General guide for GCR(for free to play players)

Generally You are right. Difference between generals (unlike previous ET games) is not that big, because damage formula is different. Now most of the difference between gens is not in stats but in skills. Pretty sure skills of Your gens are not fully upgraded.

We'll see the difference between Pacorus/Drusus and their competitors a bit later.. when people will have fully upgraded gens.

Some of these comparisons can be cleared up with simple math. Flat damage bonus skills will be harder to compare, but lets see what we get.

I did some brief testing comparing the damage of various units with normal and high morale. I did 1 stack of slinger with and without general, 3 stack of slinger with and without general, did the same with auxiliary to ensure the bonus is the same across different types, then finished with a 5 stack of marksmen, obviously only with a general. There are definitely some small discrepancies that I assume are the games way of rounding, but I am fairly confident that high morale is a 20% damage bonus, this puts the damage portion of the inspire talent on par with a commander skill at level 4.

20% crit chance from level 4 advantage is equal to a 10% damage bonus.

*Hide and rain of arrow are so situational they are pure garbage in my opinion. They belong in the same pool as skills like formation. Better than nothing is their defining feature. If someone else wants to create fairy tale situations that favor these skills to artificially increase Drussus value then go ahead, I will not be doing that here.*

So for comparison—

Vs Mith, commander skill counters the damage from inspire. So that leaves Drussus with his 10% damage from advantage to compare to the following-

—20% crit and 16 damage vs smaller force, 20 damage while in jungle, 6 damage from extra capability, 20% crit with high morale.

Vs Octavian, commander skill counters the damage from inspire, Octavian's talent reduces Drussus crit advantage in half. So that leaves Drussus with a 5% damage bonus to compare to the following-

—16 damage vs smaller force, 16 damage vs cavalry, 20 damage while counterattacking.

Now, both Mith and Octavian at this point are being compared at base moral.

Even so, Mith’s skills more than make up for 10% less damage imo. But give him high morale and the comparison becomes laughable. Instead of comparing Miths skills vs a 10% damage advantage, the tables turn and Mith ends up with a 20% damage advantage over Drussus, on top of his other skills/talent.

While Octavian’s comparison is weaker than Mith’s, Octavian only needs to overcome a 5% damage advantage, which is easily done anytime just 1 of his skills activates. Give Octavian high morale and once again the comparison becomes laughable.

Normally items have no place when comparing generals as most gens all receive the same benefits from the same items, but Inspire gens are an obvious exception as they are blocked from using very powerful items.

Crossbow provides a constant 7 1/2% damage bonus regardless of what general it is put on or how much crit chance the general already has.

Pompeii Gladius gives 15 flat damage. Its actual value fluctuates with the damage of the unit.

If your expecting normal hits to exceed 200, then crossbow is better, less than 200 your better off with a gladius.

Regardless, neither item on Drussus will propel him ahead of Mith or Octavian with laurel crown or gold ring. Between gold ring and oration, its extremely rare to be without high morale, especially on archers as they do not get counter attacked. If your letting your archer gens get flanked and surrounded, thats an issue you need to work out yourself, its not hard.

Giving Drussus golden spear will at best roughly even him out when on average units, for large stacks of elite units he will still fall behind with it. On a small stack of low tier units, it may push him ahead, I don’t care enough to do the math as I have better uses for the spear than trying to make Drussus better.

Obviously we will all have to come to our own conclusions, but imo gold rings and not being thick headed will put Octavian and Mith above Drussus 99% of the time. If you like to play reckless, or like sitting in cities defending against enemy archers, then by all means rate Drussus higher.

Thanks for reading my long rant lol.

I've even read an argument that Octavian is better than Mithridates VI, and even though I don't buy it, I think it is understandable. 
1. Octavian's talent is better because in Mithridates' case, you usually don't attack units with a smaller force than your archer, and if you do, the unit will probably die under normal damage anyways
2. Octavian has 3 skills that guarantee consistent damage. Mithridates has jungle fighting, but since archers are so immobile, and jungles obstruct mobility, you have more freedom of movement when using Octavian.
3. Octavian's skills start off at a higher level, which means it costs less ultimately to max him out.

Morale drops if You lose legion only, not from attack itself. But it also can be back if You kill the legion of the attacker.

I've spent several hours fighting in Expedition to increase level of my generals
Moral drop is because of the loses only. Flanking of course. But not from simple attack.

And if we are starting to lose legions with archer gen I don't care about morale - I need to pull back, as I either placed him wrong, attack the wrong enemy or simply overwhelmed. I don't care whether my archer die with high or low morale...

I've had instances that my morale dropped when being attacked, even if I didn't lose a part of my legion. I dislike having low morale, that's why positioning is something to value for units. But, for instances where you just have to charge forward and risk being surrounded, that's where inspire is useful. And that happens a lot in campaign, especially the later parts. There's nothing more frustrating than having a 1 hp defender left alive in a city because your last unit that could hit it has morale down. I would have to change my stance a little bit on morale tho, and say I hyped it a little too much. Although, if pvp exists in this game, inspire and rumor would be top tier talents and even if the generals who have them have garbage skills, those talents alone will be a game changer. But since it's not, I'd say it won't matter that much which general you pick. I will still say that Drusus is top tier,simply because his talent + advantage is a great combination on it's own, and having consistent damage with around a 50% chance to crit if you invested in him is nice. His other skills are trash, and that keeps him from being the one above all. Your evaluation of him depends on how much you value morale into your strategy and tactics, which is interesting