have, is not in this one, hope for 1.3 we can get some of the ideas we talked about in to take care of that

in 1.2, the bigger the battle losses, the better chance of gaining a new General
I believe the numbers work out to
less then 10,000 8%
10-20,000 then 12%
20-30,000 then 24%
over 30,000 then 36%

I had a battle vs the Turks where we lost 90,000 men, and I got a 2 star General out of it

so, some years, you may do great, other years you may do poorly, but over all, it has been working out to around one a year, in my current game, I got 2 in 8 years !, then got 6 in the next two years, but over all, the bigger the battles, the bigger the chance

How does losses in combat correspond to "promoting" generals?

In v1.2 you still can't get promotions for existing generals.
New generals do get created (called "promotion" since previously we assume they were colonels or something). The probability of a new general being created is based on the casulties of the battle - presumably some colonel did particularly well killing lots of baddies, so he gets promoted.

think we could see this as Field Promotions

So, is it based on friendly or enemy losses? Enemy losses would make more sense to me.