Quick Short Guide: Generals and Skills

This guide serves to help the new player to get acquainted with how generals work on Rome II which can be a bit confusing when you arrive from an older TW title since it as changed a bit. Some will say it was changed for the worse, however I feel that it gives more choices to the player and makes our decisions more important.

Here we will focus in the following key points:
- Recruitment;
- Initial Abilities;
- Leveling Your General;
- Generals & Combat: The missing abilities!
- Generals & Agents!

Introduction

If you are a veteran Total War player, you are used to gain generals through your family tree, adoption or promotion due to exceptional performance during battle.

In Rome 2, that mechanic was changed: you no longer have a family tree, though you still have some family members and you now recruit generals from a limited pool of men from your family (Royal Family) and other nobles.



Some other important changes to note are that the number of armies you can field are dependent on the number of generals you can recruit. At the start of the game you can have up to four Generals and as your recognition (Empirium) grows by deeds and conquests, so does the number of armies and navies you can recruit.

One other thing is that territory is now divided in provincies, which are composed by a capital and 1 or more minor settlements. Capitals are the only ones with walls, can have up to 6 building slots while the remaining settlements can have from 3 to 4 slots. This is important for a general because recruitment is made province wide, so any military building you do in a province will provide its units to any general inside that province. The same applies if you place a general inside a province with a Workshop (blacksmith) which provides upgrades to your armies weapons and shields.

Though these changes have little to do with generals they do impact on how you use them, so to sum up:

• Limited Pool of Generals;
  
• Cannot move units without a general;
  
• Province wide upgrades and recruitment.

Recruitment

Recruitment is done by simply selecting a city and clicking the button in the bottom. A small window will pop-up with the pool of generals available:



If you hover your mouse over the little star in the top right corner of your general you can see any special set of traits that the general has at rank zero:



Some skills will give you extra food, others will give moral boosts and more. This is very important at the beginning as it can allow you to gain some advantages. There is no correct pick at this point, you choose whatever suits you better for your intentions.

Some other aspects at this point is from where the general in question comes from. It can either come from your family or from some other nobles, usually, recruiting from your family will cause you to lose some support from the other nobles, while choosing generals from outside the family will not have this effect.



When you decide on which general you are recruiting and click "Raise Army", you are faced with another decision: the choice of the bodyguard!

This is one of the new features I love the most, before we were stuck with generals on horses, which could be usefull on some occasions, with Empire and forward, generals could dismount and fight on foot. Now, on recruitment you pick the bodyguard from a pool of elite units, which varies with the faction you are playing with.

The devil is in the details!

In the campaign map you can consult all details of your general, his forces and any agent that is placed in the army.

For that go to the bottom button:



Here you have access to his Traits, Household and Skills, which will be discussed in another section.

Traits are gained during the game, randomly and can have good and bad effects. There is a maximum of 3 and cannot be changed.

Household, are the old retainers from the other titles. These are also acquired during the game, each general can have up to two! The wife and the "retainer" itself which can be changed at will from a pool of retainers.



Retainers have a wide range of effects, from increasing base points to reducing army's upkeep! Choose wiselly.

In Rome 2, all characters (spy, champion, dignitary and generals) have 3 base characteristics:

• Authority
  
• Cunning
  
• Zeal

(marked in red below)


These values can range from 0 upwards. Some skills, traits and households can change these values. The effects of these are common among caracthers and serve as modifiers to protect against actions based on the same modifier:

For example, a spy can try to assassinate your general with an "Authority" based action, your general "Authority" value will determine the probability of the agent's action success- the higher it is the more protected it is, while for agents it acts both for protection and strenght.

Ranking up & Skills!

Besides the initial skills, each general will gain more with every level he gains. At this point, you are faced with the decision on where to place this veterancy by choosing from a list of available skills.

The entire tree can be found in the in game encyclopedia and it looks like this:
(to find it, go to Encyclopedia - Characthers - Generals. Note: a similar tree can be found for each agent type following these steps)



For the players of Shogun 2, this is not so different from what we know, however the way these are presented in game is not that clear to indicate that there is a tree of skills behind the pool available.

As logic dictates, by choosing from one of the first skills, you will unlock access to the next tier of skills, but you can still choose from one of initial skills at any following level.

Again, like in Shogun 2, each skill can be leveled up to three levels, granting added bonus:



However by further leveling these skills, you will not be unlocking other skils.
Here choices are stricly based on player preference on what he wants to unlock and which benefits he favors.

When your general reaches higher levels, he will have accumulated a considerable list of modifiers, you can quickly consult this list by hovering your mouse over the little icons in the bottom left corner.

Generals & Combat: The Missing Abilities!

If you have already played a few battles and you have played previous titles, you probably have noticed that the rally ability of your general is missing.

The truth is, that it is and it isn't. This is another change from CA's part, that I enjoy. Now, this ability and several others are made available as your general ranks up but it will depend on which attributes you focus when you do it.

Authority, Cunning and Zeal will each unlock 5 different abilities that your general can use during battles but they also have other effects.

Typically, your general should start with 3 points (base level) in each attribute making it neutral. However, going under this value will make it that they suffer some debuffs.

Authority

This attribute affects the Aura of influence of your general:

• Each point under the base level will grant him -5% Aura of Influence;
  
• Each point over the base level will grant him +5% Aura of Influence;

It will also unlock two abilities:

• 4 points: Unlocks "Inspire" This ability targets a single unit to improve their combat skills for a short period of time modifying the following attributes:
  
  • Melee attack;
    
  • Melee defence;
    
  • Accuracy;
    
  • Reload Skill.
  
  
  
• 7 points: Unlocks "Rally" This ability raises the morale of all the units within the general's aura of influence
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 11 points: Unlocks "Rally & Inspire" This ability raises the morale and combat skills of the target unit for a period of time.
  
  • Melee attack;
    
  • Melee defence;
    
  • Accuracy;
    
  • Reload Skill;
    
  • Morale.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 13 points: Unlocks "Raise Banner"
  Increases the area of influence of the general and melee defence of the army.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 16 points: Unlocks "Inspire Group" Same effects as "Inspire" but to all the units within the aura of influence.

Cunning

Affects the cooldown of special abilities:

• Each point under the base level will grant him +2% cooldown;
  
• Each point over the base level will grant him -2% cooldown;

It will also unlock two abilities:

• 4 points: Unlocks "Second Wind" This ability targets a single unit to remove any fatigue they have.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 7 points: Unlocks "Battle Rhythm" This targets a group of units to improve their combat skills for a period of time, having good and bad effects:
  Good
  
  • Melee Attack;
    
  • Melee Defence;
    
  • Weapon Damage;
    
  • Speed.
  
  Bad
  
  • Melee Attack;
    
  • Melee Defence;
    
  • Speed.
  
  
  
  
• 11 points: Unlocks "Brace" Provides a bracing bonus versus cavalry to a single unit.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 13 points: Unlocks "Push" Targets a single enemy unit and reduces their melee defense and bracing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 16 points: Unlocks " Second Wind Group"
  Removes the fatigue of all units under the commander aura of influence.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Zeal

Affects weapon and missile damage done by the general unit:

• Each point under the base level will grant him -5% damage;
  
• Each point over the base level will grant him +5% damage;

It will also unlock the following abilities:

• 4 points: Unlocks "War Cry" This ability targets a single enemy unit and reduces its morale.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 7 points: Unlocks "Intimidate" This targets a single unit and stops it from using abilities.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 11 points: Unlocks "Into the Breach" This targets a single unit and boosts its charge bonus, charge speed and weapon damage.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 13 points: Unlocks "The Fear" This targets all enemy units within the area of influence and stops them from using abilities.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 16 points: Unlocks "War Cry Group"
  This targets all enemy units within the area of influence and reduces their morale.

As you can imagine, having high level generals can be highly beneficial for you and your army however, your enemy knows this and may prevent you from using them both during battles but even more importantly in the campaign map!

The next section will cover some important tips that should help you keep your generals alive longer and making them more efficient.

Generals and Agents: Quick Intro To Agents!

Well, if you played Shogun 2 you already know how good it is to have agents within your armies and how powerfull they can be alone. Rome 2 is no exception.

As mentioned before, each character has 3 sets of attributes (Authority, Cunning and Zeal) that determine how effective or how vulnerable they can be to certain actions of the same type. So, when you are leveling a general and if you focus too much in one he will be very vulnerable to actions based on other atributes, which is something you and your enemy can take advantage just before combat. So how can you prevent this?

• Adding a good Agent to your army can help your general stay alive for longer and help counter any action that foreign agents may try against you, and it will increase the main attribute of the agent to the general (i.e.: a veteran with 10 zeal will increase the zeal of the general by the same amount) ;
  
• Try to level your generals in a balanced way, unless you really want to unlock some abilities;
  
• Avoid at all cost having generals with attributes below the base line has they will become even easier targets.

What can agents really do against your general and armies? Well, the truth is alot!

Each agent will have 6 unique actions he can use against armies or generals. They are usually divided in 3 for "Assassination" and 3 for "Sabotage". One action in each category will be based on a different attribute and will in most cases all have considerably different results (from killing off some men in one unit, to kill lots of men from several units, reducing morale and fighting skills and also reducing general's attribute levels - which will in turn disable some abilities!) that in most cases will only last one turn.

You can see why it is so important to keep your general protected, an enemy agent can do so much damage to your army by either reducing your general attributes or affecting your units that these actions can very well change the tide on an upcoming battle! And they will use them against you just before engaging.

Now that you know that your units cannot move without generals and that your general can be assassinated you are probably asking yourself, "What happens when my general is killed?". The short answer is he is dead, the long answer is:

• First, you won't loose your army be assured!
  
• He will be replaced by a new general but only in the next turn!;
  
• If your army is engaged after your general is assassinated you will have lost an elite unit and any abillity he could have used to help in battle;
  
• The new general will not have the same skills the old one had.

If you have already seen some comments about this game, you probably have stumbled uppon some complaints how generals are implemented and how they affect the game in a negative way. To finish off this guide, I will try to sum them up and show how most of these complaints are false or are not really bad things at least from my point of view, of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions:

• "You can only move units with generals": Yes, but you can recruit province wide and any recruited unit will be instantly placed inside the recruiting army. Besides, the number of armies you can field increases. I usually don't even need to have all generals fielded, so I use one of the extras to carry units around if I need to add reinforcements but that will depend on how you play;
  
• "Assassinating a general is useless because he is automaticaly replaced": Well, this one is righout wrong! Yes he will be replaced, but only in the next turn. Until then the army is vulnerable to agent actions, with one elite unit less, no general to use abilities!
  
• "Generals are uselless": not really, they need some training but their abilities are very usefull in battle. They can help you win a battle vs a superior army by using the debuffs in the enemy correctly and help your army fight longer.

I hope this guide helped you understanding generals in Rome 2. If you found any mistake or think something needs clarification leave a comment below.

Happy conquests!

[Furius]

Thank you for your time and effort ... I;m having trouble with the whole faction situation... It certainly slows down the game but it is very rich in content... sooo I would like to try and make sense of all the information available in order to make an in formed decision, otherwise...well??? mayham ensues...

[Pink]

Hi Pajoenien, not sure its still applicable with all the new updates, but I hope it can still be of some use.

[Pajoenien]

Thanks Pink. I'm a brand new player to total War. You guide will be very helpful.

[Pink]

@ImOnlyOneMan: to find the "tree" go to the Encyclopedia then Characthers and finally Generals. Choosing one characther other than the General will show you the "tree" for that agent type. Enjoy :)

[Pink]

Not an AI, thats for sure... but there are lots of models.

[EmotionallyBroken]

" Let me see if I have enough disk space to find it out for you."
Every time I installed rome II I have a strong curious question as to why it takes 12 gigs to run this game. What do they put in all that data storage?

[Pink]

@ImOnlyOneMan: Thats a good question, I did this ages ago... but I think you could either right click on the ability or through the encyclopedia. Let me see if I have enough disk space to find it out for you.

[EmotionallyBroken]

Pardon my ineptitude but.... how do I find the skill "tree" you show. All I can find is a completely disorganised list typicial of sega.

[Jarl Gris]

Well done! One thing that can help out with agents is to move them in and out of armies on turns where you're not moving the general, or when the agent has movement to spare when the army is spent. You can pick up new household members that way, and get some pretty good traits (gift of gab--->inspiring speaker adds between 2 and 6 zeal, or 30% more damage for the general with a veteran character).

[Pink]

@Brainsmaher: Thanks! It does help indeed :)

The best way to reach a level like that is using an agent in the army (Spy for Cunning, Veteran for Zeal and the Noble for Authority) with a pretty good spy I reached level 24 of cunning in one of my armies! Next I am considering a guide on agents ( I have been having lots of fun using them in my current campaign) or a guide in the Intrigue (I have also been exploring that section)