Labienus

So good. Best infantry general I can find in this game. I think he is better than pompey due to his archery attacking skill. He is 120 cheaper than him but loses pompey’s five star rank.

What I don't like about last ET games (things were different in EW5) is the fact that the number of useful generals is really limited. So, in the end, players have, so to speak, "teams of tweens" - same generals with only minor exceptions. I always tried to avoid this if I could. Therefore searching for cheaper alternatives to "big names" was always an exciting part of the game to me. I think that Pompey is a must - he has attack, defence, mobility and high rank. But I will hire Labienus instead of Vercingentorix.

First my thought was to buy Agrippa, but now I am not so sure about Navy skills. I mean, we definitely will have the battle of Actium in the next update, but all in all Navy skills are far less important than reliable skills of land generals. Besides, I plan to buy Cleo anyway. So, my choice for an Infantry general is Labienus. Don't get me wrong... Vercingentorix is better, but Labienus has his trumps as well.

1. His rank is one degree lower than that of Vercingentorix. So the maximum units' number he can replenish is 4. And it is quite expensive to promote him to general. On a positive side there is no need to upgrade his rank at all. From a practical point of view, it is virtually useless to replenish 5 units, because time is everything in ET campaigns and conquests in general, and in GCR in particular. You move, you fight, you capture cities, you replenish one or two units (if possible) and you move again...
We simply don't have practical opportunities to keep the maximum number of units in a legion. So, Labienus can live without a rank of "general" quite for a while.

2. Plain fighting vs. Forest fighting. Though Forest fighting is far better now (starting from EW6) than that was the case in some previous games and gives additional protection to units that are fighting there - Plains still are prevalent on the battlefields. Besides, there are two important moments.
First, there are several top generals with Forest fighting - Arminius, Mithridates, Vercingentorix. Is it possible to find a perfect square for each of them? Probably... in ideal circumstances... but in our reality you'd better find a square next to our enemy or target and attack from it. So, to have too many generals with Forest fighting has some definite disadvantages. Second, we have a flag that is improving Plain fighting. But to whom to give it? To Pompey? But there is a better flag for him. To whom then? And, to say the truth, there are not so many alternatives. Labienus saves the day. So, having a good general with Plain fighting maxed out is certainly not a bad idea.

3. Vercingentorix has excellent defensive skills, but Labienus' offensive skills shouldn't have been taken lightly either. Second attack probability and bonus against archers make him a versatile general, very useful on the battlefield...

So, to buy Labienus might be not such a bad idea after all. We can save 100 medals and invest them into our Commander instead...

Pompey is simply the best/beast

I bought Labienus today as well.




There are also two things I am happy about...

First, Infantry Commander is relatively expensive skill, so, it is good that Labienus has lvl 3 of it.

Second, Intercept, on the other hand, is quite cheap. So it shouldn't be a problem to upgrade it.

The only one real problem with his upgrades is Plain fighting.

Now I will upgrade my Commander, making him comparable with Hannibals of yours
Then I will buy Octavian. These are my short term plans

Free commander is more like Vorenus imo 

I really like this thing about being able to have your own, personal commander. Gives you the feeling that you are fighting in the wars, too, and not watching everything unfold from the screen of a mobile device.