Additional Generals

[HobbesACW]

Hi folks, just a quick question. Does anyone know why in multiplayer games we are sometimes told you have an additional general to add to your force? Sometimes it can be more than one. My opponent just mentioned this. We are both experienced players but we realised neither of us have any idea how this works.

[Karvon]

Unless playing very small battles, each side is allotted 4 generals. After purchasing and moving on to deployment, the AI will assign some generals at random and create some initial commands. Often they will not assign all of the available ones, so you will usually have one, sometimes two, you can assign yourself. Regardless, both players will have the same number available.

It may be possible in epic scenarios which are custom created that the general numbers might vary and be uneven. I've not seen that, I don't play epic scenarios much at all, but I believe a designer could opt to do that to reflect a command control advantage/disadvantage.

Regards,

Karvon

[MVP7]

I don't know the exact mechanics but as far as I can tell is goes something like this: Generals are automatically assigned between unit purchase phase and the final deployment phase. One general is automatically assigned to the non-light infantry force, two are assigned to non-light cavalry at each wing, and one (usually the C-in-C) is assigned to reserve cavalry behind the center. If any of these groups is missing, the general is usually left for the player to manually deploy.

That means that if you want to customize the generals and groups, you can purposely pack all of your cavalry to one flank during the unit purchase phase so its only assigned one general, and then move some of that cavalry to the other flank during deployment phase. If you want to turn that general-less cavalry into its own group, you can usually do so by moving them into one of the light groups and them move all the lights out of that group.