Slitherine

As many are probably aware, there is a problem with the game in that one can get extra generals for one's side in games by buying cavalry and placing them in a particular way at the deployment stage. Having a couple of extra generals over one's opponent in a multiplayer game can have a significant influence on the battle.

This issue has been raised several times by different players, but, as far as I'm aware, the devs have not proposed a solution, or even acknowledged that it's an issue.

Is this going to be addressed at some point, or is it, from the dev's perspective, working as designed?

They are examining fixes. They haven't consolidated the info in a post but the designer has said in several threads that it is being looked at among other things.

Until then we just gotta live with it.

We are going to add a fix, and this is top on our list of priorities for rules changes, but will not be in the upcoming patch that will be coming quite soon. As it represents a significant change to the way the system works, it will need proper beta testing before it goes live. We want to do it right.

Patch 1.0.2 is coming soon.

The general issue fix will be in patch 1.0.3. This will be released after proper beta testing.

The fix is as follows:

Generals will be automatically deployed in random map battles as they are now. However, if the total number of generals deployed is less than 3 for very small or small battles, or 4 for medium, large or very large battles, the player will be able to add extra sub-generals (during deployment) to make up the number. Adding a general to a unit will create a new "command" for group movement purposes. Other units can then be switched to that command in the usual way.

The AI will also add generals to its own army if required to make up the above totals, but won't bother with reorganising its group movement structure.

rbodleyscott wrote:Patch 1.0.2 is coming soon.

The general issue fix will be in patch 1.0.3. This will be released after proper beta testing.

The fix is as follows:

Generals will be automatically deployed in random map battles as they are now. However, if the total number of generals deployed is less than 3 for very small or small battles, or 4 for medium, large or very large battles, the player will be able to add extra sub-generals (during deployment) to make up the number. Adding a general to a unit will create a new "command" for group movement purposes. Other units can then be switched to that command in the usual way.

The AI will also add generals to its own army if required to make up the above totals, but won't bother with reorganising its group movement structure.

I think that is excellent. Well done.

stockwellpete wrote:

rbodleyscott wrote:Patch 1.0.2 is coming soon.

The general issue fix will be in patch 1.0.3. This will be released after proper beta testing.

The fix is as follows:

Generals will be automatically deployed in random map battles as they are now. However, if the total number of generals deployed is less than 3 for very small or small battles, or 4 for medium, large or very large battles, the player will be able to add extra sub-generals (during deployment) to make up the number. Adding a general to a unit will create a new "command" for group movement purposes. Other units can then be switched to that command in the usual way.

The AI will also add generals to its own army if required to make up the above totals, but won't bother with reorganising its group movement structure.

I think that is excellent. Well done.

Well it gets the job done, without adding unnecessary complexity.

When you move from the force selection UI to deployment (or if force selection is skipped), a popup appears if you have additional generals you can add. (See below).

You can then select a unit, and an Add General icon will appear allowing you to add a general to any unit that does not already have a general, and is not artillery, scythed chariots or baggage.

If you hit End Turn before deploying all the extra generals you are permitted, a warning confirm screen appears.

Does this mean it still makes sense to use the current system in small/very small battles to get 4 generals, or are you capped at 3 in these engagements? Or if you are at less than 3 are you able to use the new system to get up to 4 regardless of battle size?

SnuggleBunnies wrote:Does this mean it still makes sense to use the current system in small/very small battles to get 4 generals, or are you capped at 3 in these engagements? Or if you are at less than 3 are you able to use the new system to get up to 4 regardless of battle size?

You will still be able to get 4 in very small/small battles if the current system gives them to you, but you won't be able to add more to get more than 3 in such battles. This is a compromise, because in most cases 4 isn't justified in such small engagements and piling 4 generals into an army consisting of 7 units of warbands just looks silly.

Hmm okay. My vote would have been to make CnC free and pay for each sub; this would ensure that smaller armies would tend to have fewer generals. Still, I'm eager to see how this works out.

SnuggleBunnies wrote:Hmm okay. My vote would have been to make CnC free and pay for each sub; this would ensure that smaller armies would tend to have fewer generals.

That would have be difficult/impossible to make work with auto force selection (and pot luck armies that automatically use auto force selection).

We needed a system that could work AFTER force selection, so having the generals cost points wasn't really an option.

SO, i'm not sure how one gets the extra general...and perhaps i've done so without knowing...should we be more open about how it happens so that we can make gentleperson's agreements to not do it?

klayeckles wrote:SO, i'm not sure how one gets the extra general...and perhaps i've done so without knowing...should we be more open about how it happens so that we can make gentleperson's agreements to not do it?

Basically After you buy your forces and hit accept , the program will auto assign generals based on the troop TYPES you have on the map AND based on the for lack of better words where they are in internal deployment zones.

SO if you bought two cavalry but both were on the left flank when you hit accept, you will have two generals 1 on the "left wing" and then your cent infantry general.


So before you hit accept you can hit auto deploy ( as many times as you need) until one cavalry is on each wing or you can manually slide one cavalry over to the other wing. Now hit accept and each cavalry will have a general, and 1 general in the center

If you bought three (or more cavalry) , to have four generals just make sure at least one cavalry is on each wing and one is near the center rear ( the "reserve") and after you accept you should have 3 cavalry generals an done infantry general.

You can rearrange the commands etc after of course.

This will be obsolete after the next patch as RBS posted above.

TheGrayMouser wrote:This will be obsolete after the next patch as RBS posted above.

The next patch but one.

This seems a reasonable solution. If each army will probably have four generals (a C-in-C and three sub-generals, I presume) on Medium to Huge maps, then what will be the rank of these generals (Troop, Field commander etc) on a Medium map compared to a Huge map?

the_iron_duke wrote:This seems a reasonable solution. If each army will probably have four generals (a C-in-C and three sub-generals, I presume) on Medium to Huge maps, then what will be the rank of these generals (Troop, Field commander etc) on a Medium map compared to a Huge map?

THe extra generals will all be troop.

What's the status on this fix, I haven't noticed it being fixed yet? I usually play Very Large Battles and because I don't game the system usually get two generals for a huge army. No big deal in Solitaire but not very cool in MP.

76mm wrote:What's the status on this fix, I haven't noticed it being fixed yet? I usually play Very Large Battles and because I don't game the system usually get two generals for a huge army. No big deal in Solitaire but not very cool in MP.

It will be fixed in the free patch that is released at the same time as Immortal Fire on Tuesday.

Great news. Thank you, Richard and team!