How do I rally troops?

[LordofTheCookies]

The advivsor says that I can rally fleeing troops with my general.
But how do I do that?
I have sent my general after routed troops, placed him in their way, kept making him follow them, but nothing happened. They ran of the map.
Am I doing something wrong or does ralling only work rarely?

[the orgazoid]

The general has to be close to the unit for them to rally and return to the field, however it doesnt always happen. I believe it depends if they are still taking fire and how depleted the unit is.
From my experience it happens say 20% of the time. Im sure someone will post more detail on it for you but this is what I know

[Insaniac]

Putting him near routing units has an automatic chance of rallying the units.

[Empire_TW]

Have your general run by them, unless their morale is "shattered", troops with shattered morale can't be rallied no matter what

[operating1]

Personally, I do not bother to try and rally units, as Empire_TW just said: Once units have the "shattered" status they leave the battle and map, but more often than not, units that have the "broken" status that leave the battle will more likely rally on their own then return to the battle if so commanded. I find it better to have the general handy to step up when needed in the battle itself, instead of in some backwater of the battle rallying weak units, plus generals come in pretty handy running down routing enemy units, where your cav are busy otherwise. Again it depends on your playing style, OOB and tactics.

[Empire_TW]

I'll add I think the concept of rallying troops was gonna be more involving, like I think they were gonna have rally be a special ability the general can use like future Total war games have but cut it at the last minute for this game. So that's probably why the mechanic isn't really easy to understand at first.

[LordofTheCookies]

Thank you all for your responses and explanations :-)